Mike KasparRezensionen

I am currently rereading this book. I didn't much care for it on the first read; however, several people I know have read and liked the book. I decided to give it another try.

It seems like a lot of others liked it, but I just could not get into the book... I found the writing pedantic and cliche, and felt the book was very linear and superficial.

Other reviews have summarized the book, so I will avoid that. I think it addresses interesting topics, but I guess I am also irritated by the way LGBT culture is ALL about gay men, and this book followed the trend.

Not a bad book, and I think the writer does show a lot of promise for the future, I would read another book by him... I just think he needs to develop the depth in his writing.½

For a first time novelist [Before I Lose My Style] by Mike Kaspar shows promise. The humor and the set up of it reminded me of early John Irving. The style and story also reminded me a more recent novel, [Selfish and Perverse] by Bob Smith. Both books are light funny stories about searching for sex, self and love in the big city.

I especially liked the trip to the Pic-and-Save (I have the same aversion to big box discounters) and the calamity caused by the forwarded email rang very true. As with all first novels I think this one is probably a bit autobiographical. Then again, there's nothing wrong with writing about what you know.

Before I Lose My Style has been nominated for a Lamda Book Award.

Pick this one up when you can. You'll enjoy it.½

Before I Lose My Style by Mike Kaspar is about overcoming the grief of love lost and how a close circle of friends can both help and hinder this process. The narrator, Damon, a thirty something scientist living in L.A., faces life alone after his longtime boyfriend leaves him unexpectedly. Damon fills his life with a series of one night stands until he falls in with a musician from Budapest who is staying with one of Damon's friends. The three of them briefly form a strange and strained relationship that ultimately leaves all of them unfulfilled. Meantime, the rest of their friends must find a way to deal with this new threesome in their midst.

It's in this circle of friends that Before I Lose My Style shows its strength. I find it can be difficult to follow a large cast of characters in contemporary fiction. It's often the case that authors try to introduce everyone in quick snippets during the first chapter, jumping through space and time to do so. In Before I Lose My Style, Mr. Kaspar introduces everyone gradually and keeps the groups small until we know the characters well enough to have them all together in a big party scene. The late night phone calls and email exchanges that are typical of friends dealing with break ups and new relationships are both amusing and heartfelt. There is a funny extended sequence the begins when Damon accidentally hits the reply all button and sends an email critical of one friend's partner to everyone. It's nice to read about friends dealing with issues like this, working it out and getting through it together.

While Before I Lose My Style deals with several serious issues, Mr. Kaspar never loses his overall breezy tone. The book is about a group of friends, and reading it is like being a part of the group--sometimes chatty, sometimes catty, a comfortable fit even during a fight. The grief of a love lost is something common to most circle's of friends; Damon's circle responds in typical ways--taking him out, setting him up, patiently helping him through a series of wrong guys until he finds the right one was right in front of him all along

I would like to say I really enjoyed this book but the truth is I did in the beginning however by the end I had to push myself to finish it. It seemed disjointed and uneasy to follow. At times I felt like the main character was on a drug induced dream or nightmare with reality somewhat lost. The consistancy was just not there for me and I re-read sections trying to make sense out of the story. Truthfully I am still not sure what the story really was. I would not recommend this book.½

Before I Lose My Style, by Mike Kaspar, is hard to get into, because the characters aren't very interesting and there's not much of a plot. Some of the characters are eccentric and sometimes slightly amusing, but there is very little depth to them and it's often unclear what they contribute, apart from amusing eccentricities.

The story is told in the first person by Damon, who has recently been dumped by his boyfriend. He's picking up guys for one-night stands when the book begins. They are so inconsequential that we usually just hear that he had a date. He doesn't seem to be especially distraught by his situation. He's not moping or getting all depressed. He is responsibly holding down a job. His friends sometimes try to set him up with a date, but he doesn't really seem to need the help. By the end of the book he's in a relationship again, with a friend who has suddenly, out of the blue, realized that he's in love with Damon. Yet this all happens without any crisis in Damon's life. He's intelligent, well educated, travels, hangs out with his friends, etc., but none of this is interesting enough to write a novel about, because there is no compelling plot.

