Arnold T. Schwab: Arnold T. Schwab, a Harvard Ph.D., has taught English at UCLA, the University of Michigan, and, for twenty years, at California State University, Long Beach. A scholar, biographer, and poet, he has published four scholarly books including a prize-winning biography of the important late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century critic James G. Huneker and many articles and reviews on American literature, music, and drama. His book of poems, ‘Elegy for a Gay Giraffe' appeared in 1988, and his poems have been printed in California Voice, Gay Books Bulletin, and other magazines and newspapers. Now retired, he lives in Westminster, California.
Loud Whisper is the story of a bisexual, charismatic leader of a popular rock band in Long Beach, California. The novel deals with the rise, fall (literally), and comeback of the protagonist, Adam (“Zed”) Avery, who, with his band, reaches stardom only to suffer a serious accident on stage which disables him for more than two years.
The book opens with a party to celebrate his recovery and closes with his return to the stage and to his devoted but not always accepted lover, Mark. In between is the story of a talented but troubled musician involved in the drugs, alcohol, and sex associated with the world of the popular music industry and, in particular, rock bands.
The story is told by Mark, the five members of the band, and finally Adam himself, each from his or her point of view. The device employed is an interview by a journalist who is preparing a magazine article and perhaps eventually a biography of Adam. Most of the book consists of dialogue — questions and answers — with a thread of narrative. Snider has a keen ear for dialogue, which is almost invariably natural and flowing.
One does not have to be a devotee of rock bands to enjoy reading the novel, but perhaps it would help. It would probably interest those under fifty more than those over. Sex is present but not described in detail; the writer accepts gayness and bisexuality as a given aspect of contemporary life with no moralizing or special pleading. What sexual drama is present involves the realization of Adam, matured by suffering, of his love for Mark.
Snider has written, but not yet published, two other novels which reportedly deal even more directly and movingly with the gay subject. The readability of this book makes one look forward to reading them, as well.
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