Dean Monti’s The Monosexual is a timely and funny novel.
Dana Spiotta wrote of the book:
“The Monosexual is a funny, fast-paced, and engaging novel. The characters and the premise are zany and witty.”
In his own words, here is Dean Monti’s Book Notes music playlist for his novel The Monosexual:
Music and writing (and life) are all deeply interconnected for me. I used to spend all my free time at Tower Records (whose motto was “No Music, No Life”) and plenty of local Chicagoland indy record stores and eventually amassed an embarrassingly large collection of music on vinyl, cassette, and CD. I listen to many different styles from all across the musical spectrum and globe, including jazz, classic American and British rock, post-punk, Brazilian jazz, and Japanese techno (YMO) and the music has all informed my writing in one way or another. Jazz — and improvised music – has probably had the greatest impact on my writing flow, and I often use it for background music while working. Although I can’t play a lick of music, I feel the rhythms and music as words in my head as I write and typing is my instrument of choice. I recently read that it’s the same for Haruki Murakami. I start on vintage manual typewriters and move to clacky computer keyboards. I need that sound, that rhythmic tapping, so I can hear the rhythm of the narrative.
I’ve also been inspired by impassioned singing. Frank Sinatra, who looms large in THE MONOSEXUAL is chief among them – but also singers like Billie Holiday, Cat Stevens, Roberta Flack, and others who have a very distinct, emotive voice. I’m fascinated by the way a song can touch you so personally that you feel it is written just for you. Likewise, it may be a song that connects you to another person, as happens significantly in THE MONOSEXUAL
I put a lot of music in THE MONOSEXUAL. This playlist includes songs that occur in the book, as well as a lifetime of songs that inspired the emotions in the novel.
Frank Sinatra
“Under My Skin“
“Come Fly with Me (from Sinatra at the Sands)“
“Summer Wind“
“In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning“
Under My Skin is central to the story of THE MONOSEXUAL It sums up Vincent’s dilemma in multiple ways. He’s in love with Melissa, who has gotten under Vincent’s skin in the classic, longing, lovestruck way that Sinatra sings about it. Under My Skin is the Sinatra song that bonds him to Melissa, the song he associates most passionately with her. Just as Vincent feels he owns his odd identity, he also feels Under My Skin is a love song that “belongs” to him.
Additionally, Vincent also literally has a condition on and under his skin (sunburn) plaguing him at an inopportune time, so the song has an added meaning in the novel.
Flying has a significant part in THE MONOSEXUAL, but Vincent dreads air travel. To distract himself he recites the names of everyone in Count Basie’s orchestra for the Sinatra at the Sands album. As Vincent says, “it’s easier than thinking about flying.” Ironically, the first track on that album is “Come Fly with Me.”
“Summer Winds” is another Sinatra song I thought about as Vincent cruised back and forth along the California coastline in the rented red convertible. And “Wee Small Hours of the Morning” is most certainly a time when Vincent would be wide awake, ruminating about lost love.
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
“Rip, Rig, and Panic“
“There Will Never Be Another You“
A Rahsaan Roland Kirk tune provided the title of the first chapter of THE MONOSEXUAL. The jazz original “Rip, Rig, and Panic,” from 1965, lives up to its odd title. It begins with strange, mysterious, and atonal sounds, then pulls it all together, finds form and takes off. This chaos and retaining stasis is very much what Vincent is trying to do as he struggles with his memory in a hospital room bed. Rahsaan was blind, but undaunted as a multi-instrumentalist. He famously played three reed instruments at the same time. He was also as wild and wonderful as he has been inspirational. Kirk could also play fiery, lyrical and moving tenor sax, as he does on “There Will Never Be Another You,” a song that I think of when I think of this novel.
John Lennon
“Love (is Real)“
“Oh Yoko“
“Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out)“
I don’t think Yoko broke up the Beatles. But Yoko’s life, art, and music were so radically different and the antithesis of classic Beatles music, and it may be why John was so ready to embrace a joined-at-the-hip relationship with Yoko at a time when the very idea of being a Beatle was reaching a critical point. Whatever your opinion of Yoko, I included their love story in THE MONOSEXUAL because John’s love for Yoko was unique, profound, and produced a lot of memorable songs like Love (is Real) and Oh Yoko. In the mid-1970s — when John was experiencing his “lost weekend” separated from Yoko — he wrote “Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out” (mirroring the same desperation and isolation Vincent Cappellini feels without the love of his life). It was also a song Lennon thought might be good for Frank Sinatra, with its dolorous, introspective feel. I agree.
