Book Review: "Best Men"

Sidney Karger's debut romance novel is a humorous and touching foray into the world of queer love.

Warning: Full plot details for the book follow.

I am absolute sucker for a queer romantic comedy in any form, and since I’m working on my own queer romance novel–it’s about the director of a West Virginia queer film festival who falls for a glamorous movie star who is also from the state, if you’re interested–I thought I’d catch up on all of the books I’ve been meaning to read. I started with Best Men, the debut novel from screenwriter Sidney Karger. 

Told from the point of view of main character Max, it follows his (mis)adventures as the best man at his BFF Paige’s wedding. Though the two have been friends almost their entire lives, Max finds it difficult to be the kind of gay best friend that Paige so desperately wants at this important time, and things get even more complicated when the brother of the groom, Chasten (who is also a best man) starts horning in on Max’s territory. Very soon, though, it becomes clear that their initial hostility toward one another masks a deeper connection, and it’s only a matter of time before they admit it.

For the most part Max is an engaging and funny hero, though he is somewhat inclined to jealousy and whining. There are times, quite honestly, when you want to reach into the book and shake Max into some semblance of good sense. Rather than seeing this a failure of Best Men, however, I would argue that this is precisely what makes it such a joy to read. I don’t know about anyone else, but I like my gay heroes to be as flawed and silly and sometimes downright stupid as the rest of us. And besides, who wouldn’t feel upset and jealous when their best friend starts to cultivate a new relationship and they start to feel excluded (this might have happened to me recently, hence my affinity for Max in this regard). 

His love interest, on the other hand, is everything you could want from a gay romantic interest. Beautiful and accomplished and sweet and kind–if at times a little catty and competitive–Chasten is a platonic ideal. For Max, of course, this is precisely what makes him so irritating but, as he discovers, there’s far more to this beautiful Adonis than meets the eye. He might be beautiful and stylish and well-put-together, but he’s not meal or cruel, and he’s one of those who can see the vulnerability behind Max’s sometimes-caustic exterior. 

The use of present tense gives the book a peculiar immediacy that I quite enjoyed. There’s a propulsive energy to Karger’s prose that keeps us moving from one set piece to another, as Max not only has to contend with the many pressures of being Paige’s best man but also has to grapple with past relationships, a soul-crushing job, and of course his burgeoning feelings for Chasten. Karger also has an eye for social detail that is a true joy to read, and the scene in which Max–a stolid midwesterner from birth–goes to Long Island and finds himself in the midst of a bunch of East Coast WASPs is a sublime bit of Jane Austen-like humor. Indeed, this is the kind of novel that is designed to make you laugh out loud, sometimes with Max and sometimes at him.

All of this isn’t to say that Best Men doesn’t have some important things to say about the nature of human relationships because it really does. Other than Paige, the most important relationship in Max’s life when the story begins is his ex, Greg, with whom he still carries on a physical and sexual relationship. However, Karger makes it clear that this vestigial bond is not nearly as fulfilling as Max deludes himself into thinking, and it’s sometimes downright toxic, damaging his sense of self-esteem and any possibility of pursuing a happy future with Chasten. I hope I’m not the only one who lets out a cheer when he finally tells Greg where he can get off. 

Moreover, Max also carries around a lot of baggage from his past, particularly where Paige is concerned. Just as she seems to have never quite recovered from the fact that Max was gay (in that she had hoped to forge a romance with him when they were teens), so he bears a smoldering resentment at her for continuing to think of him primarily as her gay best friend, a lovely little accessory that she can use when it’s convenient. Of course, there’s some validity to both of their perspectives, and Karger handles the whole messy situation with grace and maturity.

Likewise, I also appreciated the way that Best Men doesn’t shy away from the sexual components of contemporary gay male life. Indeed, the first time that Chasten and Max meet is during an ill-fated hookup in which the latter prematurely ejaculates, a horrifying moment for anyone, but particularly for Max, who has had a rather long and convoluted road toward accepting his sexuality. The scene where they finally get to sexually reconnect, however, more than makes up for this, and it strikes just the right balance between steamy and touching.

Best Men is one of the most charming romances that I’ve read in a while, and for a Karger shows a great deal of skill in hitting all of the right notes and beats that you would expect from a book like this one. It’s the kind of story that sucks you right in and doesn’t let go until the final page. When we finally get to Paige’s wedding and see her so happy, and when we see Max finally dance with Chasten (to the Smiths, the former’s favorite band), you want to stand up and cheer and sob at seeing these two beautiful gay boys finally find the happiness that they so dearly deserve. By the end, they’ve decided that they are going to seriously date and, though it remains unclear just what their future holds, it’s already become beautifully clear that they are meant for one another.

I can’t wait to see what Karger has in store for us with his next novel.