An Exaltation of Larks

Laqueur (The Man I Love) unspools an evocative if meandering tale of a sex worker questioning his sexuality. As a teen growing up in 1970s Queens, N.Y., Javier “Jav” Gil deSoto is caught having sex with a male cousin by his father, who beats him and throws him out. Working as a waiter, Jav comes across a woman named Gloria who mentors him as a male escort. He then meets a young man named Alex Penda, who fled Chile as a young boy without his parents after Pinochet’s military coup. Alex introduces his foster sister, Valerie Lark, to Jav, and she hires him for sex multiple times. Jav is just as interested in Alex, and wonders whether he’s bisexual. In 2006, Jav learns that his estranged widowed sister has died from a fall, and that her will names him legal guardian of her 17-year-old son, Aaron. When Jav travels from New York City to meet Aaron in the Hudson Valley, he runs into Alex, who is now married to Val, and much drama ensues. Laqueur offers colorful insights into sex work (“Everyone has something fascinating about them, Jav,” Gloria tells him. “Your job is to find it. Then you can fuck it”), but the novel becomes overly sentimental as it barrels toward its climax. This sprawling tale is a mixed bag. (Self-published)