From Publishers Weekly
Unusually touching, this comics memoir presents the beginnings of an unlikely but loving relationship between Delany (Times Square Red, Forecasts, May 31), a distinguished African-American novelist, essayist and professor, and Dennis, a white homeless man barely scraping by on the streets of Manhattan. Delany first notices Dennis, grime-covered and clad in filthy clothes, around his Upper West Side neighborhood selling used books on the street, his possessions packed in a shopping cart. But beneath the dirt and stink, Dennis is funny, honest and caringAand, like Delany, he is gay. Before long, Delany invites him to share a motel room and then (after much consideration by both of them) to visit him in Massachusetts, where Delany teaches. Told simply and methodically like Delany's 1996 memoir, The Motion of Light in Water, the story is subdued yet acutely emotional. It reaches across the boundaries of race and classAas well as across hilariously opposed standards of personal hygieneAto capture two people in the process of building a life together. Wolff's b&w drawings are awkward, even crudely rendered, but they manage to convey the sincerity and candor of a delightful and eccentric urban love story. (July) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Edmund White, author of The Farewell Symphony
Samuel R. Delany breaks all the taboos in Bread & Wine-sex with the homeless; male homosexuality in the home with a teenage daughter under the same roof; interracial love in a period of growing racial isolation; a cheerful disregard for physical filth in a nation that has raised hygiene to the level of sterility. The comic strip illustrations by Mia Wolff add just the right fairy-tale atmosphere to this improbable tale of true love. How Jean Genet would have loved it!
Neil Gaiman, author of Sandman and Neverwhere
Samuel R. Delany is one of the finest living American writers. In this revealing autobiographical love story, told in collaboration with fine artist Mia Wolff, Delanys brilliance shines. Its filthy and earthy and beautiful, like an orchid in a gutter; it tells you more than you wanted to know, and makes you glad it did.
Frank Miller, author of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City
Wildly eccentric artwork, a storyline that'd make Capote blush...Bread & Wine is smoking-gun proof that comics can go anywhere-and do anything.
Howard Cruse, author of Stuck Rubber Baby
A lot of malodorous prejudices that still lurk in your psychic crawlspaces will have a tough time surviving if you let Delany and Wolffs surprisingly gentle reminiscence have its way with you.
Bread and Wine: An Erotic Tale of New York FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Bread and Wine" is a sensitively drawn graphic novella about the beginning of a moving and lasting gay relationship, with all the complexities, fumblings, and excitement of the process of two people falling in love. Illustrations throughout. Size D. 64 pp. 5,000 print.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Unusually touching, this comics memoir presents the beginnings of an unlikely but loving relationship between Delany (Times Square Red, Forecasts, May 31), a distinguished African-American novelist, essayist and professor, and Dennis, a white homeless man barely scraping by on the streets of Manhattan. Delany first notices Dennis, grime-covered and clad in filthy clothes, around his Upper West Side neighborhood selling used books on the street, his possessions packed in a shopping cart. But beneath the dirt and stink, Dennis is funny, honest and caring--and, like Delany, he is gay. Before long, Delany invites him to share a motel room and then (after much consideration by both of them) to visit him in Massachusetts, where Delany teaches. Told simply and methodically like Delany's 1996 memoir, The Motion of Light in Water, the story is subdued yet acutely emotional. It reaches across the boundaries of race and class--as well as across hilariously opposed standards of personal hygiene--to capture two people in the process of building a life together. Wolff's b&w drawings are awkward, even crudely rendered, but they manage to convey the sincerity and candor of a delightful and eccentric urban love story. (July) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Art & Photography
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