The IQ Zoo

Ian C. Nelson is Assistant Director of Libraries, University of
Saskatchewan; and Director, Saskatoon Gateway Plays, Regina Summer
Stage, and La Troupe du Jour.

The loss of Peter McGehee to AIDS in 1991 was certainly felt by a North
American audience just beginning to appreciate his developing literary
talents and looking forward to both his winsome humor and his eclectic
subjects. He planted himself clearly in the mainstream of new gay
fiction, often with an autobiographical resonance. And his personal
resonance was a peculiar Arkansas down-homeness that wafted through
Saskatoon and was finally transplanted in Toronto.

This collection of stories is typical of McGehee’s sensibilities and
strengths. He tends to the short, pithy job of observation, filled with
natural, spontaneous humor and declaring life even in the face of death.
His style is not unlike Armistead Maupin’s, his characters not unlike
Paul Zindel’s, and his verbal savor not unlike Michel Tremblay’s.
His characters evoke the bittersweet because they embrace with fervor
the lifestyle with which they are blessed. According to McGehee, life
itself is a blessing, even when fragile bones almost show beneath
translucent flesh. We are only too aware that life is dealing these
characters short, that mainstream society is too often unforgiving and
uncomprehending. But anyone who reads any one of McGehee’s books or
the stories presented here is bound to be drawn into his winsome world
and charmed into understanding courage in the face of grim realities. As
with the best of short stories, readers will be at once satisfied and
left wanting more. Alas, McGehee’s life was cut short and we are left
with a small body of work to read and reread with regret for promise
stopped in mid-flight.