There are, of course, the other characters. For example, Travis is a close friend of Damon's who seems to be psychologically incapable of having sex. You might think that that would be interesting. The problem with it is that it's not explored. It's simply a fact. Travis is in love with Nathan, purely platonically, and he encourages Nathan and Damon to hook up so that Nathan's and Damon's sexual needs will be satisfied. All three of them are okay with this arrangement, but it's not part of any further development of Travis's character. He's just a weirdo who doesn't want to have sex, for no apparent reason.

All of the characters are like this, quirky in some way, occasionally amusing (perhaps), never very funny, and mostly just part of the landscape of Damon's life. What their influence on him might be is hard to say. They are more like slightly interesting paintings on the wall, but they are not causal forces of any significance.

This book was really a nice surprise. It's always a little scary trying a new author, and I often find the blurbs on the back of a book often seem to be describing a different book entirely than the one I read, but describing this book as both "playful" and "melancholy" seems right.

The novel opens with our hero, Damon, listening to a pirate radio station while the guy he just tricked with is asleep on the couch. This is an appropriate beginning as music and sex both play major roles in the story. Damon is still recovering from the breakup with his ex-boyfriend, who simply moved out on him with no explanation, and he uses "no strings attached" sex as his coping mechanism.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the camaraderie that Damon had with multiple characters in the book, but not so many that it was hard to keep characters straight (no pun intended). I tend to like these stories of friendships tested and surviving.

I also enjoyed the romance, as well as the sex, found in the book. I don't want to give away too many plot points, but an unusual love triangle appears, and while I don't know that I would feel comfortable being a part of it, I could understand how it worked for each of the characters involved.

One minor quibble I had with the book was that I found the multiple references to Los Angeles and West Hollywood a little off putting. It might be great for locals to identify locations where Damon and his friends were hanging out, but for those of us not part of that scene, it felt like maybe I was missing out on some of the symbolism or importance of the locations.

But that is a small complaint. Overall, I really enjoyed the book, and it's helped to add "loathsome assholeishness" to my vocabulary (you have to read it to understand). By the end, I found myself really wanting to hang out with Damon and his group of friends...even Ron.

I think this book bodes well for the future of its author, Mike Kaspar, and I look forward to reading more from him in the future.

Thanks to Early Reviewers for sending me this book. I enjoyed this book. I do not think you have to be gay, straight, or whatever to really enjoy books about relationships. Mike Kaspar did a great job bringing a whole cast of characters together to watch their lives intermingle with each others. I have always enjoyed books that enter into the characters psyche, minor plots, everyday lives of people just like everyone else, regardless of races, sexual orientation, etc.
It was like taking a voyeuristic approach in watching relationships between young adult lives. Just snooping and watching for a few days. Thank you Mike for putting Lucinda and Seth, a straight couple who can befriend gay couples....just like my wife and I.
So for a straight guy - I totally enjoyed myself reading this. Again, it is a great book about relationships. Only minor problem I really saw was editing issues. (As I say this, there are probably lots of grammar and misspelled words in this review!)

Mike Kaspar’s Before I Lose My Style is surely the most unique and exuberant of the current crop of contemporary gay fiction available. In brief, it tells the story of a thirty-something scientist living the life of a swinging single in L.A. after having been unceremoniously dumped by his long-time lover.

I could tell from the very first page that this was going to something special when Damon, the protagonist and narrator, blissfully describes hearing songs by Yo La Tengo and Jonathan Richman on a pirate radio station. This, I recognized at once, was going to be a far cry from those novels (gay or straight) written by very narrow-minded and/or sheltered authors who seem to be out of touch with all but the most mainstream in popular culture.

But Kaspar’s delightful character study has much more to offer than merely obscure underground references and indie cred. This is a story that is told as often through dialogue as it is by the narrator’s pithy observations…and what dialogue it is! Each character has his/her own authentic voice, so much so that I often felt as if I was eavesdropping on real people. And these aren’t the same people one has met in hundreds of other guises in dozens of other novels. Each one is completely individual - with all the contradictions and inconsistencies found in flesh and blood human beings, which makes their conversations all the more intelligent, sassy and, best of all, interesting.

