FRUIT COCKTAIL
FEBRUARY 2008

Bay Area Reporter
Copyright © 2006 Bay Area Reporter, a division of Benro Enterprises, Inc.

Ambrosia for men
by Jim Piechota

Curtis Jenkins, that wacky, HIV-positive, middle-aged, unlucky-in-love, natural-born homo from Arthur Wooten's debut On Picking Fruit, returns with more Manhattan high jinx in a sequel that surpasses the first book in laughs, substance and plot.

Right from the opening pages of Fruit Cocktail, Curtis is in a major panic; he's a cowering pile of 45-year-old insecurity busily questioning his talent as a writer. Is the hoopla surrounding his latest nonfiction offering, 101 Ways to Collide into Your Gay Soul Mate, largely undeserved? How can he help other men find their soulmates when he still considers himself Miss Lonely Hearts? Over the course of a nationwide book tour, Curtis' wild, unhappily single life plays out during the nonstop interviews, signings, and book parties he must attend, the toast of the town at each event. Flirtations garner him the attentions of many cute boys, but where is his one true love? Along for the ride is Curtis' bossy 65-year-old mother, who is "more effective than any marketing strategy," and who not only outs herself as bisexual, but still finds it appropriate to wear backless cocktail dresses. Also in tow are his oversexed best buddy Quinn and his editor Darcie, who overbooks the increasingly ragged author into engagement after engagement. Highlights include a trip to gay square-dancing, searching for his perineum at nude yoga, a trip to Provincetown during Cross-Dressing Weekend, and his mother's lesbian wedding in San Francisco. Only Wooten could turn a precautionary colonoscopy into sidesplitting comedy. Even the funeral of Magda Tunick, a focal character from Wooten's debut, provides an opportunity for husband-hunting as Curtis finds half-Mexican, half-Welsh priest Father Greg a worthy candidate. He also meets Magda's Latvian sister Petra, a psychic visionary with a "bundle of orange energy" who spins Curtis into a dramatic frenzy at every turn, then reads his Tarot cards.

At times, Curtis' snarky, sarcastic attitude sabotages the author's efforts to garner sympathy for his main character's single-man plight. Bitchy queens are single for a reason. But ultimately, Curtis remains a fully-formed, funny, and affecting contemporary gay man in search of his soulmate.

Wooten has a three-book deal with Alyson, so Curtis Jenkins just might rear his finely-coiffed head up for one final curtain call. Or not. Either way, Wooten is a modern master of self-promotion and a model for anyone looking to write, market, and profit from their own gay novel. With such self-propelled ambition, can the Hollywood adaptations of the Fruit series be far behind?

Wooten reads from and signs Fruit Cocktail at A Different Light Bookstore, 489 Castro St., SF, on Wed., Feb. 13 at 8 p.m.

Click here to view the review at the Bay Area Reporter

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Fruit Cocktail
January 2008

Review by Mark Peikert
HX Magazine - NYC

"Yay! Curtis Jenkins is back, after winning our hearts in Wooten's On Picking Fruit. Now Jenkins has hit the big-time with a best-seller, not that everything's sunshine and lollipops. His tornado of a mom is bi, he gets lured into a nude yoga retreat and he's dating a priest. Still hilarious, here's to many more Jenkins adventures!"

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Fruit Cocktail
January 2008

Review by Ralph Higgins
Wayves Newspaper - Canada - Nationally

It is in On Picking Fruit, Arthur Wooten's very successful first novel that we first meet Curtis Jenkins, a rather hapless forty-something, HIV positive hero who has achieved success in many areas of his life but whose search for love continually bumps into walls. Curtis' most admirable traits are his relentless pursuit of happiness and his ability to laugh at himself when he fails, over and over again. Aiding and interfering are his best friend, Quinn and his free loving but rather domineering mother, Mrs. J.

