Glove Puppet

Australian writer Drinnan's titillating first novel is ultimately saved from a mere descent into voyeuristic pornography by the searingly perceptive narrative of 20-year-old Johnny Smith (later to be known as Vaslav Usher). The novel opens with a scene of the narrator at age seven, in London's Victoria Station, where his prostitute mother dies of an overdose. Enter Shamash Usher, a prestigious Australian dancer and ballet company co-founder, who has come to England to reclaim the seven-year-old son, Vaslav, whom he hasn't seen since infancy. On learning that his son has died, the dancer whisks Johnny, redubbed Vaslav, off to Sydney, Australia, to live a life of privilege. What follows is Johnny's examination of the events leading to his current tragic circumstances: his first sexual encounter at 12 with Shamash, unleashing an unquenchable lust for more; their exposure, leading to Shamash's death; and Johnny's inability to control his need for constant stimulation from drugs and sex (described in graphic detail). Drinnan pushes the envelope in describing Johnny's sex-obsessed, sordid life (as when Johnny describes looking for the top bidder to publish the steamy details of his affair with Shamash, ""let them be led and teased slowly, give them almost enough prosaic foreplay to be ready for the literary `fucking' they're going to get""). In the end, readers are uncertain whether Johnny is grieving Shamash's death or merely exploiting it. (Oct.)