Lessons from Cruising by Martin Goodman

I tried so hard to like this book. I had requested it coz the cover. And then title. But I'm disappointed. These short stories hardly made any sense to me. The stories that had Arnold were the weirdest one. The writing was off and did not work for me. It left me wondering if I was even able to understand what writer wanted to say and till the end I understood nothing about it.

All Stories are LGBT characters centered and I personally feel that it is such an important topic in the current situation we are in and yet the book fails to leave a mark or impress even. The writing is confusing and I just couldn't make sense. It felt like watching a very boring and blend episode of black mirror where everyone is weird, eccentric and abnormal. Here's an example "He slips on good manners like he slips on condoms, not because they suit him but because they make life safer". Huh?? I showed it to my husband and he went what are even reading? Coz seriously what is that?

Thank you Netgalley and Barbican press for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Much like when I read poetry, I feel ill-equipped to properly review this book of short stories.

The whole thing starts with a what?! I decided to keep an open mind and I'm glad I stuck with it. The whole thing is quite trippy TBH but it was clear to me that the author was doing something with these stories. And while I didn't always know exactly what, thematically I was definitely picking up what he was putting down.

The tone of these stories was kind of grim and dark with notes of joy and hope but overall real despite being reality-adjacent/fantastical at times.

I can see the art and skill in the stories and I suspect on re-read, I would find endless depths but the truth is that I prefer spending more time in joy when I'm reading and this collection is not that.

Until the last two stories, I was leaning toward a strong four stars but the ending was so strong and the overall rating is so low, that I'm rounding up.

Content notes for some dark stuff: clearly some mommy issues, death of a pet, cancer, physical violence leading to death and more.

A fine collection. Some beautiful prose making up for the lack of excitement and some forgettable stories. The Arthur series was particularly engaging, and my favorite was Letters to the Parishoners.

I really like what the author was doing and I found it very unique! The first couple of stories really blew me away but as it went on I found myself more and more confused and by the end I was struggling. My favorites are definitely "Lessons from Cruising" and the Arnold-saga.

I am so confused about what this was supposed to be. Not what I expected and not my cup of tea as abstract and artsy writing is not what I go for

This strikingly varied and formally daring collection explores the intersections of race, class, and sexuality, while devotedly recognising the varied and complex ways we love and need each other. I think Foucault said something about how homophobia is really born out of the terror that gay relationships will open new possibilities for love and family; these stories are far from celebratory about the alternative forms gay relationships have historically taken, but nor do they seek to show that the stories we tell about heterosexual love and marriage are true for gay folks as well: here are not tales of soul mates or love at first sight; rather, through examining the complex ways we attach with others, Goodman opens possibilities for all of us to be more aware and truthful about our relationships.

Interesting book, but not my cup of tea unfortunately. There really wasn’t a storyline to follow. And I couldn’t quite grasp what was going on at times.

A collection of stories that navigate through several themes. The foundation of this collection is the story of Arnold and it's growth (one of the strongest stories), even though I didn't love the last one. I felt he was a bit disconnected from the rest. My favorite was without a doubt "Letters to Parishioners".

I did not enjoy this book. It was too busy jumping between different narratives with no real thread or theme. The title and front cover have no reference to anything in the novel itself

I have to admit to being immediately turned off this collection by the very first story. While a celebration of queer joy and a juxtaposition of typical parental attitudes towards having a gay son, I found it just *too* weird to really get into. The same was generally true for the other Arnold stories that are threaded through this collection, with the exception of the one in which his boyfriend is a competitor in the Olympics, which I found very touching.

The other stories are more of a mixed bag. I really enjoyed the title story, tracking the relationship between a wealthy man and the poor teacher he meets while out cruising, and I loved the story of Queenie, the elderly woman released from hospital during Covid and the young man she meets on the streets of Glasgow while navigating her way home. Others followed the pattern of the Arnold stories and were just too weird for me - often in the short story form, the language and quality of the writing can make up for an opaque plot, but sadly that wasn't the case here. And then there were times where I felt I would have got more out of the collection if I was more widely read - I know I didn't get as much out of the final story as I would if I were familiar with Moby Dick.

A qualified recommendation - some highlights here, but ultimately I look back at the stories two weeks after reading in order to write this review, and there's several I have absolutely no memory of. I think in many cases the oddness of the content and the opacity of the writing meant the stories completely passed me by.

With thanks to Netgalley and Barbican Press for copy provided in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I loved this book! Highly would recommend it if you like short stories. I am myself am not really into short stories but this book was beautifully written, I am going to reread this book again, I already miss the characters and I can't wait to read about them again.

This book was a collection of stories of a boys life and his struggles and victories of being gay. I liked some stories more than others, and I really disliked the heavily religion themed ones, those were too much. Not my favorite book by far
Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and especially the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review of the book!!

This is a collection of short stories about the different elements of the male gay life/experience. I really enjoyed Arnold’s story and was really engaged while reading it. I liked some of the stories better than others but I am glad I read them all!

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Arnolds story was wild, the first part, him being 7 and 14, for sure. I am unsure if I read a utopian version of a world which celebrates gay as something super special or if it’s some kind of cult with child abuse which shakes me to the core. I am not sure of it’s my lack of understanding the subtle notes bc I am no native English speaker, but the first story really didn’t feel right to me. Maybe it’s intentional, maybe there is no “right” way of reading all these stories. What’s true though is, that this collection is “remarkably wide-ranging in subject, mood and tone”. This part and the LGBTQIA+ part was, what got me into reading this one in the first place.

