The Stormwater Drains in Canberra - Softcover

Karlsen, Paul Johan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0996927204 ISBN 13: 9780996927208

Publisher: Krutt & Plutt Press, 2015

Synopsis

NAMED TO KIRKUS REVIEWS' BEST BOOKS OF 2016

'Kurt s story will resonate with gay men around the world ... 'The Stormwater Drains in Canberra' may serve as a study guide for a new generation of young gay men' -- Lambda Literary Review

Consumed by pubescent desires, Kurt Larsen, a resourceful Norwegian boy, wants to speed up his sexual coming of age. Taking matters in his own hands, Kurt secretly opens a mailbox at the local post office and, posing as an adult, begins to take out personal ads in porn magazines. From there, little goes according to his master plan. 'The Stormwater Drains in Canberra' is a story of friendship and loneliness, of striking the right balance between privacy and secrecy, and above all, of learning how to love. In this international coming-of-age story, the narrator, a modern-day Peer Gynt, looks back on the events that unfolded from the time he was fourteen until he turned twenty-one.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Johan Karlsen is a Norwegian-born writer, editor, and research-oriented psychologist. He holds an MA in psychology from New York University and a PhD in psychology from the University of Oslo, Norway. He lives in Oslo and New York City.

Review

NAMED TO KIRKUS REVIEWS' BEST BOOKS OF 2016

A coming-of-age story metamorphoses into a global sexual odyssey. Kurt Larsen, the ardent young hero of this debut novel, lives in the small Norwegian town of Bodø, north of the Arctic Circle, where privacy for a teenager in the late 1990s remains in short supply. Kurt's dreams extend far beyond the constraints of his town; he wants to 'canvass the entire world for perfect bliss,' he says; 'I wanted to investigate the secret thoughts of my peers. I wanted adventure, to be a sex pioneer.' His pioneering is initially limited to placing ads for anonymous hookups with strange men. Through such desperate teenage measures, he meets Jonny Larsen, with whom he'll have an on-again, off-again relationship throughout the book, as he moves on to college (where he's the 'thin-skinned, over-interpretative, horny type a roaming satyr'). At university, the scope of his mission suddenly broadens immensely when he begins a fast-paced international flying agenda to qualify for an incredible airline giveaway that will provide him with five free tickets to anywhere in the world. On one of these stopovers, in Oslo, he sees Ragnar, a young man 'on top of my list of candidates for sexual perfection,' to whom the entire narrative is addressed. Kurt clearly loses his heart to Ragnar, pleading with him that second chances at their kind of happiness don't come along often: 'Later in life there'd be work, family, and the twenty-four hour job of raising children.' The plaintive, hyperaware tone is typical of Kurt's narration of his various erotic escapades, which are related by the author in prose that manages to be vivid without becoming either titillating or melodramatic ('Tomorrow I'd meet a dark-haired boy just under my height,' Kurt says of one of his earliest encounters. 'And soon after, I'd remove his blue and yellow all-weather jacket and get down to some serious boy fun'). Kurt might at one point profess a desire to be normal and average, but in reality his far-flung exploits are a rebellion against a young man's hunger for experience and fear of stagnation. Karlsen conveys the poignancy of it all with extremely knowing skill, raising Kurt's sordid, picaresque adventures to the level of a life quest. A frank, funny, immensely winning novel about a 'sex pioneer' exploring the hinterlands of desire. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review and Best Books of 2016)

Kurt s story will resonate with gay men around the world ... 'The Stormwater Drains in Canberra' may serve as a study guide for a new generation of young gay men. --Lambda Literary Review

I'm the drunken monkey on the lawn playing pin the tail on the donkey with this one. FUN. ... Unsettling, inconclusive and ultimately ambiguous, it reflects life. This book is all about the journey of a young man determining himself. --Hearts on Fire Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Krutt & Plutt Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0996927204
• ISBN 13: 9780996927208
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 292