Boys Like Us Trilogy, Book 3 - Sometimes the muse has the last word. Peter McGehee's acclaimed two novels, Boys Like Us and Sweetheart, introduced us to Zero MacNoo and his wonderfully zany circle of friends, family, lovers, and ex-lovers as they struggle to get through life (and death) in the age of AIDS. Peter McGehee died shortly after finishing the manuscript of Sweetheart. But Doug Wilson, his long-time lover, companion, editor and, yes, muse, carries on in Labour of Love for a final installment of the remarkable trilogy.Labour of Love is a testimony to living bravely. Wilson uncannily matches much of McGehee's light-hearted, but not shallow, tone and temperament. Though primarily a romantic farce, it is as wise, and a little darker, than the first installments. It covers the adventures of dying lovers, anti-gay-bashing demonstrations in the streets of Toronto, the obnoxious attentions of Zero's Arkansas kinfolk, tumbles in the sack, triumphs of a drag queen in a courtroom, and wild cross-border journeys (such as in a "borrowed" courier van driven by a competent and lusty lesbian pal).Labour of Love is the title, and the achievement, of Wilson's first and final novel; it, too, was published posthumously. This new edition is accompanied by introductions from Dr Raymond-Jean Frontain and long-time friend and fellow-artist Jeffrey Canton.
"A genuinely delightful gay domestic comedy so full of tangy dialogue and wacky situations that it screams for the stage or, better yet, the screen." - Booklist
"Labour of Love is more a testimony to living bravely than a cry of despair. Wilson uncannily matches much of McGehee's light-hearted, but not shallow, tone and temperament." - Stan Persky
"Accomplishes what may seem impossible: a humorous romp in the face of widespread death." - Library Journal
Author Biography:
Doug Wilson (1950-1992) was born in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. He first gained prominence in September 1975 in a fight for gay rights at the University of Saskatchewan. The dean of the University's College of Education refused to allow Wilson, a postgraduate student in the Department of Educational Foundations, to go into the school system to supervise practice teachers because of his public involvement with the gay liberation movement. Although qualified to do the job, Wilson was disqualified solely on the basis of his sexual orientation. When the decision was upheld by the president of the University of Saskatchewan, the Committee to Support Doug Wilson was formed and generated much support for him across Canada. His appeal to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission was ultimately unsuccessful, and by 1976 Wilson and the Committee had abandoned the case.Wilson subsequently launched Stumblejumper Press in 1977, a small press publishing works by Canadian lesbians and gay men; served from 1978 to 1983 as executive director of the Saskatchewan Association on Human Rights; acted as an advisor in the Toronto Board of Education's Race Relations and Equal Opportunity Office; co-founded the Rites Collective, publishers of the newsmagazine Rites: For Lesbian and Gay Liberation, in 1984; and stood for Parliament as an NDP candidate for the Toronto riding of Rosedale.Wilson met American singer, songwriter, and writer Peter McGehee at an event in San Francisco in 1978 and became life-long partners. McGehee followed Wilson to Saskatchewan; the couple later settled in Toronto. Wilson spent the rest of his life as an indefatigable AIDS activist, co-founded AIDS Action Now! in 1988, and served as founding chairperson of the Canadian Network of Organizations for People Living With AIDS.McGehee was the author of Boys Like Us, a tragicomic novel tracing a group of gay male Toronto friends during the AIDS crisis; McGehee succumbed to the disease in 1991. During his own illness Wilson edited McGehee's posthumous novel Sweetheart (1992), and one month before his death completed his first novel (based on McGehee's notes), Labour of Love(1993), the third volume of the Boys Like Us trilogy. Raymond-Jean Frontain is an independent scholar who has published eight books and over 100 scholarly articles on the Bible as literature, gay literature, Renaissance poetry, the Indian novel, and modern drama. He recently retired as Professor of English and Director, Humanities and World Cultures Institute, University of Central Arkansas. Jeffrey Canton's diverse background in arts, academics, activism and books includes lecturing at York University, more than three decades of professional storytelling and writing and reviewing in national publications including Xtra!, Books in Canada and The Globe and Mail. He lives in Toronto.
