Love the One You're With. - book review

Black Issues Book Review, July-August, 2002 by Glenn Townes

by James Earl Hardy Amistad, June 2002 $22.95, ISBN 0-066-21248-0

If someone accused best-selling novelist James Earl Hardy of knowing a good thing when he sees it, they would probably be right. The talented writer's latest novel, Love the One You're With, is the fifth installment in his popular B-Boy Blues series that also includes B-Boy Blues, 2nd Time Around, If Only for One Nite, and The Day Eazy-E Died. Once again, Hardy puts an entertaining and very realistic spin on the usually taboo topic of homosexuality and the African-American community.

In Love the One You're With, the saga of journalist Mitchell Crawford and his lover of two years, homeboy turned model Raheim "Pooquie" Rivers, continues. Set in New York, the couple attempts to maintain a long-distance relationship, when wannabe movie star Raheim treks off to Hollywood seeking fame and fortune. Monogamy and fidelity are put to the test, as self-proclaimed romantic Mitchell gets more than his share of offers to knock boots with a long list of B-boys. Blasts from the past exes, to married men, to lawyers, to tired old "snow" queens, Mitchell gets more than he can handle--or maybe not!

Hardy's writing is candid and creative. Funny yet gritty and raw but true, the entire story is told in the first person, which proves to be effective. Moreover, Hardy cleverly and, at times, amusingly, exposes his personal opinions on a variety of issues and events. For example, in writing about the 1991 Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, he writes " ... it was eerie seeing white folks who normally don't give a damn about Negroes go to war over one of us against those who profess to be our allies but do little as possible to help advance our cause ... As I've often said: We know we're gonna get screwed by both Democrooks and Republiklans, but at least the Dems will wear a condom."

The focus of Love the One You're With is man-to-man relationships, however, readers will be able to relate to other aspects of the story line, especially the music. Songs from the heydays of disco and the New York nightlife-bar scene resonant throughout the book. From Gloria Gaynor to Chaka Khan, Barry White to Billy Eckstine, Hardy does an excellent job of setting a musical tone.

Ultimately, comparisons between Hardy and E. Lynn Harris are inevitable. Clearly, both writers have deftly carved a niche for themselves in writing about gay life from a male point of view. While Harris' stories tend to be lavish and urbane, Hardy's stories are pragmatic and salient. Both are masters of writing emotional dialogue and featuring multidimensional characters.

--Glenn Townes is a New Jersey-based journalist and a frequent contributor to BIBR.

RELATED ARTICLE: BIBR talks with James Earl Hardy.

With the debut of his B-Boy Blues series in 1994, James Earl Hardy has defined the gay/hip-hop literary aesthetic. Love the One You're With, released in June, is the fifth installment in the popular series.

BIBR: What respired the B-Boy Blues books?

JEH: After complaining :for years about seeing black, same-gender-loving male characters being Tom-ed, tokenized, objectified and marginalized in literature, I realized if I wanted to see images of brothers who reminded me of myself and those I knew, I'd have to write that novel myself.

BIBR: Is there any particular reason why you originally chose Alyson Publications to publish the series?

JEH: [Sasha] Alyson was the only publisher of the three dozen I approached who knew that, just because a story like [B-Boy Blues] had never appeared before, didn't mean there wasn't an audience for it.

Some editors couldn't handle Mitchell's [character in B-Boy] unapologetically gay stance. Others couldn't believe that a homeboy like Raheim could be anything other than heterosexual. And others didn't believe that the world depicted existed. After all, black SGL [same-gender-loving] characters were usually a sister's snap-diva girlfriend, or a satellite orbiting the world of their Caucasian queer lover. That they had lives of their own and didn't need the affirmation or validation of white gays or black heteros was a bit too much for some to digest.

BIBR: You've recently moved to Amistad Press/HarperCollins. What are you hoping to gain from being with a larger publisher?

JEH: I'm hoping the exposure will encourage other corporate presses to sign up black SGL authors. There is a wealth of material about and by slack SGL people out there, and the industry is missing an opportunity to reach a market that continues to be underserved and ignored. If there's been a gay publishing boom over the past few years, it's been a white one, and if there's been a black one it's been straight.

BIBR: Do you feel obligated to deal with stereotypes?

JEH: I don't. My obligations are to be true to myself as an author and to the characters whose lives I'm documenting. But if people who are not black, SGL or male read the series and have their misconceptions about black SGL men challenged and come to see that our lives really aren't that much different from their own, that's certainly a plus.