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24
WEDNESDAY
Publishers Weekly gave high props to St. Martin’s Press for marketing Brian Malloy’s debut novel, The Year of Ice, as general—not gay—fiction. But it was a no-brainer: Malloy’s book is no bonkbuster. Apart from an isolated ass-biting incident and some reluctant breast groping, the story is essentially sexless (although readers will be rooting for Kevin Doyle, the protagonist peeking from the closet, to get a little rogering). Malloy, whose day job is development director for the Loft, the nation’s largest independent literary arts center, shows much promise as an author with this witty bildungsroman about a Minnesota teenager in the midst of familial anarchy and sexual alienation in 1978. Malloy’s sharp prose zips along, powered by stark contrast in the narrator’s internal and external voice. He’s here at 7 p.m. at Olsson’s Books & Records, 1307 19th St. NW. Free. (202) 785-1133. (Chris Shott)