Beautifully Written

I just finished Outfield Menace yesterday, and I must say I am glad I decided to read Mark A Roeder's books. Outfield Menace, the story of Angel and Kurt told through Kurt's eyes is a wonderful read for anyone who likes Romance and Mystery. With every page you can feel Kurt's confusion, his pain, his emotion its all there and I loved Angel.

The story was exciting and the characters came alive. I loved Kurt's best friend and he wasn't even really a major player. But that is the magic of Mark Roeder's writing he makes the characters you are supposed to like loveable, and the ones you are supposed to hate...well yeah. I think this book was a great portrayal of what it was like to come out in the fifties. I definitely reccommend it to anyone who loves romance, mystery, and adventure with a gay twist. I couldn't put the book down and I find myself wanting to know more about Kurt and Angel.

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Mark Roeder's best.

Typically, I have not genuinely enjoyed Mr. Roeder's work; and yet, since I enjoy reading the whole teen angst-coming out-feeling different thing (okay, fine, haven't gotten over my own tortured adolescence yet, I'll admit it), I always seem to find the descriptions interesting. Then when the books arrive I usually can't get past the first chapter and think one of the following: 1 - Too trite for words OR 2 - Clearly written for a younger audience and therefore, I don't get it OR 3 - Would writing characterization that doesn't prescribe to stereotypes kill this guy?

All that said, I have read (okay, well, I have read the first couple chapters anyway) many of Mr. Roeder's books and this time around, he gets four stars from me.

No wooden characters, an interesting plot that seriously didn't *have* to have gay characters at it's core, characterizations that invoked real people to me...finally, a Roeder book I enjoyed. Yes, the intended audience is younger than me. But this was an all around good story, well written and thoroughly entertaining. Oh, one more thing: it was not the least bit predictable.

Well done, Sir.

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Mark Roeder--Do your research!!!

I have enjoyed many of Mark's novels (Do You Know That I Love You is my favorite of the bunch), all the time recognizing his severe limitations as a writer.

Every character in every Roeder novel speaks with the same voice--all of them, and though his dialog is usually age appropriate for his teen characters, his narrative passages invariably sound as if they were written by someone decades older. There is frequent repetition and redudancy; characters never say anything once if they can say it two or three or four times (though he has definitely improved since his mediocre first novel Ancient Prejudice, which had the unfortunate distinction of glamorizing teen suicide). His characters always (and I mean always) mate for life, which is a beautiful romantic ideal, but ultimately can get tiresome (gay teens are no different from straight ones in their need to play the field a bit before a lifetime commitment).

All that said, at his best (DYKWIK, A Better Life, Keeper of Secrets) Mark Roeder writes a compelling and often un-put-downable story.

But in Outfield Menace, the bad most definitely outweighs the good. Did Mr. Roeder do ANY research into the time period??? The fifties are certainly a good setting for a gay teen novel (if only as an educational experience for contemporary teens, who don't realize how impossible it was to be gay at that time), but if you want to set a novel in the fifties, don't have a lead male character with a ponytail. No one, but no one, wore a pony tail in the fifties (and certainly not in a small midwest town). Don't have characters use anachronisms like "fifteen minutes of fame." And most of all, don't have characters behave and think in anachronistic wasys.

Mark Roeder illustrates the dangers of self publishing. He has apparently made a name for himself (and some money I'd guess), and I must confess, I've bought his novels (glutton for coming out stories that I am) but no legitimate house would publish his novels, at least not without major editing and rewriting, something that a self published author (especially one with an apparently inflated self image) goes without.

There has been a renaissance in quality gay teen fiction this past year or two. Major publishers have put out such superb young adult novels as Totally Joe, M or F?, The Hookup Artist, Rainbow Road, Boy Girl Boy. Read them, if only to see how these truly outstanding (and published by legit houses) novels could teach Mark Roeder a thing or two.

If you must read Roeder, then stick with his better novels and avoid this serious misstep. Memo to Roeder: if you want to write about a time you don't know about, do your research!

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