elisa_rolle (elisa_rolle) wrote,
elisa_rolle
elisa_rolle

In the Spotlight: Brian Francis

The Book: Peter Paddington is your typical thirteen-year-old paperboy with a few exceptions. He's 204 pounds, at the mercy of an overactive imagination, and his only friend is a trash-talking beauty queen reject from across the street. As if that wasn't bad enough, Peter's nipples pop out one day and begin speaking to him, threatening to expose his private fantasies to an unkind world.

Peter knows that if he could just lose weight, develop a brand-new personality, and get rid of those pesky talking nipples, he'd be able to find the acceptance he desperately craves. But it isn't easy to change who you really are, and Peter, ready or not, is finally forced to confront his secret self. Hilarious and exquisitely touching, this is the funniest and most memorable novel you'll read all year.

Amazon: The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington: A Novel (P.S.)
Paperback: 276 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (August 2, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060792442
ISBN-13: 978-0060792442

The Author: Brian Francis is a Canadian writer. His 2004 novel Fruit was selected for inclusion in the 2009 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by novelist and CBC Radio One personality Jen Sookfong Lee. It finished the competition as the runner-up, making the last vote against the eventual winner, Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes.

Published in Canada by ECW Press and released on May 4, 2004, Fruit is the story of Peter Paddington, a teenager living in Sarnia. Overweight, gay and a social outsider, Paddington regularly retreats into an active fantasy life which includes his own nipples talking to him, and the novel traces his journey toward self-acceptance.

The novel was published in paperback format in the United States by Harper Perennial on August 2, 2005 under the title The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington.

The novel was well-received by critics, with Entertainment Weekly referring to it as "sweet, tart, and forbidden in all the right places." He was awarded an Honour of Distinction citation by the Writers' Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Grant in 2008.

Francis' second novel, Natural Order, published by Doubleday Canada, was released on August 23, 2011. The novel tells the story of a mother coming to terms with the death of her adult son.

Natural Order was positively reviewed by critics and made Best Books of 2011 lists for the Toronto Star and The Georgia Straight. The novel has also been short-listed for the Ontario Library Association's 2012 Evergreen Award and 2012 CBC Bookie Awards.

Francis, who is gay, has also worked for the Toronto publications Xtra! and NOW. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Francis_(writer))

Top Gay Novels List (*)

First Decade (2000-2009): http://www.elisarolle.com/ramblings/top_100_gay_novels_2.htm

Second Decade (2010-2019): http://www.elisarolle.com/ramblings/top_100_gay_novels_2.2.htm

*only one title per author, only print books released after January 1, 2000.

Note: I remember to my friends that guest reviews of the above listed books (the top 100 Gay Novels) are welcome, just send them to me and I will post with full credits to the reviewer.

Other titles not in the top 100 list: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/top50MM
Tags: author: brian francis, in the spotlight
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