Unspeakable Horror!

Make sure to read the novel before reading my analysis! 

Steve Berman's Vintage is an excellent example of the Queer Horror genre, aligning queer anxieties and issues with a paranormal underworld.  The title refers both to the vintage clothing store where our protagonist works and the homophobic past of the 1950s.  Just as the ghost from the '50s haunts the present, so does the homophobia that drives the protagonist from his home, forcing him to live with his sympathetic and progressive aunt.  As the title suggests, the relationship between the past and present is an integral component of the novel.  The vintage clothing shop serves as the bridge between the past and the present, owned by a key character in the '50s storyline that our narrator has to uncover, and the clothing store also serves as the setting for the seance that allows the protagonist to travel back in time (in a spiritual vision) to resolve the restless conflicts that are haunting the present. 

Interestingly enough, there is a Sixth Sense subtext at work here in the novel.  Like the boy in that film, the narrator in Vintage has a special ability to "see dead people."  This psychic ability becomes another component of the narrator's queer difference.  In the film, the psychic "difference" of the boy resembles the difficulties of queer adolescence that many gay boys experience.  Like Cole Sear, our narrator encounters lost spirits who need help in order to find peace.  In Vintage, the queer identity conflict of the primary ghost runs parallel to the protagonist's struggle.

The narrator of this novel comes to life in a vivid and full-bodied way.  The literary creation of an "adolescent" narrator (the narrator is 17) is a feat not to be underestimated, and Steve Berman has definitely succeeded. 

The ghost is also a unique creation, at once sympathetic and creepy, a product of his closeted identity and the violently homophobic culture of the '50s.   

The idea of the past coming back to haunt the future is a central and effective component of storytelling about ghosts and hauntings.  Berman weaves the issue of homophobia and intolerance into this tradition seamlessly.  Interestingly, when the narrator succeeds in exorcising the ghost, he also succeeds in resolving his relationship with his aunt by coming out of the closet (even though she already knows) and simultaneously "coming out" with his relationship with a very young boy.  The conclusion of the novel sees a resolution of the supernatural and the creation of a new family unit for the protagonist that includes his aunt, his best friend, and his super-young boyfriend, which also suggests that perhaps the narrator can help young Mike through his coming-of-age with much less trauma than the narrator experienced himself. 

Berman brings a new element to the tradition of the ghost story: sex with a ghost.  After I read the passage in which the narrator has "sex" with the ghost from the '50s, I put the book down and knew I had just encountered a rare moment of total originality, which is a major accomplishment.  The best way to describe this sex scene is heart fucking: the ghost reaches into the narrator's chest and massages the heart, and the description bears similarities to the pain, pleasure, and penetration of anal sex with a chilling edge -- thrilling, sexy, and creepy all at once.  Wow.