The P-town Chronicler Checks In

Jacob Z. Flores, author of three light, frothy P-town gay romances, takes on bears and bear culture in his latest, When Love Gets Hairy.  In his first two novels, Flores made Provincetown sound pretty formidable with hordes of randy gay guys roaming the sidewalks and beaches searching for Mr. Right, but imagining the same scene with bears, who take up a lot more space, becomes nearly frightening.

Fortunately, the bear of note, Teddy--bad jokes, Mr. Flores, ugh!--is too nice and kind to be scary.  His romance counterpart, non-bear Nino, however, is a little more challenging to like.  And the love of Teddy's life is about as deep and likable as a sidewalk puddle.

But no matter.  Flores isn't going for an in-depth psychological study of his gay men, especially in P-town where fun and anonymous sex are the names of the game.  It's the time of year to let one's hair down and during Bear Week, there's a lot of hair around.