In Ethan Mordden's novel, Some Men Are Lookers, the family is made up of narrator Bud and his best friend Dennis Savage's lovers and friends in East Manhattan.
This may be a collection of short stories rather than a novel; the main characters are the same in each story but their adventures are broken up into one-chapter episodes, each with a situation comedy beginning, middle and end.
Perhaps the most interesting story line, "Jeopardy" involves the dramatic coming out of uptight Peter Keene. When Peter discovers his real sexual identity at the feet of the outrageously beautiful midnight cowboy, Carlo, he becomes an over the top "stylish" cruiser, refining his techniques to seduce mostly straight men. If I can become gay, he reasons, then the whole world must be gay. When Cosgrove, Bud's lover, worries about Peter's out of control behavior he wonders if Peter might bring "tension into the family". Bud asks "What family?" Cosgrove responds, "This".
Indeed, Bud and Dennis refer to their lovers as "the kids". Virgil and Cosgrove cause more than a fair share of parental headaches to their middle-age lovers as they engage in childish pranks and high jinx.
Bud is in a dilemma when Peter's boyfriend comes to him for advice.
Konstatin is a Russian immigrant with a wife and two young children; the hunky construction worker is torn between his loyalty toward them and his passion to explore the delights of gay sex...and Peter. Bud is also conflicted; he has a bias toward the superiority of his gay family and a moral reluctance to break up the heterosexual alliance.
The integrity of the "family" is further threatened when one of "the boys" runs off with a cynical agent who promises him fame in the Broadway cabaret scene.
Despite the seeming vapidity of the protagonists, despite the fact that they spend their nights at elegant dinner parties exchanging witty ripostes, on some level they reveal feelings and soul. For those infrequent revelations, we return our sympathy.
Some Men Are Lookers by Ethan Mordden, 1999, ISBN 0-312-15660X, St Martin's Press, New York.
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