Klein, Adam

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KLEIN, Adam

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: Attended the University of Iowa; San Francisco State University, M.A. (fiction writing).

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Serpent's Tail, 4 Black Stock Mews, London N4 2BT, England.

CAREER:

Writer, musician, composer. Worked as a caseworker, San Francisco, CA; Roman Evening, band member, 1999—; Peace Corps, Bangladesh, 2003—.

WRITINGS:

The Medicine Burns, Serpent's Tail (London, England), 1995.

(With Thomas Avena) Jerome: After the Pageant, Bastard Books (San Francisco, CA), 1996.

Tiny Ladies, Serpent's Tail (London, England), 2003.

Klein's stories have been published in various journals and magazines, including BOMB magazine, and in the anthology, Men on Men 5. As a composer, with Michael Mullen, Klein has released CDs, including Together Now (recorded with the band Roman Evening), 2001, Tiny Ladies, 2003, and Heaven Will Not Delay a Traveler, 2004.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

A novel, The Forks.

SIDELIGHTS:

Adam Klein is a writer and musician whose published books include a collection of short stories, The Medicine Burns, a monograph on artist Jerome Caya, Jerome: After the Pageant, and a novel, Tiny Ladies. A graduate of San Francisco State University's fiction program, Klein signed his first book contract above San Francisco's legendary City Lights bookshop.

Klein's short story collection, The Medicine Burns, is interconnected by a central narrative voice. Stories include "Club Feet," about the inexorable bond between mother and child as a result of an inherited deformity, "India," the story of a man with AIDS who escapes everyday reality, and the title tale, which deals with a gay adolescent's battle with acne and first love. Lambda Book Report reviewer, Raphael Kadushin thought that the stories in this collection "have a classical feel to them." Kadushin went on to note that the tales are "almost uniformly bleak," and that if there were "weak spots" among them, the book "more than compensates for these with some powerful, bittersweet stories," such as "Club Feet" and the "long seamless story titled 'India.'"

For Booklist contributor Whitney Scott, Klein's "strong stories limn the lives of people living on the fringes," and is a "strong addition to gay and lesbian literature." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly found the tales "brief slices of bitterness," and that Klein's "direct, economical language hammers these stories home with a single stroke." And a critic for Kirkus Reviews added more praise to this debut book, calling it "harrowing, and yet exquisite, unflinching, and compelling."

Klein next turned his hand to biography and art in his collaborative effort with Thomas Avena in documenting the work of San Francisco artist, Jerome Caya. "That book … was an enormous undertaking and a very emotional process," Klein told a contributor for Delusions of Adequacy. "Jerome was deteriorating from AIDS and went blind during the process." The book, Jerome: After the Pageant, was published a year after Caya's death from AIDS, and is, according to Eric Bryant, writing in Library Journal, a "surprisingly uplifting record of a talent brought down in his prime."

Klein is also a long-time musician, and in 1999 joined forces with the band Roman Evening, releasing a CD, Together Now, not long after. In 2003, he published his first novel, a story that utilizes some of his own experiences as a social worker in San Francisco. Tiny Ladies tells the story of Carrie, who has had a disastrous affair with one of the clients, Victor, whom she was serving as a caseworker in San Francisco. Now working in the Midwest, she is assigned Hannah as a client and finds new strength and optimism as a result. Carrie could use some strength, as she has made some bad choices in her life. Victor was one of these; he treated her badly and murdered a friend of hers. Sexually abused as a teenager and a former junkie, Carrie could use a social worker in her own life. As Hannah and Carrie grow closer, they realize how similar they are, both "burdened with a history of bad choices and lethal violence," according to a Kirkus Reviews contributor. This same reviewer found the book a "bold and worthwhile attempt," but also observed that there is "just simply too much of everything: sex, drugs, guilt, alienation, regret, anomie." For this critic, Klein's talents were better served in the short story. However, Daniel Mitchell, reviewing the novel in Ink 19, thought that the "suspense and latent desire in Tiny Ladies is masterful." Mitchell commended the "sexual tension" between Hannah and Carrie and also praised Klein's descriptive powers as "worthy of note." Mitchell concluded that the novel was a "well-written, interesting, and fascinating look at a side of life few of us ever experience." Klein also composed a set of songs to go with the book, released as the 2003 CD, Tiny Ladies, "an immediate, accessible pop record," according to Tim Whalley writing for Fakejazz.com.