"Gays. | Dating (Social customs)"
Brontez Purnell's 100 Boyfriends is 5 x 7 x 0.5 inches & 192 pages.
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The best little summary of Brontez Purnell’s little horny novel, 100 Boyfriends, is hidden in small bureaucratic print before the book begins:
The novel takes place in Oakland, mostly, and coitally almost exclusively. It’s diaristic, confessional novel that’s also the protagonist’s catalogue of sex.
It had me thinking about another artist on the journey of horniness, Billie Eilish in her Interview interview with Lana del Rey, where she says the album’s concerns her “realization of, like, ‘Maybe I’m obsessed with the idea of nonchalance.’” I think the protagonist of 100 Boyfriends exists in this realization constantly. If you’re nonchalant you’re not obsessed; if you’re obsessed you’re not nonchalant. It’s the idea part that allows these two things to exist and I think that’s the buzz that propels this whole slim, sex-packed little book.
This is a record that attempts to be precise, rigorous about the types of intimacy (like social and physical) and the degree of those intimacies. I think the Boyfriend’s Chapter that proves that rigor especially is the one where the Boyfriends are Pickpockets:
100 Boyfriends was the most recent Purse Book Gals-On-The-Go Official Book Club Book, where we chatted about this protagonist’s exploits on the scale of pleasure-seeking to plot-seeking. Here’s what a few Gals on the Go thought:
“I’d fuck boyfriend 33 (the hairdresser) because he seems very caring but is bad at his job, which is hot. I’d marry boyfriend 007 (the waiter) because he would murder someone for me. And I’d kill boyfriend 99.5% (the dreamer) because he talks too much about things that nobody asked about.” — Tyler B. who carried this in one of two totes (a black one with a “sexual line drawing” and a yellow limited-edition New Yorker one!
“Hot, gross, fun, good.” — Simon K.
“I could read this book forever, like I wish it was serialized — it feels like a friend with the most chaotic, fun life who’s, yes, doing it for the plot, but then they’re also a good storyteller. HOWEVER, like this friend, I did feel the kind of glare of someone who wants to shock you, is a mode that kind of reduces the level of shock.” — Emily C.
“Don’t forget to say it’s funny.” — Mac A. Thanks bro, I’ll let you do it!
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