His latest novel, Fruit Cocktail, continues the hilarious adventures of Curtis who has now written a book on how to find Mr. Right- all the time hiding the fact that he himself is still single. While publicizing the book, Curtis tries new ways of meeting his soul mate: naked yoga, online meetings and flirting with customers at book signings. His record of success, however, remains the same including one scene where he has to be rescued by his mother from a bondage scenario. His rather worldly mother merely reminds him, "If you're going to get tied up, always make sure it is at their place. That way they have to untie you eventually."

Wooten manages to combine great compassion and humour together. We laugh with Curtis and empathize with his predicament. In fact, some scenes seem so familiar you might suspect the author of snooping through your private diary. Others are outrageously outlandish: Quinn and a truck driver having a very unusual one-handed race to the finish on the interstate, an appearance that turns into a telethon for a live cable program with a personality called Bobbie Vibrato, Curtis' mother's same sex romance, and Curtis doing the Can Can in drag in Provincetown (forgetting he wasn't wearing underwear.)

Fruit Cocktail will make you smile, cheer and laugh out loud.
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JC Parrish - Review of Fruit Cocktail:

Novelist Arthur Wooten has returned with a sequel to his bestseller On Picking Fruit. Fruit Cocktail is the further adventures of Curtis Jenkins. Still looking for his soulmate, Curtis has written a book for those seeking love and it gets him a roller coaster ride through some of the funniest, and most touching, moments in his life. From an appearance on a TV talk show to a gay cruise, we get to go along with Curtis on this journey. Also along for the ride are his best friend Quinn and his no-nonsense mother, Mrs. J. Readers fell in love with all these characters in On Picking Fruit and happily the gallop through their lives continues in style. Sequels are not always up to snuff, and writers usually agonize while writing them, but Arthur Wooten is right at home here and you know it as Fruit Cocktail unfolds. This is one sequel that stands the test of the original without difficulty. Mr. Wooten has turned Fruit Cocktail into haute cuisine.

Click here to read Curled Up With A Good Book's complete review of On Picking Fruit.

"On Picking Fruit...sweetly satirical debut novel...bubbly comedy of manners... A true New York story...Wooten's slight, genteel style and his manner of humanizing even the most bizarre incidences make On Picking Fruit an enjoyable read and a witty and rather self-deprecatory adventure of the trials and tribulations of gay dating.

Ralph Higgins 6/1/2007 Review/Interview On Picking Fruit

Fruit Pickers?

By Ralph Higgins

When Ethel Merman first trumpeted "You Can't Get A Man With A Gun", she was adding to an already long list of failed techniques tried by those seeking Mr. Right. Most of us can contribute from our own experience other ure-fire methods of not getting the man; and many of them will be found in the pages of On Picking Fruit, the hilarious novel by Arthur Wooten. Curtis, the somewhat hapless hero of the story is eager, not to say desperate, to find a man, someone loving, kind and sexy to be part of his life. With the aid of a shrink, the enigmatic yet maternal, Dr. Tunick, he embarks on a campaign to find his mate. Curtis has a lot going for him; he's bright, successful, fit, and fun and yet his tactics in seeking love seem composed more of enthusiasm than skill. His best friend, Quinn (a soap opera writer) and his mother are constant companions in Curtis' voyage, more than happy to lend their advice, criticism and commentary at every stage. I spoke with Arthur Wooten and asked him about the origins of the story.

Outlooks: First of all, the boring, but necessary question: How much of Arthur is there in Curtis?

Wooten: Let's put it this way, I call On Picking Fruit "autobiofictional". But Curtis and I are very different. He's never been in a relationship and I've been in three long-term relationships. And Curtis is much more of a prude than me and a bit neurotic. But I hope I'm as funny as he is. I'd venture to say that I'm more like Mrs.J. or even Dr.Magda Tunick.

Outlooks: Ah,yes...Dr.Magda and her famous technique.

