Product Description

This is a tale of youthful ambition, of four cats on a mission to be nothing less than stars. Ty is a writer who pines for love. David is a dancer who burns with lust. Browny is a singer who yearns for the kiss of celebrity. Face is an actor whose role it is to emote the biggest of lies. Together, in the mean and rhythmic streets of New York City , they seek their fame, fortune and prize. Some want to know of love's ultimate sigh, and some find the rainbow. All find unexpected surprises in a story about dreams, lust, and the meaning friendship, the test of disease, and the definition trust.

In a twenty year span, who among them is destined for true greatness?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #164656 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From the Publisher
"Ross delivers a story that is sharp, juicy, wicked, and unapologetically brazen." -- James Earl Hardy, author of the bestselling B-Boy Blues series

"Manhood: The Longest Moan pulses with extraordinary rhythm and seethes with unrelenting passion and pain. Mr. Ross has poetically penned the perfect novel!" --Lee Hayes, Bestselling author of Passion Marks & A Deeper Blue

Customer Reviews

Baldwin Has Returned...
With the 1987 death of legendary author and civil rights activist, James Baldwin, a void in the world of renowned African-American male novelists made its huge descent on us. Gone was Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and then Ralph Ellison in 1994, leaving the market open for 'heir apparents', gifted male African-American writers who could create works of fiction that were both painstakingly beautiful and socially relevant.

What happened instead, following the early literary success of Terry McMillan (author of the best-seller "Waiting to Exhale"), was hundreds of authors (male and female) who started churning out "literature for profit" in the 4-character model fashioned by McMillan, often at the expense of developing works of art that would withstand time and be recognized for their unique contribution to American culture.

The release of "Manhood: The Longest Moan" by author/poet L.M. Ross marks a much needed return to exceptional literature by an African-American writer in 20 years. This multi-dimensional, emotionally cathartic work easily puts Ross in the same category as James Baldwin, who wrote such classics as The Fire Next Time, Go Tell It On The Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Giovanni's Room, Sonny's Blues, Another Country and Just Above My Head (my personal favorite). In hindsight, reading "Manhood" was very much like reading each of the aforementioned novels in one setting, a testament to the strength of Ross's writing style.

Like Baldwin, Ross has a creative way of exploring complex social and psychological issues of our time (personal and self identity, sexuality, family abuse, drug addition, sexual deviance, HIV/AIDS) and branding them with his own uniquely urban, funky stamp of revelation. To his credit, Ross takes the politically correct dichotomy we painstakingly try to uphold and makes it a living, breathing character.

Through the primary characters Tyrone Hunter, Pascal "Face" Depina, David Richmond, Faison "Browny" Brown, Ross takes readers through an incredible, mind stretching journey of family, friendship, betrayal and murder that spans a 20-year period. Creatively using metaphors, images, and sometimes apparitions, Ross's "Manhood" is an INCREDIBLE story by a gifted writer whose words express the tightly woven tapestry of humanity that lives in all of us

Tyrone, a reflective renaissance artist, finds himself tormented for years by the brutal and untimely murder of his lover. Face, a tragically beautiful ambiguous creature, is a deeply flawed and tortured soul that has adopted a "life mask" in order to survive. David, the dancer that put the "D" in the word, is the ultimate example of the Madonna-Whore complex that lurks in all of us. Browny, a singer whose vocal cords have been kissed by the angels, deals with personal demons of insecurity dating back to his upbringing that inhibits his ability to share his gift with the world.

A word of caution is in order: you won't just read "Manhood" as an objective outsider; you will become part of the storyline as Ross literally puts you in the shoes of his primary and secondary characters. As I read this great work, I found myself consciously indulged in examining my own biases against my fellow man or stripping away emotions I had erected in my life for survival. So this novel, in addition to being great literature, was soul revealing...

With the introduction of well-developed supporting characters in the storylines (as well as New York City as its own living, breathing character), Ross successfully pulls a fait accompli by making Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" (i.e., mankind in all its diversity) visible again through the writing of "Manhood." Yes, "the truth is the light and light is the truth."