I can almost guarantee that in no other modern novel will you find two pages of informed discourse on Hungarian history cross-pollinated with several paragraphs dissecting hints of Stephen Malkmus’s suspected bisexuality in the lyrics of his 1990’s indie rock band, Pavement. This is a smart novel and the author never condescends to his readers, assuming they’ll be able to keep up. Kaspar’s writing is at once warm, witty and, oftentimes, hilariously over-the-top funny. I defy you not to laugh out loud at some point during the two page stream of consciousness psycho-babble of “Hair-Guy,” (one of Damon’s hot, but dizzy, young dates) or the heated e-mail exchange that, without giving anything away, gives birth to an insult so outlandish it prompts one of the characters to suggests they adopt it as their “new catchphrase.” I’m seriously tempted to adopt it as mine.

While stealthily avoiding all the gay character clichés that seem to abound in most modern gay fiction, to his credit the author also sidesteps another tired stereotype – that of Los Angeles as a shallow, artistic dead zone. The L.A. of Before I Lose My Style provides an inspiring desert backdrop to the myriad opportunities for both artistic expression and appreciation. Kaspar’s obvious love for L.A. is reminiscent of Woody Allen’s feelings for New York. And what a welcome change. The architecture, museums, exhibits, botanical gardens, even the cheap ethnic eats enjoyed by the characters paint a picture of a vibrant, diverse city that no other gay novel has come close to depicting. And it was the first ever fiction book of any kind that actually made me interested in visiting SoCal.

Ultimately, Damon’s journey is not particularly complicated or unusual. What makes the book so compelling is the writing style and the characters themselves. And as romantic comedies go, this one breaks most of the rules but still deeply satisfies. Kasper is like a skilled magician, distracting the reader’s attention to such a degree that the story’s outcome is as unexpected as it is completely right. This one’s a keeper. Can’t wait for the film.

Mike Kaspar's novel "Before I Lose My Style " is a familiar, but well-written character study of a man who is finding his way though life after the break up of his relationship with his partner. What makes this book memorable is how the author is able to create such interesting characters in a just a few words, especially Damon. Overall, I would recommend "Before I Lose My Style".½

This is a first novel, and a damn good one. First novels chase readers away with the presumed flaws and infelicities of style they inevitably have. Don't let this happen to you!

Read "Before I Lose My Style" because writers need to know people support their writing before they can publish more. And this writer, Mike Kaspar, is someone you want to have write more. Damon, our POV character in this Bildungsroman (a novel in which the author presents the "psychological, moral and social shaping of the personality of a [usually young] protagonist", thank you Wikipedia), narrates his life to us in first person, present tense...ordinarily something that makes me flinch...but for this character and this story, it's the right choice.

Damon's story need not be summarized, since the Amazon entry will give you that information. This isn't a book that's plot-driven, anyway; this is a book that gently floats us along, enjoying the author/narrator's apt sense for and use of subtle metaphor:

"Travis and I will meet Ron in the antiquities after we walk around the gardens. It is late afternoon; if we wait until after going through the galleries, it will be too late to see the grounds. We start at the top of the stream and take the zigzagging path that crosses the stream repeatedly before the water cascades down to the central garden's sunken pond. The trees have lost their leaves; the unlikely equilibrium between riparian gorve and drainage ditch that makes this part of the garden compelling is shifted too far toward the latter...We don't linger." (p15)

This passage feels right, in its tone and its length and its placement; it is a sensory expression of the scientist Damon's experience of the next year of his life. I returned to this image multiple times in the next 190+ pages, without intent on my part, thinking in a "Eureka!" moment each time, "OH! another crossing of the stream" or "god, we're so far down the drainage ditch I can smell the..." well, never mind that.

I mentioned issues and infelicities...I can see no utility in cataloging them, frankly, and I found each of them understandable and excusable. I don't think this book would have been hurt even a little bit by coming under the care of a good editor, but I have no idea how an author goes about finding one of those without connections and/or dumb luck.

Mr. Kaspar's novel is deserving of a place in your limited reading-time and book-buying (only $16!) budgets. The journey Damon takes with his coterie of crazies and cuties and characters is one I hope will enchant any reader, straight or gay, with its sweet, soulful musings on life as lived and love as lost and lovers as cherished, hopefully before it's too late...no, read it yourself. You will not be sorry.