Whether or not author Lance Reynald wants to admit it,
Pop Salvation is a gay coming-of-age novel. The book’s
protagonist, Caleb, is a shy gay teen, an isolated outcast in the
conservative Georgetown of the 1980s. To escape himself, he transforms
into a knock-off of his idol, Andy Warhol. He shoots short films with a
Factory of estranged day-schoolers. They discover The Rocky Horror
Picture Show, and find a second home in the midnight world of sweet
transvestites, queers, and freaks.
Caleb’s classmate Aaron is his best friend and creative muse. Forces
of taboo and insecurity create a tense, trickling relationship between
the two, driving the novel and ultimately providing its saving
grace.
Reynald writes from the perspective of an older Caleb, in a style
that respects the slow progression of Caleb’s self-awareness through
the years. Like a viewer of art, Caleb first observes his own actions,
and then picks them apart for meaning, and Reynald’s descriptions of
Caleb’s emotions and their manifestations seem truthful to their place
and time. However, Caleb’s delivery is often stiff and oversimplified.
In describing his bond to Aaron he says, “I knew the feelings were
another thing that made me not normal. I didn’t want to be so
different.”
While a balance of action and introspection keeps Caleb and Aaron’s
characters afloat, the secondary players don’t benefit from the same
development. Caleb says of his father and stepmother’s view of
Christmas, “It had no more meaning to them than the engraved cards they
sent to their list of the who’s who of Washington society.” Yikes.
Reynald’s exploration of what art means to Caleb is multifaceted.
It’s more than private expression. It’s both escape from himself and
immersion in his strongest desire. These emotions are completely
intertwined with his sexuality, yet Caleb never addresses his gayness
directly. It only comes out in terms of his feelings for Aaron. Just
like art is the realization of ideas through objects, “gay” has no
meaning for Caleb without Aaron. Call it a story about the meaning of
art, but without a subject (homosexuality), it’s got no reason and no
home. Pop Salvation examines gay adolescence through an
interesting new lens, but for me at least, it’s that subject that makes
it worthwhile.