Manhood
If you want to read a book that you can not put down even if you wanted too, then this is it. L.M. Ross is an amazing author who captures the essense of his characters and breathes life into ever fiber of thier being. You will be absolutely blown away at the detail and complexity that eah character has and also you will be able to relate to each one beause of this unique way that L.M. Ross has when he writes. Imagine yourself watching a movie and you get goose pimples and you can almost feel the vibes that makes your hair stand up on the back of your neck, well L.M. Ross captures these senses and emotions and releases them in a tidal wave of words and sentences that will send you reeling and rithing into another space and time. What a wonderful read. Oh by the way L.M. Ross is my muse and one of my best friends. He is a delightful and genuine man. Mr. Ross is a blessing to all who have the pleasure of meeting him and he is a wonderful and wonderfilled, well roounded, honest and caring individual. I am honored to say that I know him and blessed by his influence. I am proud of his accomplishments.Get the book, read it and reread it. In addition to Manhood also get The Long Blue Moan here at [...]

A Concerto for Quartet: Choices, Elegies and Eulogies
A Concerto for Orchestra is the term for symphonic works in which each section of the orchestra is given space and spotlight to shine as soloist. In L.M. Ross' novel, MANHOOD: The Longest Moan, the orchestra is reduced to a quartet of friends and while Ross weaves the individual stories of each man's life of choices, moments of triumph and slides of misfortune, each character is so well defined that the spotlight must move with each chapter for that solo moment. Ross is one amazing writer, a poet who can move with ease into the arena of storytelling and yet maintain the allure of brush stroke images too often found only in the terse poem form. He writes about the African American experience in New York City as well as any writer today, and brings all the juices and aromas and flavors of the idiosyncratic language of black conversation without missing a beat, and more importantly, without alienating his reader with a foreign language, so well molded is his conversational technique.

MANHOOD brings to life four men over a twenty year period, beginning with the high school years when the four artistic lads formed a group 'Da Elixir' ("Once there was this gorgeous, gorgeous time when we were all living our dreams..") only to have the group splinter as each pursued his own dream. Tyrone become a writer always seeking true love, David is a natural dancer whose career in ballet is broken with his fractured leg, Browny longs to be an opera singer but is sidetracked by drugs and prison, and Pascal 'Face' Depina is a genetically perfect handsome man whose talent is tied to his looks and betrays the darker aspect of his personality. Through flash-forwards and flashbacks Ross takes us into the souls and libidos of each of these men, revealing intricacies of friendship, relationships, coping with both success and failure, confronting the spectre of AIDS and the brutality of homophobia, all the while writing some of the more erotic episodes ever written.

Ross' ability to relate the spectrum of sexual liaisons without creating an X-rated novel is due to his innate ability to find the poetry in all that he describes. His gifts as a wordsmith can be found on almost every page: 'I've no skin-memory of the texture of my father's arms wrapped around me'; 'Tyrone watched that inarticulate language of pain race across Browny's face. He saw how his fingers were entwined as if clutched in a useless prayer'; 'He wanted to be noticed, and once he was, he grew to hate it. He wanted to be loved, yet held disdain for those who tried like hell to love him. He wanted to know pleasure, yet he seemed to almost enjoy inflicting pain'; and the long blue moan is 'the penetrating sound of sex and sadness, sin and surrender. Ty listened, and it seemed that angry, lonely people cried out of that horn'.

Much of what Ross writes about is sexual encounters between African American men and the desire coupled with confusion about that need that they create. Yes, the erotic portions of the book are intensely sensuous and explore areas other writers have feared to tread. But this novel is far more than a book about lust: this is a finely hewn tome about finding the core of life and living it. In Ty's words, 'Snatch JOY! Snatch respect! Just snatch it any way you can. With your fist, with your lips, with your heart, with your example', and as with so many of the eloquent passages in this book, many are sadly recited as eulogies. Ross examines life's circle in this quartet of men, and it is a work a poetic beauty that should make the literary world take notice. For 416 pages (not the short 288 pages the advertisement states) L.M. Ross grabs us and holds us as his willing hostages. Let's hope there are more books coming down the pipeline! Grady Harp, August 07