In this issue, Jerry Flack reviews Steven Sorrentino'sLuncheon-ette: A Memoir
and two films (see page 11)
Jerry Flack
enjoys living in the Rocky Mountains. He is shown here with his partner
of fifteen years, George Summers, at the very top of Mt. Evans, one of
Colorado's 54 mountain peaks that exceed 14,000+ feet. Jeopardy
question: What is the highest paved road in the U.S.A.? The
correct answer is the Mt. Evans Highway that winds its way up to 14,
264 feet. Amazingly, all of Mt. Evans belongs to the people of
Denver. It is a Denver city park! Contact.
Luncheon-ette: A Memoirby Steven Sorrentino
Regan Books/HarperCollins, 2005
ISBN 0060728922
Hardcover $24.95, 304 pages
The first thing GLBT readers should know about Steven Sorrentino’s first book is that although finely written, Luncheon-ette: A Memoir is not a gay memoir in the same manner as notable works such as E. Lynn Harris’ What Becomes of the Brokenhearted (Random House, 2004) or Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story by Paul Monet (HarperCollins, 2005) that focus primarily upon the authors’ lives as gay boys and men. There are only a few vital, but very brief references to Sorrentino’s gayness in this memoir. Well-written, funny, and tender-hearted all the way, Luncheon-ette: A Memoir is far more a narrative of the author’s father, Frank “Clint” Sorrentino, a man beset by one physical assault after another to his body, yet a man of both indomitable spirit and incredible resilience, qualities that he attempts to pass on to his eldest son Steven.
Sorrentino was raised in the small and conservative Republican shore town of West Long Branch, New Jersey, as a member of a very traditional Italian-American family that included his father Frank (nicknamed “Clint” after a Yale Heisman Trophy winner because could throw a football farther than any of his four brothers), a man of many talents, and seemingly endless caring for his high school sweetheart and wife Marie or “Pete” (who also bears a nickname because of her own early athletic prowess) and their four children, Judy, Steven, Michael, and John and the family’s untamed black Lab mutt, Reggie. There is also a large contingent of aunts, uncles, and grandparents, including Steven’s beloved maternal grandmother and grandfather, “Nonnie” and Joe “Poppy” Tarantolo. Clint Sorrentino also has a legion of friends, most especially his best friend Angelo Valenzano, who loaned him the money to purchase the diner, fondly known in the West Long Branch community as "Clint’s Corner."
Raised Roman Catholic and never out of the closet at home, Steven headed for the Big Apple when he was 19, and in short order burst out of the closet, found a roommate and lover, Parris, while he simultaneously attempted to land jobs as an actor. Ever the close family member, Steven, almost 24, heads home to New Jersey and family on Christmas Eve, 1980, but he arrives only to see his father Frank fighting for his life as a result of a rare neurological virus that first leaves his legs twisted and spasmodic, confines him to the hospital for months, and ultimately leaves him paralyzed “from here down” – Steven’s ready combined answer of words and hand gestures—that signify his father’s paralysis from the chest down.
As the “Good Son” in his Italian-American family and the eldest male (sister Judy is married and pregnant with her first child), Steven forgoes his dreams of Broadway triumph and the reality of gay freedom in the City, and takes his father’s place as the manager of Clint’s Corner. He becomes a celibate, back-in-the closet, short-order cook flipping porkroll-egg-and-cheese sandwiches (the New Jersey shore’s contribution to international cuisine!) at the grill of Clint’s Corner.
It is sad but not especially surprising that Steven honors his father and forgoes his own life ambitions to come to the rescue of his family. Clint Sorrentino was a wonderful man of incredible spirit who gave abundant love to his family whenever he could and greeted each physical catastrophe of his life with bravery and good humor.
The physical assaults upon Frank Clint Sorrentino are enormous hurdles, yet he meets each one with a special grace that amazes his eldest son. The Christmas Eve, 1980, attack was the result of a rare neurological disorder, acute transverse myelitis, that can have multiple outcomes, including only temporary paralysis, but in Steven’s father’s case results in the worse possible outcome: permanent paralysis from the chest downward. In a near-Job-like fashion, physical ailments assault Clint Sorrentino beginning with becoming a paraplegic and suffering cancer-like bed sores or a “decubitus ulcer” that require surgery. Making the best of terrible situation, Steven’s father not only makes peace with being a paraplegic, his ravaged body further suffers from the catastrophic effects of both a stroke and a heart attack.