Wooten: The Tunick Technique is basically creatively visualizing what you want. But not just wishing for it. Seeing it. Feeling it. Owning it. Nothing exists before it's a thought first.It's the same for writing a book or meeting another person.

Outlooks: And where are you,Arthur,in the quest?

Wooten: My most recent relationship, which lasted ten years, ended a few years back. We're still best if not better friends now but ...I'M SINGLE! Actually, I've been focusing on the book,its promotion and its sequel,Fruit Cocktail,which comes out November 2007 and not dating much. Know any single, sexy, smart supermen with a sense of humor?

Outlooks: Besides me, you mean?

Wooten: (laughs)

Outlooks: I would like to say hooray for having a middle-aged main character. Was that a conscious choice?

Wooten: Oh,it was a very conscious choice.It's a voice we never hear in gay fiction.I didn't want to write about young angst or sexual confusion. This is a man who is totally comfortable with being gay, he just hasn't figured out how to open up his heart and mind to let his other half in. But,it may also be,and this is okay too, that Curtis really doesn't want to be in a relationship. If that's true, he just hasn't figured that out yet.

Outlooks: The character of Quinn is really the perfect balance for Curtis. While Quinn is in some ways the more superficial; back waxing, eyelash dying, doing the Hollywood scene, et cetera - he is also a very pragmatic, realistic type too.

Wooten: Ralph, you're so smart! As shallow and flustered and self-absorbed as he is,he's Curtis' voice of reason. Quinn's brain works on a very base level, hence, he really doesn't complicate his thinking process.

Outlooks: Curtis,by contrast,is sometimes so idealistic and rigid.

Wooten: Yes. Curtis has very high expectations, but at the same time he'll drown himself in questions and doubt, resulting sometimes in inertia. Or a great man might bump into him and he over thinks or judges him so quickly that they guy will pass Curtis by.

Outlooks: Curtis is HIV positive,which adds an extra urgency, perhaps to his search?

Wooten: I don't see the HIV storyline as an urgency for Curtis, he'll be around for a long time, but I did want to write a book about a person with the virus and show that he is living a vital, creative life and contributing to society. He's not the type of person who would cash in on disability when he's absolutely healthy. I also wanted to show, not preach, that there are still a lot of uneducated people out there in regard to HIV and that Curtis unfortunately meets a few.

Outlooks: Mrs.J, Curtis' mother is like a cheerleader for PFLAG; brassy, over the top, protective...sort of June Cleaver as a fag hag...yet, in a way, she holds Curtis back.

Wooten: Funny! Mrs. J. is a complicated character. She loves her son fiercely and would kill for him. In fact,she almost does twice in the book! But she's a party girl and wants to hang out with Curtis. And let's face it, she's self-centered and has very little tact. What she thinks, she says, especially to her son. I'd venture to say that she'd like Curtis to stay single. A partner might cramp her style or at the very least, make her jealous.

Outlooks: Tell me something about Arthur Wooten; how does a nice man like you end up in a novel like this?

Wooten: Having smart cocktails with friends, both gay and straight, we were laughing one night with tears streaming down our cheeks over each other's dating horror stories. Every name in On Picking Fruit has been changed to convict the guilty. But there is one date in the book that actually happened to me almost word for word. Maybe if one of your readers can guess it correctly, we can have a date?

Outlooks: And now the story is coming to television,right?

Wooten: It's so exciting and yet,because it's in pre-production, I truly don't want to jinx anything. I can tell you that I'm staying on as creator/producer/writer. Yay! It's a long process but we are at the stage now where we are deciding where it will air.

Outlooks:I look forward to the sequel of the book,and the TV series. Thanks for talking with us.

Wooten: A great pleasure.

There is a sort of genius in Wooten's ability to take common experience (you'll swear the author lifted passages directly out of your secret diary) and making Curtis' struggles uproariously funny and yet not ridiculous. There is a lot of forgiveness and self-acceptance in this book. It shows that part of la condition humane is to strive and fail,and there is comfort in that. Actions taken for all the right reasons sometimes achieve an undesirable end and there are many wonderful people starving for love and still going to bed hungry. In short, Curtis' tale is a story most of us have lived. For more information visit: Ralph Higgins is a writer, columnist and book/movie reviewer living in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia.

