In Search of Pretty Young Black Men

by Stanley Bennett Clay

Book Overview

Disillusioned by a cold and loveless marriage, Maggie Lester Allegro finds sexual healing in the arms of Dorian Moore, a mysterious young man who provides comfort to the lonely and neglected residents of her upper-class southern California neighborhood and whom Maggie finds strikingly familiar. 35,000 first printing.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743497155
• ISBN13: 9780743497152
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 163 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Little Book

With an economy of beautifully chosen words, Clay weaves a story that ultimately shows that openness is the only way to live. His repressed characters lead tragic, unfulfilled lives. But through all this, Clay manages to show a light at the end of the tunnel: if we can be open and honest with our relationships, then we can be happy. Along the way, Clay spices his story with some very graphic sex scenes, which may be offputting for some readers but are gloriously illustrative of his point, that love trumps sex every time!

Great Read!

This book kept me spellbound from the first page to the last. A very deep book that you won't put down until you have read the last page.

Good Read!

This was a good, fast read. I love the way he told the story. The author is a very gifted writer.

An Stunning Novel by a Significant New Voice in Literature

Stanley Bennett Clay is one fine writer! Not only does he have the ability to create an intensely fascinating story, he does so within an arena of Black culture that has neither been tapped or portrayed with such insight as in this revelation of a book seductively and successfully titled IN SEARCH OF PRETTY YOUNG BLACK MEN. From the cover jacket art to the rollercoaster ending, this short novel is on fire with passion, lust, pansexuality, atmosphere, mystery and just plain superb interaction of story and technique that may just be the crowning example of 'new Black literature', while simultaneously standing strongly on its own as simply exquisite contemporary writing without the need of the sobriquet of 'Black literature'. Though woven like a fine loom of dazzling threads that ultimately bind together the lives of every character depicted in this story, the main character is one Pretty Young Black Man named Dorian Moore who lives among the wealthy Black community of the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles and makes the most of his inordinately perfect physical charms by providing sexual pleasure for both men and women. The setting is 1989 and for the first half of the book we see the exploits of Dorian through the eyes of a disillusioned housewife Maggie Lester-Allegro and her quartet of friends, one of whom is a 'Madame' who sets Dorian up with her clients (including Maggie), promising these rich ladies of the suburbs the perfect joys Dorian always delivers. Maggie's husband Lamont Lester-Allegro is distant emotionally but provides Maggie with the accoutrements of superficial happiness while tending to his own diverse needs elsewhere. Events unfold revealing secrets and crimes that bind this section into a cohesive and fascinating series of twists and turns. The second half of the novel is devoted to Lamont Lester-Allegro and how his relationship to the proper family expectations governed by his powerful father contrast to his own inner life secrets: Lamont, too, has fallen under the spell of Dorian Moore. Again, Lamont's story takes as many twist and turns as Maggie's and while it is obvious that the common denominator of these life altering experiences is the ubiquitous Dorian Moore, the core of the story reveals just how compounded are the vagaries of fate. Clay's means of relating this tightly cohesive drama is the poetry that is his gift. He is at once able to integrate the cultural idiosyncrasies of Black phraseology with this perspective of the moneyed Black community in a way that updates Faulkner and Baldwin. He is able to write as through a woman's sensory perceptions as easily as he is able to describe the wholeness of the male sensory responses to both women and men. If ever there was a writer who could define bisexuality, Clay is the man. Here is some of the most erotic writing available and its presence has poetic significance to drive this unique story to an unrivalled conclusion. This is simply great story telling by

A fascinating reading experience

Baldwin Hills is the nouveau rich black person's enclave just as Beverly Hills is the white's prestigious addresses in 1989. Maggie Lester Allegro trapped in a bittersweet loveless marriage, drinks and plays cards to ease her emotional pain. Her marriage never had a chance because on her honeymoon, she was pregnant with another man's child. With her husband's assent, she gave the baby up for adoption but the marriage disintegrated anyway. Enter Dorian Moore, a young black stud who she has a one night stand with, a hunk who has women pay him for sex. She never forgets him and when she learns who he really is, she does something drastic. Maggie's husband Lamont is a closet gay and he knew that when he married his wife; he abstained from giving in to his urges, because he didn't want to disobey God's law but when he met Dorian Moore, he fell in love with him and wanted an exclusive relationship with him. Dorian never wanted that. When Dorian was killed Lamont broke down and was institutionalized. When he comes out, he also comes out of the closet and has a second chance at love. Stanley Bennett Clay, author of Diva has written a characters study about blacks who have it all yet feel they have nothing. Lamont has to hide his true self in the1980's or face being ostracized and Maggie gave up the love of her life's child and found him again in very ugly circumstances. THE SECRET OF PRETTY BLACK MEN is a fascinating reading experience due to Dorian an enigmatic man who feels his calling is to satisfy the sexual needs of Baldwin Hills rich blacks. Harriet Klausner