The Extra Man

Read from Monday, August 15th to Wednesday, August 17th

The Extra Man, by Jonathan Ames.  This novel, the same one discussed in Wake Up, Sir, is the second I've read by Ames, the writer of HBO's Bored to Death.  It is a very funny, witty and dry, coming of age story in New York City in the early 1990's.  Louis Ives is a strange young man, an orphan, who fancies that he is a 'young gentleman' from the Victorian era, wearing jackets and reading classics.  He was a teacher in New Jersey until one day he saw a co-worker's bra and put it on and danced around the room.  His boss walked in on him, and he was let go.  Louis decided to try out New York City, and the only place he found to live was with an old eccentric, Henry Harrison.  

The story revolves around the relationship between these two men.  Henry is old, but fit, and he makes his living being 'the extra man' for old widows, who need a date to important events.  He does not get paid, just gets free meals.  Louis and Henry live in a squalid apartment, always dealing with money issues, car problems, and the strange habits of both men.  Louis gets a job as a salesman, but he also starts exploring his transvestite fetish: going to a specialty bar and taking "women" to their apartments on dates for money.  However, this is highly secretive for Louis, because Henry is very conservative and Catholic and highly disapproving of any of this behavior. 

Louis and Henry do develop a very strong friendship however, at times even potentially more than just friendship.  Louis misses Henry when he is not around, and is depressed when Henry goes to Florida for a few months in the winter.  Henry introduces Louis to the world of extra men, and they form a good team.  Eventually though, Louis gets reckless and goes to a woman whom he pays to dress him up completely as a woman, with makeup and everything.  He sees himself as a woman in the mirror, and the fetish suddenly evaporates.  He no longer has the compulsion to look like a woman anymore.  But still, he takes home one of these "women" to his apartment, since he believed Henry was out of town.  But Henry returns early, sees the two of them, and the two penises, and freaks out.  Louis sleeps on a bench, believing that he has been kicked out.  However, Henry reconciles with Louis the next morning, and the two of them resume their friendship in New York.

It is a funny story, and there is no real rising action or a major climax.  Much of the book is different stories about Louis and Henry, and the many eccentric things he says.  Henry is comparable to Don Quixote in his self-righteous madness, and Louis goes along with his master just like a good Sancho Panza.  The book has been made into a movie that I intend to watch soon.  Three and a half out of four stars.