If Only for One Night

""How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of my Tootsie Pop? I don't know, but keep on bastin' and tastin' it wit that special sauce, and I'm sure you'll find out!"" Amour fou gets a new twist in the third novel from African American gay novelist Hardy (B-Boy Blues and Second Time Around). Told almost entirely in flashbacks, the story centers on narrator Mitchell Crawford's extended affair with his preternaturally beautiful high-school gymnastics coach. Hardy's exuberant ""b-boy"" writing is best suited to the bedroom (and bathroom, locker room, gym, etc.) Often it descends into sloppy sentimentality, as witnessed in his attempt at a high-school valedictory speech. And, as usual, his work is free of complex moral reasoning: he condemns a sexually predatory preacher for the same behavior that he celebrates in the gym coach, the only discernible difference being that the coach is the better looking of the two men. Reckless, thoughtless, facile as it is, given the paucity of African American gay erotic writing, it is not difficult to fathom the popularity of Hardy's books. Author tour. (Sept.)