HX Magazine

HX Magazine - New York City
Jan 20, 2007

There are two schools of thought regarding dating: Quantity over quality and the elusive hope that somewhere, in the debris of New Yorkers, there's the one who gets you. Wooten falls firmly in the latter category, despite an endless stream of losers. From creepy guys online to humiliating beach sex, this is the great gay memoir you always wanted to write.
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On Picking Fruit
Review - Ethan Boatner - Feb 7, 2007
Lavender Magazine - Minn., MN

In the light of our own wrong, no, not just wrong, but egregiously, Greek tragically wrong choices in men, it is pleasing to read of another's humiliating experiences.

Arthur Wooten has penned a painful, horrifying and very funny portrait of Curtis Jenkins, who, in addition to a cursed love life, is burdened with a helpful mom who would make PFLAGgers wince.

One example: She points out a live one during a Hell's Kitchen bar crawl. Dutifully hooking up, Curtis soon finds himself sequestered with Bartlett, the "self-appointed, unofficial president of Liza's online fan club," in his suffocating trailer in the Hamptons. Curtis lasts until Bartlett, fully be-Liza'ed, lurches out of his boudoir cooing, "Come to me, Curtis, come make love to Liza."

Wooten is relentlessly funny, and, as schadenfreude-driven as we might be, we cheer when a ray of hope finally shines on our hero. If it can't strike us, it may as well illuminate a deserving guy like Curtis.
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BAY AREA REPORTER - San Francisco
Book Review
by: Jim Piechota Feb 1, 2007

NATURAL SELECTION

Arthur Wooten has produced an appealing, campy debut novel, well-balanced with equal parts humor and heart. Brought to you by an author with a veritable black belt in marketing, the story details the humorous, melodramatic life of Curtis Jenkins, a gay, Manhattan-based writer and speed-typist who, at 45, is looking for love from the downhill-side of middle-age, guided by a therapist named Magda, a spastic best friend, and a co-dependent mother---all seemingly straight out of Central Casting.

Curtis is the type of man who spent summers getting himself off into the cup-holder of a rubber raft or between the living room couch cushions, so, as an adult, his love life is undoubtedly bleak. Problems d'amour, there's plenty. Following his therapist's advice, Curtis is instructed to date a minimum of one new man per week, which provides ample opportunity for the author to march a multi-colored procession of psychic, high-maintenance gym bunnies, Internet chatroom crazies, and soft-hearted sensitive types into Curtis'life. Adding to all of that, our unattached hero is poz and many of his ill-fated encounters involve inexplicably naïve men for whom HIV is an anomaly, an inexplicable urban legend, one of those things that only happens to other people.

Aside from an obsession with butts, pecs, and veiny forearms, the scenes that stand out involve Curtis'mother, a woman who is no fashion plate lounging in a "lime-green halter top, coordinated madras clamdiggers, and espadrilles". Their barhopping, man-hunting excursions are hilarious and one in particular turns Hell's Kitchen on its ear. Though, as the calamities begin to pile up, things begin to look hopeless for Curtis and his search for "someone of substance and quality".

Wooten's first novel is slapstick, shtick-y, frivolous fun; whether that fun amounts to well-meaning, routine homo silliness or fluff with a conscience, at least it never pretends to be something it's not.

Side note: if you're a frustrated novelist yourself, this novel's genesis is a great example of promotion in motion since it was originally self-published a year earlier, but Wooten, a savvy, relentless self-promoter, caught publishers' attention by simply putting his heart and soul into getting the word out. Unpublished gay authors, take heed: It's all about hard work and believing in what you're doing---if this book can wind up basking under the fluorescence of bookstore lights, so can yours.