Even as Steven is “trapped” in a job he dislikes and is required to put his own dreams on hold for four ostensibly endless years, he earns at least the equivalent of a college degree from his father in how to beat the odds against seemingly hopeless situations and to never ever lose faith or hope. Frank Sorrentino’s medical disasters would easily defeat lesser persons, but with each new adversity, Steven’s father surprises even his beloved family with his willingness to triumph over impossible odds.
Clint Sorrentino teaches his son Steven the virtues of refusing to accept defeat and the need to move forward as he furthers his personal political ambitions. He accepts his fate with unfailing good humor and even expands his political horizons. A city councilman when attacked with paralysis on Christmas Eve, 1980, Clint Sorrentino disdains running again for his “safe” city council seat and makes an all-out attempt to capture the job of mayor of West Long Branch.
The public outpourings of empathy and support for Clint Sorrentino are remarkable. Campaigning from a wheelchair, Steven’s father becomes the first Democrat to be elected mayor of West Long Branch, NJ, in fifty-six years, and its first paraplegic one ever. Perpetually the optimist who never wallows in self-pity, but a man who thrives on self-deprecating humor, Clint Sorrentino tells a jubilant election night crowd, “Thank you, thank you. I don’t know if this means anything but you know when I first went into politics, I was five-foot-eight—and now I am three-foot–ten!” (p. 236)
Luncheon-ette: A Memoir alternates chapters reporting the health and political aspirations of Steven’s father Frank with accounts of the daily happenings among the regulars at Clint’s Corner. There are only occasional references to his homosexuality. Early on, his lover Parris leaves their apartment, the Big Apple, and Steven for a 24-city tour of “Hello Dolly!” A semi-regular at the luncheonette is Brent Jamison—a handsome former Shore Regional High School senior jock whom Steven (then only a freshman) adored from afar—and who amiably dubbed Steven “Steve-o!” An occasional visitor to Clint’s Corner, Brent continues to briefly flirt with “Steve-o!” In rare foray back into the gay bar-life scene he has forsaken, Steven and Brent coincidentally meet in Asbury Park’s sleazy gay bar, The Odyssey. Brent shares the same lust as Steven, but he is unwilling to sacrifice his career, wife, and two daughters. After a few furtive meetings, the Brent-Steven romance evaporates into the conservative middle-class small town ambience of West Long Branch, NJ. Near the end of his four-year extended tour of duty as the Good Son, Sorrentino finally comes out for the first time to his parents and family. They are not surprised at all and were simply waiting for him to make the announcement in his own good time.
The funniest chapters of Sorrentino’s memoir are those devoted to daily comings and goings of the regulars at Clint’s Corner. First and foremost, there is Dolores, the waitress from Hell with gigantic bosoms, Coke bottle eyeglasses, badly askew hairnet, and who swears in numerous languages (not the least of which is butchered Polish) that would make even a sailor blush. She is also a genuine Mrs. Malaprop with a severe case of potty mouth. After Clint himself has made the wheelchair a normal extension of his life and mobility rather than a hurdle, he reclaims his throne as king of Clint’s Corner with daily visits. Indeed, the diner becomes his temporary campaign headquarters during his run for mayor. Ever the busybody as well as love counselor to Steven and others, Dolores tries unsuccessfully to make Clint switch to decaf coffee following his heart attack.
“Here you go, Clint.” Dolores went over to refill his cup. “But don’t blame me when you start with the palpyootations! Ya don’t wanna get another attack of vagina.” (p. 278) Earlier on, when Dolores first learns of Clint’s Christmas hospitalization, she exclaims, “Oh, Jesus, I bet he’s got mutable sclerosis.” (p. 6) Steven’s correction of both the term “multiple sclerosis” as well as his declaration that her diagnosis is incorrect falls on deaf ears. Although no overt words are exchanged, it is clear early on that both Steven and Dolores, an aging widow, have the hots for “Pepsi Man,” the hunk who delivers soda to the diner. Dolores’ affectionate nickname for Steven is “boychick” and she is never short of advice for his career, love life, and how to run the diner HER WAY!
