Camptown Ladies
Mari SanGiovanni’s, "Camptown Ladies," answers the question, "What do you get when you give a New England campground to a boisterous, hugely gay Italian family?" Mari SanGiovanni answers in a series of mishaps and adventures that include torturing a Drag Queen-phobic father in P-Town and driving a brother and sister team to fall for the same headstrong carpenter. In a strange twist of plot, this carpenter leads the Santora family to salvation in a similar manner as a certain Son of God.
Santora family is chock full of Italian family stereotypes: jovial, food inhaling, tempered, self-centered. The family flowers with inflated, larger than life personalities- except for Marie (surely, a not-so-clever subterfuge at SanGiovanni’s own first name). In comparison, Marie is down to earth and mousey. Her sister, Lisa, is outspoken to extremes and has severe boundary issues; her brother Vince is a clueless pushover and has recently split from Erica, Marie’s love interest. Marie and Erica are doomed lovers. Marie is a sworn lesbian disinterested in a bi-curious romp. Recently gay Erica is convinced that Marie is the one for her. All this occurs amid tent pitching twinks lip-synching to the 80’s around a campfire, feather boas flying.
Despite massive plot holes through which one could drive large artillery vehicles and still have room for wheelies, "Camptown Ladies" is devoted to giving the reader a good time. SanGiovanni makes it very clear that she writes for the ladies, all of the ladies: the gay, the straight, the horny or sad. SanGiovanni loves us all and wants us to love her... writing. She’ll make you laugh, and sigh and just when you’re vulnerable she hits you with a hot love scene. She’s devoted to her audience and in turn, you’ll be devoted through the last page.
"Camptown Ladies"
Mari SanGiovanni
Bywater Books
$14.95
by Mari SanGiovanni
