Buenos Diaz: A Conversation With Beantown Cuban Johnny Diaz

Am excited to report that my friend and fellow gay journalist/blogger Johnny Diaz has a new book out called "Take the Lead" -- congrats, Johnny! -- so in the interest of objectivity, I decided to assign my intrepid guest reviewer, Christopher, to get to the bottom of it all. This is what he has to say:

Usually when I'm given an opportunity to "review" a book for Kenneth on this blog, it's full of venom, sarcasm, profanity, obscenity, and other aspects of my daily life. This time is different and I must admit to being nervous without having my wall of impropriety surrounding me. But alas, I shall carry on.

"Take The Lead" is the fourth novel written by Cuban-American cutie Johnny Diaz. You may remember Johnny from his days appearing on "The Real World: Miami." Today, Johnny lives in Boston where he writes about local TV news, radio, print, and advertising for The Boston Globe. His previous three novels "Boston Boys Club," "Miami Manhunt," and "Beantown Cubans" have been described by the author as a "Same Sex in the City" with characters appearing in all three books. "Take The Lead" is a departure with a newly created character and a unique story line.

In “Take the Lead” we are introduced to Gabriel Galan, a 35-year-old Cuban-American gay college professor. Gabriel is afraid of getting older as a gay man in a culture where beauty and looks seem to be paramount to anything else. As a result, he is very lonely and obsessed with preserving his looks and youth through using gobs of Rogaine on his head, taking anti-baldness pills, using make-up to cover fine lines, dancing in clubs with 20-somethings and dating a 22-year-old student where he teaches. Even with the hot boyfriend, Gabriel feels empty. Frankly, I don’t understand why Gabriel is so unhappy. If I had a 22-year-old stud to pump, I’d be just fine. Also, just do what I do and join hair club for men for Christ’s sake! Lace front is fab!

All of these superficial issues are put to the test when Gabriel’s father, Guillermo, becomes increasingly ill with Parkinson’s disease. Gabriel is forced to deal with his father’s chronic illness and find a way to help him even though they live far apart. Through this struggle, Gabriel finds a program in his town of Boston where therapeutic dance is used to help Parkinson’s patients deal with symptoms, and feel like they are part of a community. It doesn’t hurt that the dance instructor, Adam, is smoking hot with a HUGE penis! Chronic illness is so much easier to deal with if a big cock is involved!!

All crass and silly jokes aside, “Take the Lead” is an excellent read (that rhymes!). The characters are extremely relatable and it’s refreshing to see gay fiction focus on a relationship between a father and his gay son. Johnny does a fantastic job illustrating the difficulties of living with a chronic illness while keeping a sense of humor. His writing is robust, senhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsitive, sexy, smart and fun. You won’t want to put it down.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ask Johnny Diaz a few questions for this post. To read my interview with Senor Diaz, click HERE.

(You can purchase a copy of Johnny’s new book HERE or the eBook HERE.)

Visit Johnny's blog HERE.