Roberta Flack: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face“
Carole King: “So Far Away“
The Fifth Dimension: “One Less Bell to Answer“
The Chi-Lites: “Have you Seen Her“
I’m always moved by songs that successfully evoke the deepest emotions of love intertwined with sadness and loss, and there were a lot of songs like these in the early 1970s that made a lasting impression on me. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is one of the most affecting vocal performances I can think of. Roberta Flack’s slow, searching rendition is hauntingly beautiful. The song was originally written in 1957, and lots of people covered it (unsuccessfully), but Roberta Flack killed it (softly) with her version. This love ballad charted to No. 1 for six weeks in 1972. The lyrics are, interestingly, in past tense. It’s not “whenever I see your face,” it’s remembering “that first time ever I saw your face.” The way it’s sung makes me think it may be describing something wonderful that has been lost. So Far Away, by Carole King is equally powerful in the way it evokes lost love. In King’s song, it’s clear that the love is frustratingly just out of reach “…doesn’t help to know that you’re just time away…” “One Less Bell to Answer” is another deeply moving, sad love/loss song, sung with aching emotion. I have to add “Have You Seen Her,” as well, because it’s another great, lonely love song.
All these early 1970s songs charted big and got a lot of radio play, which must mean a lot of broken hearts felt that pain. Being heartbroken not exclusive to anyone; it just feels like it when you’re feeling the pain.
“Private Conversations” by Lyle Lovett
In THE MONOSEXUAL, Paige, the new woman in Vincent’s life says “I love it,” but Vincent thinks she might be saying “Lyle Lovett.” Miscommunication makes for great conflict in stories and I try to make the most of it. In the song Private Conversations, Lovett first sings about a woman he left behind him who is “twenty streets away,” but later in the song she is “two thousand miles away.” Is it about emotional or geographical distance, or both?
And the following lines resonate with the plot of THE MONOSEXUAL about love, loss, and self-realization:
And the moral of this story
Is I guess it’s easier said than done
To look at what you’ve been through
And to see what you’ve become
I’m not sure Lovett was talking about true love or an illicit tryst in this song, but I’ll chose the interpretation that works best for me.
Cat Stevens
“The Wind“
“Sweet Scarlett“
“The Hurt“
Cat Stevens’ Teaser and the Firecat was the first album I owned in high school. I included The Wind in THE MONOSEXUAL because the song acts as soft, temporary balm over a tense situation. It also comes to mind because I first related to love and angst from listening to Cat Stevens records.
Sweet Scarlett is a Cat Stevens elegy for voice and piano, lamenting a lost love with a glass of red wine. Certain lyrics may suggest the woman in the song has died — which is another form of lost love and might apply to many sad love songs. But the repeated refrain, “Ah, but the song carries on,” suggests that the memory of this woman will live on through the song and the words, which is wonderfully poignant.
The Hurt is a classic Cat Steven anthem to sad, lost love, and it’s true that until I got hurt, I didn’t know what love was. I sense a tinge of bitterness in this song, which sometimes goes with the territory. Being aware of love’s fragility is an insight. And it’s a curse. You have to accept both.
“One Way Or Another” by Blondie
In THE MONOSEXUAL, Paige, the new woman in Vincent’s life, plays ‘80s music loud while they drive down the California coastline. One Way Or Another sounds to me like a fast highway driving kind of song. It’s also a metaphorical departure from Sinatra – maybe suggesting that – while Sinatra is great – there might be other songs and experiences worthy of Vincent’s attention. Paige’s revolving CD collection contains a bit of everything. But there’s a special kind of wind in your hair, GoGos/Cyndi Lauper/Deborah Harry energy in ‘80s music that Paige embodies.
“Baby I Need Your Loving” by The Four Tops
There are some perfectly good songs about love and sex that are so unambiguous that you can feel awkward when you are hearing them with someone you just met. You don’t want to hear Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On during a first date. Likewise, in THE MONOSEXUAL, Vincent doesn’t want to be caught singing or humming “Baby I Need Your Loving, got to have all your loving” when Paige is in the room because he thinks it might give her the wrong impression. And yes, maybe he tends to neurotically overthink these things.
