Flannelwood
by Raymond Luczak
Red Hen Press. 186 pages, $15.95
A PROLIFIC WRITER of both prose and poetry, Raymond Luczak has produced a new novel titled Flannelwood, a soul-searching story of love gained and lost.
The narrator, Bill, is a 45-year-old wannabe poet who’s passing his time as a barista in an unnamed Midwestern city. At an OctoBear dance, he meets James, a striking, masculine, handsome man, who is also an amputee. The story opens with Bill seeing James’ leg, which is amputated just below the knee, for the first time. Bill perceives it not as a defect but as an enhancement to James’ perfection. For the next six months, the men share every weekend together at James’ house an hour north of the city. These times together are filled with intense passion and affection, until… Suddenly, on the first day of spring, James calls Bill and informs him that “it’s not going to work out,” and hangs up. No explanation is offered. With this abrupt ending, Bill is devastated and left wondering what happened.
Dealing with his heartache, he starts on a journey of reflection about his life, his weekends with James, and previous relationships. Bill reconstructs his memories of growing up on a farm in a small town, his conflicted relationship with his parents, growing up gay, and his attraction to hypermasculine men. He speaks of his first attraction: “His hands were thick with muscle, and his shoulders were rangy. But more than anything it was the orange fire of his beard that drew my attention no matter where he was. Men like that were my new religion, and I worshiped them from afar all the time.” This attraction led to his eventual obsession with the bear community. The story moves back and forth between these topics and Bill’s memories of James and his current tortured state.
Throughout the novel, metaphors involving ghosts, ashes, and isolation appear. They give shape to Bill’s memories of people from the past, including those loved and lost, like James. “Ghosts are everywhere if we forget how to look for them, and there they rise, from the crypts of our dead memories. When we try to remember their faces more clearly, they crumble into ashes in our hands.” Images of ashes occur frequently in the book: the fire and ashes from James’ cigar, the ashes of Bill’s former partner who died, which are stashed away in his closet, and ashes from various fires. These images center around loss and the devastating loneliness that results. Bill laments that “Mr. Loneliness is my husband, and I can’t divorce him right now. Just can’t.”
We learn much about Bill through his soul searching and his torment, including his insecurities as a poet, which keep him from writing. But little is revealed about James, who remains a shadowy figure. We don’t learn much about his past life or character, other than his strong sexual presence. What made James tick, and why did he leave Bill? These questions are not addressed until the end. When Bill does begin to find out more about James’ actions and why he abruptly ended their relationship, he begins to rebuild his life.
Toward the end of the book, Luczak weaves in the story of Djuna Barnes’ novel Nightwood, the classic lesbian love story from the 1930s. It’s about a character named Nora and her love for Robin, and Nora’s anguish and obsession after Robin abandons her. The story also reflects what happened to Djuna Barnes after her great love Thelma abruptly left her after their glorious time living together in Paris. These stories parallel Bill and James’ story. This device works very well, and you don’t have to be familiar with Barnes’ novel to appreciate it.
Flannelwood is a novel about love, loss, searching, and self-discovery. Much of the interaction between Bill and James is sensual and erotic. The narration is realistic but rich, at times bordering on poetic.
William Burton is a writer based in Provincetown, Mass.
