Imaginary Boyfriends - by Manuel Igrejas (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In Hassan and Sylvia, a former boy toy navigates a new world after the loss of his longtime lover. He meets a glamorous, mysterious couple, Hassan, a handsome young Moroccan and Sylvia, an elegant older woman. In Tiago, My Love, Joe, a lonely middle-aged restaurant supply salesman wins a trip to Lisbon, Portugal where he stumbles up Lisbon's joyous Gay Pride celebration and falls in love with his handsome, unhappily married tour guide. Lovey is the upper half of a beautiful, bald mannequin " Ribs" finds in a garbage can as he drives the recycling truck for his town. She becomes his companion, confidante, and sometimes judge. Inside Chateau Arbogast finds Ribs in a new job as a bartender at an ornate catering hall. With Lovey still his companion he connects with a series of younger boyfriends and discovers the wholesome charms of the local gay sauna. In Egghead Payne two boys, one black, one white, have their unlikely friendship tested in the tense, pre-riots Newark of the early sixties where the adults are as dangerous as the streets. In The Little Trooper Frank is a gay police officer in suburban New Jersey who meets Ed, a handsome gym teacher, at a bathhouse Christmas night, 1978. The story tracks their passionate, unlikely relationship in the sexually charged time before AIDs, when there were few rules and fewer limits. Brett, an actor, gets a temp job at a financial magazine in Madam Cluzet. His tough, stylish boss confesses her big secret: she is married to a famous French actor while Brett struggles to hold on to his partner who suffers from RDS (Restless Dick Syndrome). Inside the Show Business is the story Elijah, the lonely only child of Baptist ministers in Oxford, Mississippi. On a class trip to New York, he falls in love with the theater and gets a job as a publicist where he meets an untalented singer and her adorable piano player. " Imaginary Boyfriends is bursting with intoxicating characters and unforgettable stories, featuring gay men caught between their dreams and desires and their working-class lives and struggles to survive. With witty, handsome prose Igrejas transports us to bars, baths, beaches, businesses, and bedrooms where these clever fools search for passion and deeper emotional connections. A marvelous debut!" Jameson Currier, editor Chelsea Station, author Why Didn't Someone Warn Me About Prince Charming?

Review Quotes

A polished, theatrical performance of heartbreak, but one that never quite earns its encore. --Kirkus Reviews

Although the book feels uneven in some areas, with some stories stronger than others, there's not much room for improvement. Imaginary Boyfriends is a thoughtful and engaging read, sometimes sad, but also compassionate. If you enjoy character-driven stories and writing that explores honest feelings, this will make for great reading for you. --Reedsy

In his debut collection of short stories Imaginary Boyfriends, Newark native Manuel Igrejas explores the themes of dreams, desires and the struggle to survive through an intriguing cast of complex characters featuring gay men and their quest to attain their dreams and desires amidst their struggle to survive. The author's witty prose and unforgettable characters transport us to places across the Garden State. --Jersey's Best

Imaginary Boyfriends is bursting with intoxicating characters and unforgettable stories, featuring gay men caught between their dreams and desires and their working-class lives and struggles to survive. With witty, handsome prose Igrejas transports us to bars, baths, beaches, businesses, and bedrooms where these clever fools search for passion and deeper emotional connections. A marvelous debut! --Jameson Currier, editor Chelsea Station, author of Why Didn't Someone Warn Me About Prince Charming?

Manuel Igrejas' Imaginary Boyfriends is a stunning exploration of love, lust, and longing. The collection, brimming with humor and pathos, reminds us that well-told tales illuminate the depths of the human heart. Lovey, thestory of a man and the mannequin who gets him through his darkest hours, will make you laugh out loud while it breaks your heart. Igrejas's vivid characters will stay with you after the final page. --Liz Alterman, author of The Perfect Neighborhood.

What I love is that wild punch. the punch of Igrejas's descriptions--curly hair you have to "finger-fuck to get just right," a Frenchman whose body acts like a map of France itself--but, even more, that punch of sheer life delivered to each and every character. This eclectic cast of lost yet spirited souls never fails to dizzy us in turn, with their wit, their sympathetic histories, and most of all, their charisma, somehow never empty, yet always oozing out. Igrejas makes sure they slip on their spillage in all the best ways, leaving us the ones utterly knocked out. --Michael Narkunski, Playwright, essayist. Author of Bad Homos Have Macaroni Hearts.

The stories in Manuel Igrejas' Imaginary Boyfriends sneak up on you like a bracingly cold wind on a warm April day, catching us unawares and making us suddenly rethink our complacent, unquestioned comfort. Like Flannery O'Connor and Grace Paley, Igrejas writes about ordinary people with enormous inner lives, bursting with emotional vibrancy even as their material circumstances prevent them from going very far. His precise, emotionally fragile language transfigures details of the commonplace events in suburban New Jersey and environs into sublime portrayals of longing and heartache, resistance, and survival. --Michael Bronski, author of A Queer History of the United-States.

About the Author

Manuel Igrejas has worked on the railroad, driven a recycling truck, sold restaurant supplies, been an actor, bartender, and waiter, among other jobs.. His poems have been published and anthologized as have two of his short stories. Several of his plays have been produced in New York and garnered good reviews and a couple of prizes. He was a theatrical publicist for many years. If you've heard of Blue Man Group, he did his job. Imaginary Boyfriends is his first book. Visit www.mannyigrejas.com for more details.