Monkey Suits
"The cater waiter is the ultimate illusion; queer posing as straight, liberal posing as conservative, hedonist posing as eunuch."\ In his second novel, Jim Provenzano (author of the acclaimed PINS) explores Manhattan society life from the servants' point of view. Monkey Suits serves up a compassionate and witty tale of 1980s class warfare, and the romantic entanglements of a quintet of tuxedo-clad waiters.\ Lee Wyndam's work-related affairs lead to more frustration than he'd expected. Drawn...
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A dark comedy of 1980s Manhattan society parties, and the personal and sexual liberation of those who wait on them. Welcome to the servile class.
\ Advance Praise\ - Alex Gildzen\ Jim Provenzano captures an era in gay history with humor and poignancy. He has become one of our strongest voices.\ \ \ \ \ Bay Area Reporter\ - David Ehrenstein\ Jim Provenzano's brilliant new novel Monkey Suits captures perfectly the Reagan Age as it examines the lives of gay cater-waiters working the Metropolitan Museum's swank parties, while getting politicized by ACT-UP. Provenzano is alive to the way that fiction can get to the heart of things in a way that nonfiction cannot.\ \ \ Torso Magazine\ - Jerry Rosco\ From the secret lives of married gay men to the secret lives of cater waiters, it seems like everyone has something to hide. That's especially true in Jim Provenzano's exciting second novel. A nostalgic mix of sex and melodrama, he crafts a late-80s AIDS story ... a a fun read, jammed with in-jokes, intrigue and involving characters. It's those details and finishing touches that make the book a sultry page turner.\ \ \ \ \ Independent Publisher Review\ - Keith Morisette\ A thoroughly entertaining and well written story filled with well defined characters, clever plot twists and subtle humor. It's loaded with all the standards of a good story with the right type of characters and on-target situations, using light-handed irony and a sharp eye for dark humor around the edges. He makes his points cleanly in the context of the story itself, with a wit that equals Maupin at his best, using the figure of the Cater Waiter as his Everyman.\ \ \ \ \ Bookmarks\ - Richard Labonte\ In this nostalgic Manhattan-set novel about unfocused youth, mercurial boyfriends, and the early days of ACT UP activism and anger, the characters are all cater waiters - thus, the "monkey suits." Their underclass perspective on the upper class they serve at society functions is part sneering and part servile, a nervy imbalance that gives this novel a subversive, comic clout.\ \
