Testosterone

If you’ve ever had a break-up that was really, really nasty, if you’ve ever hated your ex-lover with quasi-homicidal passion, then you might enjoy James Robert Baker’s adrenaline-soaked, psychopathic road trip, Testosterone.

There you will find a vicarious thrill as you follow Dean Seagrave’s journey of vengeance against Pablo Ortega, his over-sexed paramour who went for a pack of cigarettes and never came back.

On one level, Dean knows that his relationship was based mainly on sex, but on the other hand, he is convinced that on that shaky but compelling ground a more serious and stable union was being formed. In short, he had no inkling that the end was near. Dean does some research and finds that he is not the only man (or woman!) who has been unceremoniously dumped by the hunky Pablo. Dean is even more aghast when he discovers that Pablo was involved in Palo Mayombe, a sinister type of voodoo that involves animal and human sacrifice.

Dean concludes that Pablo deserves to die; he buys a machete, discarding the idea of a chainsaw as too noisy, and searches bars, sex clubs and cruise spots that Pablo frequented.

Author Baker narrates his story with a breathless immediacy through the device of tapes that were supposedly recorded simultaneously with Dean’s hunt through the decadent streets of Venice and West Hollywood.

Dean laces his story with rationalizations: he is NOT a speed freak and he is NOT a malicious psychopath, even as he snorts more met amphetamines, manhandles an AIDS patient in a wheelchair (Pablo’s best friend who won’t reveal his whereabouts) and Pablo’s mother, who only responds with a Mayombe curse.

Dean will try to convince you that he is only on an honorable quest: to punish, and to rid humanity of his predatory ex. There is some indication that Pablo may be a metaphor for the AIDS epidemic, which in some cases not only destroys, but also sometimes turns males to deny their gay brotherhood even as they carelessly infect one another.

You may feel a certain ambivalence as you follow Dean down the mean streets; you know that Dean’s vindication will only result from vengeance and mayhem but his actions will also prove his ultimate moral destruction. Some more enlightened souls may yearn for a calmer, more serene resignation and “cure”. But I suspect that you will not be indifferent.

NOTE:

Author James Robert Baker passed away in 1997 before final revisions on the manuscript were made. Scott Brassert did some minor editing with participation of Baker’s long-time companion, Ron Robertson.

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