The Spectators

February 18, 2019
DuBois (Cartwheel) spans some 30 years of New York City history, moving between the queer gestalt of the 1970s and the television-junkie culture of the 1990s in her solid third novel. The story revolves around Matthew Miller, a sensationalist Jerry Springer–like talk show host who becomes the target of unwelcome media attention following a high school shooting whose perpetrators turn out to be fans of his The Mattie M. Show. Readers follow Mattie’s put-upon publicist Cel as she navigates a treacherous landscape of scandal and recusal. But as the skeletons in Mattie’s closet begin to emerge, readers become privy to the story of Semi Caldwell (who narrates a portion of the book), his secret past lover, when “Mattie” was simply Matthew, an upstanding lawyer and would-be politician in the heady days of Stonewall, before AIDS ravaged the gay community in the 1980s. As the story cuts between eras, the media circus that precipitates Mattie’s fall from grace comes to mirror his abandonment of Semi, who eventually shows up at his TV studio looking for answers. DuBois beautifully handles Semi’s half of the novel, told in first person, but the third-person Cel sections, in which she plays detective to piece together Mattie’s past life, lack the power of Semi’s. Though somewhat uneven, this is nevertheless a powerful novel. Agent: Henry Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.

Two distinctive settings are perfectly evoked in Nancy Linari and Paul Boehmer's superb narration of this philosophical and affecting novel. The story is told in alternating chapters that are linked by the character Matthew Miller, a lawyer who is the host of a sensational 1990s daytime television talk show. Linari skillfully brings listeners into the behind-the-scenes machinations of defending Matthew's reputation after a fatal high school shooting is carried out by two teenage fans of Matthew's show. In portraying Cel, the show's publicist, and other staff, Linari captures just the right tone for the novel's intense examination of the value of this type of programming. Boehmer creates sympathetic characterizations of several gay men who cross paths with Matthew in 1970s New York City. A rewarding listen. M.J. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine