LGBT Book & Video Blog

by Alistair McCartney
Terrace Books, 314 pages, $26.95 hardcover.

There’s nothing linear about McCartney’s debut novel. There’s not much narrative to it, either. It’s not really a novel by any rational definition, actually. But its giddily unconventional structure delivers a glorious literary experience. 

From chapter A to chapter Z, this is an irreverent alphabetical guide to the author’s many intense obsessions (knives and razors, young men and porn, horror films and hair), quirky cultural observations (macrame as a notable art form?), frequent literary touchstones (Proust and Kafka predominate), and - blurring the boundary between fiction and memoir - loving anecdotes about his Australian family and his American partner, performer Tim Miller. There’s a searing satirical edge to many of the entries; some are deliriously absurd. A few are concise gems, such as “Inspiration: Quick, before it evaporates!” and “Homosexual: I think I am mentioned somewhere in the Bible, if I remember correctly.” What links the several hundred entries together, aside from their eclectic poetic and philosophical range, is a thread of quizzical yet comic melancholy about the world. More Book Marks. Purchase The End of the World Book: A Novel.