Based On A True Story: Douglas Martin's "Outline of My Lover"

(This is another in a series of book reviews I've written for the Quimby's Bookstore website.)

Autobiographical fiction is a tricky thing to pull off. On the one hand, the author must stay true enough to the actual events to present a clear vision of what made the story exciting enough to write about in the first place; on the other hand, they must also have the courage to veer from the true story in order to present a compelling, thought-provoking piece of literature. In the case of writing autobiographical fiction about a famous person, the challenge doubles: knowing that most people will read the book to pick up lurid details about the celebrity in question, the author must nonetheless present a narrative tale that will stand the test of time, that will simply remain as a good read long after the celebrity ceases to become relevant to the world's current pop culture.

Douglas Martin skirts along all these tightropes and comes out the victor in his breathtaking first novel, Outline of My Lover (2000, Soft Skull Press). At its core the book is about a sickly, shy child in the contemporary American South, and the way his frail health and shyness force him to interact with the world at large in sometimes dysfunctional ways. Mr. Martin nicely sets up a strong metaphor for the boy right on page three, when describing the character's reaction to not being allowed to own a pet:

"I'm not allowed to have pets because of my breathing, how I can barely. Their furs aggravate my condition. At first I pretend the birds are my pets. They belong so completely to me I don't even have to keep them in cages. They roam free to the universe, and I love them so well, they always return to me."

The irrepressible desire to be loved, combined with the ultimate bleakness of his condition, continue to guide the character throughout the novel, as he quickly becomes sentient of his homosexuality through participating in a series of semi-random relationships with wealthy middle-aged men, serving not much more of a purpose than a prostitute for them. Tired of his Sam-Shepardesque family, sick of being stuck in a small town, he moves at eighteen to a large college city in southern Georgia with plans never to return.

It's at this point that the meat of the story begins, for the boy has expressly moved to this town because of his debilitating crush on a world-famous musician, who in populist fashion has decided to continue to live in the sleepy Georgia town where he was raised. (Like I said, this novel is in fact based on a true story, so those with even a passing knowledge of popular music should already have a fair idea of who the narrator is speaking of.) Again displaying his particular affliction, the boy makes it his long-term goal to eventually meet the musician, hanging out at all the popular gay dance clubs and very consciously becoming friends with the musician's acquaintances. Lo and behold, the boy does meet the musician, and soon they find themselves in the middle of a sexual relationship.

Mr. Martin posits a very interesting question in "Outline of My Lover," one that will keep you up at night if contemplated for too long - what if you suddenly had the very realistic opportunity to date a celebrity that you have obsessed over for years? The answers he provides are a lot more complex and tragic than the usual "Notting Hill" scenario we like to daydream about. Mr. Martin presents us with a boy who constantly questions himself, who constantly worries over his qualifications as a lover when there is literally a world of partners out there for the celebrity to choose from. He shows us a boy slowly retreating from the world, choosing more and more to vicariously live his life through the random snippets of video he catches of his lover on television. He shows us a famous man who wants to be good lover, who desperately wishes to be a sincere and loving partner to the boy, but whose chance for this has been forever taken away by the nature of his fame. We watch two men who each completely distrust the world in entirely different ways, and how this distrust is what brought them together in the first place and eventually tears them apart.

The genius of Mr. Martin's book is that, unlike most autobiographical fiction, you do not need to know that it's a true story in order to enjoy it. Indeed, as one slowly makes one way through the novel, one tends to forget that it's based on a true story, becoming instead enthralled with these richly complex characters and the sadly romantic yet doomed relationship they have carved out for themselves. In fact, this book displays the strength of the long-term narrative form, in that it precisely has this ability to suck us completely into the lives of other people for such an extended period of time. Unlike movies, which at their best also have this ability, a novel doesn't stop at two hours but rather transports you to its world for days at a time, weeks even sometimes.

"Outline of My Lover" is a bleak book, a sad one, with a storyline that is obviously doomed for tragedy from the very beginning. But it is also a romantic book, a sweet, melancholic, delicate rumination on the limits of intimacy and optimism. Even though dealing with the very contemporary themes of gay relationships and pop stardom, the novel also displays the best of traditional Southern Gothic fiction - that long, languid, slow-moving exploration of surroundings that makes you almost feel the sweat of the hot Georgia sun while reading it. It is a short book that will nonetheless stick in your head for weeks afterward, a story about fame that will make you regret ever daydreaming about being a celebrity. It is, as always, a wonderful offering by the fine Soft Skull Press, demonstrating again their almost magical ability to pluck out overlooked treasures and present them to a grateful public. And, true story or not, it's one hell of a novel.

Copyright 2000, Jason Pettus. All rights reserved.