Poppy Z. Brite is back with a short novel from Subterranean Press. It's called Plastic Jesus and it will probably be more than a little controversial. It opens with the assassination of a rock singer in New York. He had been a member of a British rock group in the 1960s and even after the group split up, his fame continued. One reason for the group splitting up (not the only reason) was that the group as a whole was unable to cope with the intensity of the love affair between this man and the other major songwriter in the group. Their homosexual love started to loom larger than the music. The pressures broke up the group, but it didn't break the love between the two songwriters - they continued to make music together and on the night that he was gunned down, his lover was in the car and he saw everything. What happens now, asks the novel? How will the survivor cope with losing his lover, his best friend, the man with whom he made such beautiful music?
The premise isn't true, of course. John and Paul weren't lovers (as far as we know) and the Beatles split as much for financial as for personality reasons. But it makes a fascinating speculation all the same. What if John and Paul really had been lovers? Would it have made a difference to the music, a difference to their lives (and indirectly to ours)?
I vividly remember the day John Lennon was shot. I remember going into work that day feeling quite numb. And one of my work colleagues sat all day at her desk just sobbing quietly, but uncontrollably.
Poppy Z. Brite was only thirteen when John died. She was really a generation too young for the Beatles and their music. But that didn't stop her and she loved them dearly. She has a copy of a quirky little self portrait that John once drew tattooed on her left bicep.
Plastic Jesus is her intriguing speculation about what might have been and it is her homage to the ideas and ideals of a very great man. She's done a wonderful job and written a very moving story.
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