The other stories were strangely beautiful and bizarre. The liar who makes up stories so he himself stays hidden in the shadows and “bc you tell lies out of self-interest. You tell stories to entertain.” The son who tries to find a good memory to tell his ill mother, but only find ones that seem coloured the wrong shade, bc in a world where kindness came in such a steady flow the cruel ones stood out. The old woman ("Queenie & the Boy” which was my favourite) who survived Covid and finds an unexpected new friend and blueberries…

And as much as I want to really like this collection, bc I want to support LGBTQIA+ books and writers, the stories with queer characters had a bitter taste for me. Ofc there should be these kind of stories too, but I disliked especially the short story “lessons from cruising”, bc of how poc were described and in a way fetishized. So I am not sure if I can recommend this, but the truth also is, that all the stories stayed with me and kept me thinking. They touched me and that´s a quality of written art that means something.

Thanks to Barbican Press and NetGalley for the ARC, I still enjoyed this strange and wonderful book!

I found all of these stories (minus the religious one - I'm sorry, it probably went over my head but that sort of thing just isn't my sort of thing) so wonderful, touching and unique. I especially loved following Arnold's magical and wonderful life and the highs and lows. A truly fantastic collection of short stories.

I have to think the overall low Goodreads rating for this book has to do with reviewers being confused by it or unhappy with the emotional tone of the stories or maybe feeling misled by the title, because however else I respond to these short stories -- and I didn't exactly "like" or "enjoy" some of them -- it was always clear that Martin Goodman was up to something that was well worth my attention.

Especially challenging were the stories that make up "The Lovely Life of Arnold," set in a world where being gay is celebrated -- but the result feels dystopian. Perhaps it also feels dystopian to Arnold, who in "India, By Design," is found living in a cave. I'm not sure what to say about the Arnold stories except that they're unnerving, and oddly lonely.

Most of the others feel more grounded in the world as I know it and so land on the square marked "emotionally moving" rather than the one marked "disorienting." "Puffins in Flight" and "Billy Budd: Captain Vere's Account," maybe "Lessons from Cruising," might be the most inviting to start with; Goodman's take on Billy Budd left me in tears.

I think the best approach, if you're reading these stories, is to set aside any expectations you may happen to have formed, whether from the cover photo, from the title, or from reviews, including this one. I think, also, that it helps to take one's time; I read the stories one by one over the course of a couple of weeks, because I needed a little recovery time between them.

Thanks to Barbican Press and NetGalley for the ARC, in default of which I would almost certainly have missed this strange and wonderful book.

Weird, uneven short-story collection. I was intrigued by the premises of some of the stories, but as the case with most short-story collections I read, some stories are much stronger than others. The stories that I want more from end abruptly, and the ones I don't like seem to linger on for too long. The author's writing style is highly abstract and ephemeral, and many times, I didn't understand anything that was being conveyed over multiple pages. The running storylines concerning "Arnold" started interestingly enough in a gay, utopic sense, but later devolved into gibberish that I couldn't really follow until the last entry. Some standout stories were the titular one, an age-gap romance and possibly my favorite out of the entire collection; "Queenie & the Boy," a quaint COVID-19 story involving an elderly cat lady and a young boy who befriends her; and the final story, a gripping take on Herman Melville's "Billy Budd" from Captain Vere's perspective. Other than that, the stories were wildly meandering and plodding. As much as I actively strive to support LGBTQIAP+ content, I'm unsure what the end goal was here. I very much disliked how the author fetishized dark, male bodies. Numerous typographical errors throughout. I'd also argue that calling this collection "Lessons From Cruising" creates a negative connotation that I'd guess might offend certain segments of the buying audience, which might then be offset by the audience that it ultimately attracts. Not sure if this decision was made by the author or the publisher, but any title representing queer coming-of-age would have sufficed instead.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Barbican Press for ARC access.

Writing a story requires more than the desire to tell it. It also requires the author's technical and personal capacity, but also a theme that appeals to the reader, besides its development. Martin Goodman is undoubtedly a good and skilled writer, but I couldn't feel connected to these stories, except for "Letters to Parishioners", "Queenie and the Boy", and to some extent "Lessons from Cruising"; they made me feel like they could reach beyond the pages of the book, besides the fact that they exhale a sense of humanity. On the other hand, though I could understand the motivation for Arnold's many stories in the book, but they easily got worn off, plastic-like, and were some I least liked.

The impossible has happened - I liked a short story collection. The strength of the collection lies in the thread of stories about Arnold strung across the collection and especially on the immense queer joy of those stories. The first one in particular is so disorientingly queer-centric, grounded in an affirmation of joyous queer existence, that it reminded me of James Bidgood's 1971 film Pink Narcissus because of its queer solipsism, for want of a better word. That feeling stayed with me until the end of the collection, and that is something that rarely happens.

I was incredibly exited to dive into this collection of queer short stories. Now, I have to admit that shirt stories have never been my jam entirely. I find it hard to connect to characters in such a short time, getting to know them over only a few pages. Nonetheless I‘ve encounter a fair share of brilliantly crafted short stories. Once that were so incredibly well written and engaging that short story collections became something I no longer avoided but at least gave a chance more often. So was the case with this one by Martin Goodman. As I began to read the book I immediately felt drawn into the story. I enjoyed the absurdity, the humour, the writing. After a while I lost this feeling of excitement and I ended up now finding myself interested in picking the boom back up. The author truly lost me after that first story. I found the writing a bit bland. The strangeness that made so much sense in the beginning started feeling ridiculous and I lost interest all together. I do believe that this will meet some ones taste, but it feels quite niche and peculiar and must be found by the right audience. I certainly didn’t feel like it was the book for me but do hope it finds people that read it enthusiastically.