Tim and Pete
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 First edition | |
| Author | James Robert Baker |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Gay love, drug use, AIDS activism, homophobia, radical gay terrorism |
| Genre | Gay romantic suspense thriller |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster (1993),[1] Penguin Books (1994),[2] Ringpull (1995),[3] Fourth Estate (1996),[4] Alyson Books (2001)[5][6] |
Publication date | 1993 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 |
| ISBN | 978-0-671-79184-1 |
| Preceded by | Boy Wonder (novel) |
| Followed by | Right Wing (1996, only published on the Internet) |
Tim and Pete is the third novel written by James Robert Baker (1946–1997), an American author of sharply satirical, predominantly gay-themed transgressive fiction.[7][8][9] A native Californian, his work is set almost entirely in Southern California. After graduating from UCLA, he began his career as a screenwriter, but became disillusioned and started writing novels instead.[10] Though he garnered fame for his books Fuel-Injected Dreams and Boy Wonder, after the controversy surrounding publication of his novel, Tim and Pete, he faced increasing difficulty having his work published.[11] According to his boyfriend, this was a contributing factor in his suicide. Baker's work has achieved cult status in the years since his death, and two additional novels have been posthumously published.[12][13] As of 2006[update], first editions of Adrenaline, Boy Wonder, Fuel-Injected Dreams and Tim and Pete have become collector's items and command high prices at rare book stores.[14][15] First-edition copies of his earlier works have become collector's items.
Adrenaline was published in 1985 under the pseudonym James Dillinger.[16] A story of two gay fugitive lovers on the run, it presaged the satire and drug fueled violence so prominent in his later books.[17] Here Baker began developing the themes that dominated his following works: anarchy; angry and somewhat paranoid gay men; the dark underside of Los Angeles, juxtaposed with its sunny outward image;[18] the hypocrisy of organized religion; anonymous sex and its implications in the age of AIDS; and homophobia and the oppression of gays in a Republican dominated America.[19][20] Its plot device of underdog characters forced into flight due to circumstances beyond their control was one Baker explored in all of his subsequent work. James noted "Baker had many issues with the world at large, homophobic cops and preachers along with closeted Hollywood moguls, in particular, and he was able to find satisfaction in his novels that he could not find in real life" stemming from "pent up anger at the homophobic America at elected Ronald Reagan twice and sat by clucking their teeth while so many gay men died of AIDS."[21] Gay Community News noted "he has an eye for the absurd, the quixotic, and the downright existential in pop culture".[6]
Two former gay lovers, Pete, and the narrator of the novel Tim, are reunited when Tim needs a ride back to Los Angeles.[22] They go on a surreal adventure over the next day-and-a-half, most of it in cars, with memories of the last twenty years, including tea rooms and bathhouses, increasingly enraging them at the AIDS pandemic destruction.[22][23][24] Sleep deprived, using gallows humor and self-medicating with mescaline-spiked drinks they travel through an increasingly hostile environment meeting a bizarre and queer cast of supporting characters who fuel undercurrent rage at society's homophobia and the LGBT community's apathy.[25][26] They meet an occult-obsessed indie filmmaker, leather-dykes,[27] a Southern belle drag queen and then four anarchistic gays who are HIV-positive.[25] The quartet reflect the hopelessness felt as their friends die and the country does little to counteract a "gay" disease.[24][28] They hope to win the cultural war by assassinating ex-President Ronald Reagan, who did little for the first four years of growing HIV-AIDS epidemic,[29] by bombing him at a church service.[30] Tim and Pete convince the plotters to change targets to a meeting of the American Family Association, a group known for its anti-LGBT rhetoric that led to the failed response to AIDS, where there would be fewer "innocent" victims.[31]
