HE QUIETLY LOOKED AT BRIAN FOR A MOMENT, THE ONE PERSON WHO BELIEVED
HIM, FEELING THE DISTINCT AURA OF SOLIDARITY BETWEEN THEM. IT WAS A
COMFORTABLE FEELING. HE THOUGHT OF THE LONG WHILE HE HAD LAIN AWAKE
WITH BRIAN’S ARM AROUND HIM, HOW SECURE AND SENSUOUS IT FELT TO BE HELD
NY HIM. SO WHY WOULD IT MATTER IF HE HAD ROLLED OVER AND HAD COME TO
KNOW THIS LOVELY MAN IN A MORE INTIMATE WAY. WHY DID HE NOT SET HIMSELF
FREE TO MAKE LOVE WITH HIM, WHEN HE HAD GIVEN HIMSELF SO FREELY TO
JULIAN. WHY WOULD IT MATTER WHEN THE NIGHT BEFORE, AND EVEN NOW, HE SO
WANTED TO?
At
odds with his sexuality in college, Johnny Feelwater finds himself
involved with the boy in the dorm room across the hall. Everything
changes the day he meets Marilee. They fall in love, wed, buy a home
and he begins a career in commercial art. For nine years Johnny and
Marilee live a comfortable life, he busy with building his own company,
she involved in religion and Church activities, and all the while
conveniently forgetting that enormous lack of passion in their marriage.
Johnny
never really got to know his grandmother for reasons unclear to him and
only known to his mother. The unexpected visit of a lawyer, announcing
an even less expected heritage awakens his curiosity. All of a sudden
Johnny finds himself being the owner of an old house on Confederation
Square, Savannah, previously occupied by Cassandra Mott, a woman who
died of age, a woman he never met or even heard of, a woman who was the
longtime lover of his grandmother. Driven by his curiosity Johnny
decides to visit ‘his’ house, only to be welcomed by a beautiful and
seductive young woman, and her even more beautiful brother. Johnny
meets Cassandra and Julian Mott, and from that moment on his life would
never be the same again.
In his characteristic style, Martin Brant
has written once again an intriguing novel in which a young man embarks
on stormy journey that eventually leads him to accepting himself for
who and what he really is. In contrary to his previous books, The
Strange Haunting of Johnny Feelwater deals with supernatural creatures
that interfere with the lives of those they chose. In Johnny’s case
they force him to endure the most passionate sexual fantasies, which
becomes an addiction that leads to Johnny’s downfall and destruction of
the life he has lead and has come to cherish. And since these creatures
are only visible to those they chose, one wonders, do they really exist
or are they merely the ghosts of the human spirit that eventually
forces us to make choices we never wanted to make, but that are
inevitable in choosing the paths we must take.
The Strange Haunting of Johnny Feelwater
talks about many contrasts and opposites. Different races, different
cultures, different sexualities. All comes eventually to an unexpected
climax, when Johnny’s life races toward a point of no return. –B-
Photography by Dylan Rosser. Models: Caio, Chris and Ryno, Forneus and Ryan.
MARTIN BRANT | BEAUTIFUL
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