From the rape of Ganymede to Michelangelo's loves, from the relationship of Batman and Robin to the letters between Freud and
Jung, this voyage speaks eloquently about the complex relationships between men.

Found this book to be a little bit annoying like most self-help books. The main message is that if you want intimacy you have to communicate your feelings with integrity. Say No when it's no and say yes when it's yes. That was the good part. There was also a lot of promoting psychotherapy including a whole chapter on having an intimate (non-sexual) relationship with your therapist. So, if you're into therapy then it's a good book if not, then just try to express yourself honestly and develop intimacy that way.

This book was really good reading. I found that once I started it was hard to put it down. I took it most everywhere that I went. It gives some solid advice that friends cannot give. It goes great if you have regular sessions with a counsellor.

The authors cover a myriad of issues faced by gay men without clouding it with lesbian issues. This may be the best book written to help gay men understand why it is so difficult for us to achieve and maintain healthy, intimate relationships. Five stars.

This author won a Lambda Literary Award for another book called MASSAGE in 1999 (perhaps I should have read that one). This book called MICHAEL wasn't a big HIT for me (I was hopeful since my name is Michael). It's more like a short story about a middle-aged gay man who is trying to find meaning in his life as he is about to 'follow the Light' to his death and be reunited to those he loves in the Heavens. There are some incidents that are brushed upon that clearly make him feel guilty about the way he (Stephen, the main character) lives his life. It got into a Christian religious tangent mixed with some homoerotic parts that weren't really necessary. Then, there's this whole 'end of the world' scenario with a nuclear bombing in Russia and planes disappearing & crashing in NY & elsewhere (a bit sinister since this was published in 2000--prior to 9-11-01). It's almost like the author is writing a story for himself about how he hopes the circumstances will be when he dies. When I think of this it makes it a bit more interesting.

I love and am haunted by this book because of the way Flesh is able to convince me that the end of the world really will happen on a hot Sunday in the Village -- that we will ascend, intertwined with our memories. The beauty and poignance of Michael are sometimes too much to bear. As with Flesh's other work, this is an exploration of loneliness, perfectly pitched -- Flesh knows the way cigarette smoke looks floating out a bedroom window, and the desperation of a man whose loved ones have ceased to be. And yet, at the end, there's salvation -- or seems to be. Anyway, Flesh has recently been compared to Burroughs and Genet, but in his deepest explorations of the stark human soul reminds me more of the late Richard Yates.

Michael is at once disturbing and deeply moving. Set in the East Village of New York in an apocalyptic future with Blade Runner atmospherics, the reader is immediately immersed in a world of both terminal despair and an odd excitement. It is not at all surprising, in such a place, that portents appear. We experience viscerally every memory, every thought, every action in an ambiance of anxiety, dread, and even joy. Michael is a work of intense, impassioned realism, unlike any book I have read before.