Product Description

Mark is looking for love in all the wrong places. He always ignores the warning signs preferring to dream, time and again, that he has finally met the perfect lover until, one day, he really does… Through fifty different adventures, Nick Alexander takes us on a tour of modern gay society: bars, night-clubs, blind dates, Internet dating… It’s all here.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #778787 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 164 pages

Review
A witty, polished collection of vignettes set around the experience of gay dating. Order this snappy little number. -- The Times, London, Tim Teeman, July 17, 2004.

A witty, polished collection of vignettes... Order this snappy little number. -- Tim Teeman, The Times, 17 July 2004

An engaging, entertaining and intelligently written book, which will reset the boundaries for gay literature. -- David Tickner, reFRESH Magazine

From the Publisher
Funny and moving by turn, 50 reasons to say goodbye, is ultimately a series of candidly vivid snapshots and a poignant exploration of that long winding road; the universal search for love

About the Author
Nick Alexander was born in 1964 in the U.K.

He has travelled widely and has lived and worked both in the U.K. and the U.S.A.

He currently lives with two cats and three goldfish in Nice, France..50 Reasons to Say "Goodbye" is his first novel.

Customer Reviews

SIMPLY FANTASTIC !
Nick Alexander has written a novel of such IMPORTANCE that I UNEQUIVOCALLY and ENTHUISATICALLY recommend that every gay man read it. Is that important enough?........Mark, our hero, is on a life long journey seeking love, happiness, fulfillment; all the things most people seek in their life.. While on this monumental sojourn, he encounters, over a series of years, lust, weirdoes, passion, sterile sex, what pretends to be love, and a host of other liaisons that confound, confuse, and frustrate. He tries a variety of venues to meet his mate, none of which produces the desired results,... except one. That one hope lies in a casual response to his personal ad, but for a variety of variables, the contact is lost...until. As he gives up all hope of ever finding a "soul mate", fate intercedes, and intercedes, and intercedes; bringing to Mark much more than he ever anticipated. This is a story of one man's, and everyman's search for romantic and emotional happiness. This is a story of the enduring resiliency of man's search for personal meaning. This is a story of survival. IT IS A MUST READ!

The Gay Everyman
Comprising fifty vignettes recounting the hapless Mark's experiences with nearly as many romantic disappointments, a story unfolds. Mark is the gay Everyman, looking for his Prince Charming and having to kiss a lot of frogs in the meantime. The writing is tinged equally with humor and bitterness, and guides the reader through all the blind alleys and primrose paths which Mark follows in pursuit of...of...well, Mark hardly even knows what it is he's seeking himself, but he knows what it isn't, and that's what he invariably ends up with. He's continually victimized -- by himself, by the objects of his affection, even by his friends, yet his plight elicits not pity but a nodding understanding. We've all been there. He's a plugger. He gets up, dusts himself off, and starts all over again. He's surrounded by a motley crew of friends and loved ones, some broadly drawn and fleshed out, others more sketchily.

Throughout the story, despite the hurdles this man encounters, runs a thread of optimism, despite the bleak and sometimes rather implausible-seeming picture drawn of much of the gay subculture -- especially the club scene. But in most instances, it's a true picture, which is food for thought.

Nick Alexander's freshman oeuvre is a satisfying read, undemanding in its straightforward simplicity of style, and can be read easily in one or two sittings. It's a wonderful lead-in to the much pithier and more complex sequel, Sottopassaggio, which differs quite a lot in both style and content, following Mark and Jenny into deeper waters. Find it, buy it, read it. Then read it again.

A Fresh New Voice
This little book reminds me of the best writing of Armistead Maupin and Patrick Gale. The narrator is a young 30-something who is on a constant quest for Mr. Right in all the wrong places-- well, actually in every place: England, France, Australia, the U. S, and in selected cities and bars of these countries as well as well as the internet and biker organizations. Almost to a person, these love objects are humpy beyond words at first blush; but things are never as they seem. Mr. Alexander writes with a great deal of flair and humor, is brilliant with dialogue and certainly can coin a phrase. He makes a verb out of "double take." One Roberto de Milano "seems larger than life, brick-chicken-shed of a man." He is also very good at summing up in a few sentences what many of us have felt about a PNB (Potential New Boyfriend) the moment we sense that we have taken a wrong turn and are heading in the wrong direction a la Robert Frost. About Luc, whom the narrator has met in the internet.

"'I feel happier here than I have for ages.'
A Cold front moves over my heart; I shiver. . . 'I love this,' he says. 'I love being here, your house, the garden, the cat,' he laughs. 'I think I love you too,' he says.
It's too soon and it's all too much. And it's all the wrong way round. I can feel my heart closing down. . . I don't want to be the all-in-one solution to anyone's problems."

Witty, sophisticated, addictive-- these loosely connected chapters add up to a fine novel. One other thing: you'll never feel the same way about a hard-boiled egg after reading about the narrator's encounter with the Egg Man.