Looker

by Stanley Bennett Clay

Book Overview

Sometimes love is closer than you think, and for Brando Haywood he finds love in his best friend--but Brando's life takes a turn when he gets involved in a murder trial...

Brando Haywood is a handsome, popular, and successful entertainment lawyer who seems to have everything but passion. Two years celibate and a prisoner of his routine, he goes through life quietly on the sidelines while his promiscuous best friend, Omar Stevens, thrashes...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B006CDI006
• ISBN13: 9780743291026
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

SBC DOES IT AGAIN...OUR OWN MASTER AMONG US!

Stanley Bennett Clay is a masterful writer, but he's more than that. He is a wicked and compelling storyteller. With this his 3rd novel, SBC is at his best. The way that he so gingerly and brilliantly handles a myriad of characters--Omar, Brando, Shane, Dee, Mrs. Fant, Miss Zara, Eli, Vanessa and William and a few others AND their varied storylines--love unrequited, past pains and parental hurt, betrayal, bisexuality, without losing his stride OR his fire, is just commendable and makes for a wonderfully rich and page-turning read had me finishing off this morsel of a masterpiece in a matter of days! KUDOS AND ACCOLADES!!!

Great read

I must say, since receiving this book I have not put it down, I have enjoyed the plot line. i found it to be on the level somewhat of a E. Lyn Harris read, engaging and with heart. CONGRATS to Stanley Bennett Clay on a GREAT BOOK.

Mr. Clay makes me love the english language!

I have been going through a period of discovering [...] black authors, and for the most part have been pretty happy with my finds. Stanley Bennett Clay is in a league of his own. His prose is one of the most beautiful that I have ever experienced in reading. He makes me love the english language. His descriptives paint a scene, and the principle characters I found myself rooting for. I don't think there was a single character that I disliked, aside from Ramon Alexander. Mr. Clay brings you into the fictional world, and makes it hard for you to want to leave! I strongly recommend this book!

A Keeper

Beautifully written, this is a book that should be read by all. The author tells a universal story--one of finding love and knowing it when you do. Along the way, we meet unforgettable characters who jump off the page. And many of the descriptions are lovely. My favorites are "To avoid the pain of love, he did not allow himself to love deeply enough for love to breathe, rise up, and take aim ever again..." and "Jazz poured through the grand portals like a gardenia-scented breeze, whispering tales on the sly." Beautiful prose and engaging characters--who could ask for more? Stanley Bennett Clay is an author who has great talent!

LOOKER: The Title Suggests a Kaleidoscope of Meanings in this Enthralling Novel

Stanley Bennett Clay takes chances: he knows he takes them and unlike Captain Scott's diaries from 1912 as he lay dying in the Antarctic in which he admits the chances turned out against him, the chances Clay takes work very much in his favor. Now with this third novel Stanley Bennett Clay shows a maturity of style and focus without a loss of the chancy topics he embraces. LOOKER simply works! Clay introduces a huge cast of characters so rapidly yet so well defined that for a few chapters the novel seems as though it will be a series of short stories; we meet Brando, an entertainment lawyer whose celibacy is linked to his past lost love Collier; Selma Fant, the alcoholic wife of a councilman whose only child Earl-Anthony responded to his misunderstood childhood by transforming into a popular transgender singer Miss Zara; successful writer Omar who despite his longing for a relationship with Brando after his leaving the demanding Shane is a lothario `chickenhawk' unable to forego his desires despite his nearing middle age; Jeanette Bell and her lesbian lover, highly successful novelist Clymenthia Teager; Vanessa Ellerbee and her downlow husband William who craves Brando; recently divorced Dee Dempsey whose bruised heart embraces those in need; Ramon Alexander and his abused wife Charlene; and Senior Father Lacey Cannon who holds court for all the pretty gay men in his community. And yes, there are more! The story is too fine to condense in a review. Suffice it to say that Clay connects all the dots by a central story of a murder trial over a heinous event that occurred between Ramon and Jeanette, a climactic situation steered by Brando that alters the lives of each of the characters and brings about closure to the many open wounds and secrets and lusts and stories of each of the novel's cast. Clay has the ability to write some of the most sensuous prose about lovemaking and just plain sex between men as anyone out there: his situations and recreations of scenes are erotic and electrically charged. At the same time he is able to enter the courtroom with some of the better banter between lawyers and some pungent political and social commentary that is eloquent and deeply moving. Clay again explores the `on the downlow' particles that pepper the wealthy black community of Los Angeles (his setting for his novel), but he also dips deeply into the crises of relationships in the 21st century - finding that the concept of monogamy still rings clearly and preferably, the goal of the struggling of wandering eyes of the lookers. And so Stanley Bennett Clay's title LOOKER could mean `handsome looking men', `stunning women', voyeurs, or those searching for that nebulous lifelong love - it all depends on the part of this kaleidoscopic novel the reader wishes to emphasize. But in the end Clay once again proves that he is capable of spinning tales both bizarre and tender, and he succeeds in every direction. This is yet another tasty novel from a writer of di