Author Description

For an HIV-positive gay man like Dennis Bacchus, living an active life in early 1990s San Francisco, life was a race against time. New friends were made as quickly as old ones died; it was exhausting, exhilarating and some choices made because, well, why not? Dennis and Jimmy became friends that way until a drug break-through changed everything - an imminent end was no longer certain.</p><br></p>With the reprieve, Dennis travels. In France, a chance train encounter introduces Isabelle, a free-living young woman whose presence shakes up his world. On another journey, with Jimmy and Isabelle, Vancouver and Alaska are included. Inspired to become a Catholic priest, Dennis learns to balance his dual life as a celibate gay man and a Jesuit seminarian, teaching in Minneapolis and ministering to AIDS patients in Santa Clara.</p><br></p>The Boom Economy covers what was supposed to be the last decade of Dennis Bacchus' life, but turns out to be the first decade of the rest of it. It's a novel about conversion - all of the social, spiritual, and emotional problems of changing from one life to another.</p><p><br></p><p>The third of Brian Bouldrey's exquisitely wise, tender and witty novels, it was first published in 2003. Brad Craft provides a foreword to the new edition.</p><p><br></p><p>"Bouldrey's diverse and colorful cast of characters, his keen depiction of the complexities of people's psyches, and his deft mixture of the comic and the serious make for a wonderfully rich read. His theme - that love is always risky, no matter what your situation - is beautifully explored in this smart, sensual, and savvy novel." - Phillip Gambone, Out Magazine</p><p><br></p><p>"Bouldrey's prose is crisp and elegant. He has a gift for using small details and seemingly unlikely events to illuminate his story-line and his characterizations. He also employs poetry, namely the verses that Dennis scribbles in his notebook, to provide a look into the nascent priest's restless psyche. The Boom Eco