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division
The Captain and Tenille had a chart-topping hit in 1975 with the cheerily optimistic “Love Will Keep Us Together.” The duo would later divorce. Love is complicated. In 1980, Ian Curtis and Joy Division recorded the beautiful but more sobering antithesis song “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” in response to a troubled relationship he was having on top of other personal problems, and it struck a chord with listeners. In 2002, New Music Express named “Love Will Tear Us Apart” as the greatest single of all time, and there are at least 168 cover versions of the song. As much as love songs can inspire romance, they can also effectively express the pain you feel when things go awry in a relationship. There will always be a place for sad love songs.
Miles Davis:
“Blue In Green” (Kind of Blue)
“Footprints” (Miles Smiles)
“Don’t Lose Your Mind” (Tutu)
In THE MONOSEXUAL, Paige’s oceanside apartment has a large, black and white, framed photo of Miles Davis taken at the time he released Tutu in 1986. I first saw this same giant photo in Tower Records in Chicago and it’s very imposing. It’s Miles, so it embodies cool, but Miles is also the Dark Prince, so there’s always an element of danger, which also mirrors Vincent’s predicament with Paige. I wanted that poster for myself but never found it at Tower again, and then Tower closed. So, I hung it inside my book for posterity.
Miles Davis’s music – across its many directions and decades of exploration — is huge for me. His creativity and restlessness, always seeking a new sound, reinventing himself at times, has always been inspiring to me as a writer. I listen to a lot of Miles while I write. Pretty ballads, straight ahead jazz, dark African jungle funk — there’s a Miles Davis album for every mood. My favorite Miles period is his second great quintet in the 1960s with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. Footprints (written by Shorter) has a searching and propulsive vibe that I like and associate with Vincent’s state of mind in THE MONOSEXUAL.
I feel like songs are often inexplicably commenting on the moment you are in. The Miles Davis tune Blue in Green from Kind of Blue comes up on Paige’s revolving playlist and feels oddly coincidental in the moment, when Vincent is about to have a sort of blue and green concoction rubbed on his body by Paige.
Charlie Parker
“Everything Happens to Me” (From Charlie Parker with Strings)
“If I Should Lose You” (from April in Paris)
I mostly listen to Charlie Parker’s early bebop music, particularly all those records with young Miles Davis, but I also listen to Charlie Parker with Strings quite a bit. There’s something that’s so lush, romantic, and moving about Bird’s saxophone playing on those records. These songs sound like they could be part of a soundtrack to a sad, sweet, romantic film of the past.
I picked Everything Happens to Me in THE MONOSEXUAL for one of the tunes in the revolving playlist in at Paige’s place because sometimes you feel everything is happening to you, and only you. And that certainly describes Vincent in the novel. And it’s another example of music coinciding with the moment. Another choice for this playlist is If I Should Lose You which has a similar emotional impact for me.
“I’ll Be Seeing You” by Billie Holiday
What can you say about Billie Holiday? With that unmistakable voice, it seems nearly all the songs I associate with her are tinged with sadness and loneliness. I’ll Be Seeing You in this song seems to say that while I may never physically see you again, I will forever see you in everything that exists.
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you.
Dean Martin
“Ain’t That a Kick in the Head“
“That’s Amore“
We end the playlist with a much-needed, upbeat note. A Dean Martin song appears late in THE MONOSEXUAL as a sign of hope, change, and renewal. Many Dean Martin songs feel more laid back than Sinatra. There’s a time to lighten up, not take things too seriously, have a cocktail and relax — if you can. Not to mention that love is sometimes akin to an unexpected kick to the head, but — maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Likewise, when you can compare your love to pasta fazool, that’s pretty cool, too, isn’t it? When all is said and done, that’s amore.
Dean Monti is the author of THE MONOSEXUAL (July 16, 2024; Madville Publishing) as well as the critically-acclaimed novel, The Sweep of the Second Hand, and several full-length and one-act plays staged in Chicago and Norfolk, Virginia. He lives in Glen Ellyn, IL with his wife, Julie, works as an editor in the medical industry and has taught creative writing at Columbia College in Chicago and at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. You can visit him online at deanmonti.com.