Other diner regulars include the more-or-less silent observer Stanley of the county roads department, Googie the Gizmo, Half Cup Herald who never has more than one-half cup of coffee at a time, Steven’s Aunts Mary and Angie who make delicious meatballs in a manner Dolores finds suspect, Herk the Jerk, Martin Leslie Pembrook who spends most of his time working the New York Times crossword puzzles when not quarreling or trading insults with his brassy wife and endless smoker, Gertie, who is Dolores’ sometimes bosom buddy and sometimes favorite debater. There is also Old Man Pascucci who spends a large amount of time banging his empty cup on the counter for free refills, especially blaming the establishment for putting too much sugar in his coffee (after he has deliberately emptied multiple sugar packages into the cup).
If Luncheon-ette: A Memoir has more of a “feel” of a novel than biography or autobiography, it is because in his first writing effort Sorrentino has attempted to construct a combined tribute to his father and an account of his own back-in-the-closet claustrophobia and a long-term lease on his career aspirations in a memoir that is based primarily on his own impressions and remembrances. In addressing his approach to writing Luncheon-ette: A Memoir, Sorrentino compares his method and style of writing to Monet’s impressionism. “When Monet painted the water lilies, he depicted real scenes through the lens of his own unique sensory experience of those scenes. The true emotional experience of the artist is communicated through the choice of accent color and brush strokes. Could you imagine how we would have reacted to those gorgeous scenes had they just been captured by a Kodak Fun Flash?! I could have taken a very journalistic approach to this project – you know – conducted interviews, research, read all through newspaper coverage of my father. Instead, I chose to stick to my gut feelings and emotional ties to the character and events. I used words as my colors and brush strokes.” (“An Interview with Steven Sorrentino,” ReganBooks publicity materials, n.p.)
Steven can never quite understand his father’s resilience and his utter confidence in his battles with health, including paralysis, and he seeks to find some of the sense of hope that his father seems to have in such abundance. Luncheon-ette: A Memoir is obviously an ode to Frank Sorrentino, father, mayor, diner owner, and eternal optimist presented via one writer’s “impressions” of a father who shares his great love for his family as well as his valiant fight for life that culminates in the book’s most moving and poignant statement. It frames the essence of the good man he was. Faced with yet one more health catastrophe, Frank says intimately to his loving wife “Pete” as they are both in tears, “Thank God this happened to me, and not to one of my kids.” (p. 270) It is the finest line in the book. It is a singular declaration that sums up the good man readers come to know and love through his son’s moving tribute.
Although it may say little about the contents of the book, it is worth noting that the design of Sorrentino’s first work is done with panache. In addition to a clever cover design featuring both a brightly colored diner counter and a caricature of the author, the three sections of the book are introduced with faux short order pads hastily scrawled upon and the chapter titles, also hand-scribbled—no doubt by the ever-present Dolores—are clever and funny such as “Eating All the Prophets” and “In The Name of The Father, the Son, and Wholly Toast—AHEM.” The similar hastily sketched end pages familiarize readers with the geography of both the interior of Clint’s Corner and its relationship to surrounding and vital locales such as Damiano Funeral Home and the Burrough Council Chambers of West Long Branch, NJ.
Luncheon-ette: A Memoir ends with an epilogue that describes the years that followed Steven’s life after heading up Clint’s Corner, finishing his education, and beginning a highly successful career in public relations. For at least nine years he met his father every Saturday with for lunch. He also writes of the sad vigil he kept with his mother, sister, brothers and extended family at his father’s bedside as death approached in 1996. The book is complete with a full-page photograph of Mayor Frank “Clint” Sorrentino sitting in the driver’s seat of his specially reconstructed van that allowed him the freedom to drive even from a wheelchair much of his remaining lifetime. He was West Long Branch’s mayor on wheels in more ways than one.
Although Sorrentino’s first-person accounting is occasionally filled with his own feelings of failure and the claustrophobia of being back in the closet and stuck in a thankless job in a conservative small New Jersey shore community, obviously some of his father’s resilience, enthusiasm, and drive rubbed off on him. After successfully completing his education, he began a job with Harper & Row as a book publicist and moved rapidly up the ranks within the publishing industry to become Vice President and Executive Director of Publicity at HarperCollins Publishers. He managed book tours and campaigns for such diverse writers and celebrities as Margaret Thatcher, Ginger Rogers, Newt Gingrich, Leon Uris, Cybill Shepherd, Dan Quayle, Wayne Gretsky, and Armistead Maupin. In 2001, he left this powerful position with all its security and perks in order to write Luncheon-ette: A Memoir. For readers of every persuasion it was a grand decision to make.
Jerry Flack
Denver, Colorado