Review by Grady Harp
It doesn't take long after opening the pages of this brief book to catch the gist of author Jeffrey Hickey's purpose in writing it. At least from one vantage it seems that in addition to wanting to write a fascinating coming of age story Hickey also had the desire to help blur the lines of view in looking at gay versus straight society. And the odd thing about his book is that he takes a very firm stand with his main character Dave Morehead (the very last name is suggestive of the degree of humor Hickey invests here!) being a womanizer after breaking his barrier of virginity and yet becoming involved in living in San Francisco during the 1970s and 1980s when not only was Dave Morehead changing, but so was the gay revolution. It makes of a very interesting dichotomy of inspiration, feelings and understanding that should make the book's audience even wider.
Hickey takes his character by means of journal entries, a bit of poetry and a play of sorts through the discomfort of being a loner, and what is more, a studly looking completely straight loner in a college situation surrounded by gays and lesbians. He rooms with a good guy, discovers love with a girl in the strangest way, fends off would be advances form gay men, and slowly but surely navigates through all the changes that beset San Francisco - Gay Games, the murder of Harvey Milk, the origin of Gay Pride, the horror of the new plague AIDS, and the world of flower children and spiritual odysseys that flowed through the Castro District and the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco.
If the language seems overly crude and the 'chapters' of his book don't seem to hang together the way a normal novel should then the reader has caught on to the ferocious writing style of Jeffrey Hickey. But underneath all the bawdy surface lies a lot of very tender message about that horrendous trial we all have had to face - growing up. Some never do, and some can recreate it like a pixilated flashback the way Jeffrey Hickey has in this book. Simultaneously hilarious, sarcastic, disconcerting, perceptive and offensive Hickey has a talent for driving toward the center of the target and getting there.
TITLE: Morehead
AUTHOR: Jeffrey Hickey
PUBLISHER: BIN-N-BOO PRODUCTIONS
ISBN: 978-1470152611
GRADY HARP
Grady Harp is a champion of Representational Art in the roles of curator, lecturer, panelist, writer of art essays, poetry, critical reviews of literature, art and music, and as a gallerist. He has produced exhibitions and contributed catalogue essays for the Arnot Art Museum in New York, Fresno Museum of Art, Laguna College of Art and Design, Nevada Museum of Art, National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago, and Cleveland State University Art Gallery and has served as a contributing artistic advisor for universities and colleges throughout California, in Berlin, the Centro Cultural de Conde Duque in Madrid, and in Oslo. His collaborative exhibition with sculptor Stephen Freedman, WAR SONGS: Metaphors in Clay and Poetry from the Vietnam Experience toured the United States from 1996 - 1998. He has provided essays, chapters and Introductions to numerous books such as the recent Powerfully Beautiful and !00 Artists of the Male Figure and Coco: The Testimony of Black and White – the art of Lita Cabellut published in Paris. He is the art reviewer for Poets & Artists magazine and is the art historian for The Art of Man Quarterly Journal.
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