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Jim Provenzano
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PINS Paperback – October 1, 1999

by Jim Provenzano (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 50 ratings
See all formats and editions
Acclaimed sports columnist and fiction writer Jim Provenzano's novel PINS tells the story of bigotry in athletics, and one very short boy who stands up to it.

Set in Little Falls, New Jersey in 1993, PINS weaves the classic story of a Catholic saint into a compelling modern life -and near-death- account of Joey Nicci, a fifteen-year-old Italian-American wrestler.

After befriending Donald "Dink" Kohrs, Joey and his new posse get involved in pranks and partying that eventually get out of control, resulting in the death of a maligned fellow teammate.

The ensuing legal battle and media frenzy alter Joey's life and his self- perception as a gay teenager while shattering his fragile love for fellow teammate Dink. Like his patron saint, his battle against his own teammates forces him to suffer for his beliefs. His survival becomes a literary miracle.

A compelling story of a loving yet confused family, coaches and teachers struggling with multiple issues of violence and homophobia amid the clan-like world of teenage athletes, PINS brings together elements now frighteningly common in the media; bullying jocks, assaults on weaker students, faculty and families unwittingly allowing such behavior.

Called "prescient" and "heartfelt" by two of today's leading writers, PINS layers symbols from the worlds of animals and religion, yet while achieving a unique literary style, it remains accessible to the group for whom it speaks - gay teenagers.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Jim Provenzano
  4. Publication date
    October 1, 1999
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    096723820X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0967238203
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"(PINS) deals realistically with Joey's coming out to his family and dealing with the court, the media, guilt, school and his relationship with Dink. PINS has a lot going for it, not the least of which include a likable protagonist and raging teenage hormones. It's not so much a coming out story, but it is a great gay coming of age story that deserves a space on your bookshelf." -- Drew Wilson, Out Front Colorado

"A heartfelt and touching story, unwaveringly authentic and compelling. His characters wrestle with each other, vividly, and also with larger issues of sexuality, faith and family." -- Michael Lowenthal The Same Embrace, Gay Men at the Millennium Editor, Flesh and the Word, Editor

"A presciently written novel of athletics in small town America, a grippingly real account and a chilling reminder of how far we still have to travel." -- Felice Picano Like People in History, The Lure, Ambidextrous

"In few cultural arenas is the thorny boundary between machismo and homophobia/philia crossed save in the most stereotyped fashion, Jim Provenzano's smart 'Sports Complex' column in the Bay Area Reporter being one notable journalistic exception." -- Dennis Harvey San Francisco Bay Guardian

PINS is a fast-paced and compelling tale focusing on wrestling in Provenzano's words, "the last bastion for boys who cannot stop playing around." -- The Record Courier, Dec. 16, 1999

PINSq, stands for 'Person In Need of Supervision.' It's also jock talk, a catchphrase of high school wrestling, the team sport that has Provenzano's teenage boys watching their weight like fashion models. By the end of the book, "pins" means, more grimly, the pins through a young trauma victim's neck, holding it straight.

Holding adolescent bodies together is one of the subtler motifs that play across Provenzano's coming-of-age drama.

Wrestling's the ultimate gay sport. But queer love is complicated, especially for 15-year-old jocks. Not until Joey and Dink's involvement in the beating death of the wrestling team's designated "faggot" can the two boys touch each other in a way that highlights love rather than competition.

Provenzano has a swift and flexible style that cuts against sentiment and reveals, in moments of grace, something like true feeling. He's also funny. He has an ear for teenage banter, and he's tartly lyrical about Jersey towns, Italian families and homemade mix tapes with titles like GRAPPLE and AURGH. Most urgent, he shows how gay bashing is still an outlet for kids who grew up in the so-called gay '90s. -- John Weir, The Advocate, Dec. 6, 1999

Inspired by real incidents of gay bashing in New York in 1992, PINS is a brilliant piece of fiction. The plot is very complex with many layers, each well-developed and passionately expressed. The depiction of the wrestling team and the pecking order of that culture is only one of them.

Dino is the real hero, as he fights hard to protect his first-born son from harm. The layer of Joseph's family life is real and sensitive. There are caricatures of coaches, jocks, reporters, and nosy neighborsall realistic to a fault.

The writing style is fresh and adds to the reader's experience; set up in three parts, with the protagonist's name changing in each part: Joey, Joseph, Joe. Provenzano is clever. In part two, for example, the twentieth chapter, "20/20" is actually a powerful critique of the media.

Readers will be proud of Joey Nicci, of his father Dino and even of Dink. No sensitive reader will make it to the end without giggling, anxiety, joy and tears. You'll be grateful to Jim Provenzano for sharing his novel with us. -- Eric Resnick, Gay People's Chronicle, Dec. 23, 1999

Jim Provenzano's debut novel finds love in an unlikely corner. PINS records a fumbling, tentative passion between 15-year-old Joey "Neech" Nicci and Donald "Dink" Khors, teammates on a wrestling squad in suburban New Jersey. PINS manages to break new ground by exploring the clannish, conflicted homoeroticism of wrestling culture.

Provenzano clearly loves their obsessive, sweaty world. Joey knows he's found a home within the practice room's "warm padded cell, moist, guy-scented, soft on the floor, walls, the last bastion for boys who cannot stop playing around." But his place on the wrestling circuit is far from comfortable or secure. Joey finds himself forced to take part in homophobic attacks on his team's weakest member. The hypocrisy demanded of Joey ultimately lead to devastating consequences.

While PINS does occasionally have the earnest feel of advocacy journalism, it stops short of becoming a public service announcement about gay teens and self-esteem. Provenzano avoids solemnity by tilting gently at the tacky clutter of adolescence. In the end, Joey's no saint; he's just a decent kid who loves his friend and who gets aroused watching "Who's the Boss?" reruns. -- John Perry, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan 14, 2000

With PINS, Provenzano tackles the homophobia in athletics. -- Mansfield News Journal, Dec. 12, 1999

From the Back Cover

Patron saints, headlocks, thrash metal, crash diets, dogpiles, nutpulls and only the occasional assault.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jim Provenzano; First Edition (October 1, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 096723820X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0967238203
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 50 ratings

About the author

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Jim Provenzano

Jim Provenzano

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Jim Provenzano is the author of the novels 'Finding Tulsa,' 'Now I'm Here,' the Lambda Literary Award winner 'Every Time I Think of You,' and its sequel 'Message of Love' (a Lambda Literary Award Finalist), the novels 'PINS,' 'Monkey Suits,' 'Cyclizen,' the stage adaptation of 'PINS,' and the short story collection 'Forty Wild Crushes.' In May 2022, he edited and self-published 'The Lost of New York,' a novel written more than 50 years ago by his late uncle, John "Butch" Rigney, Jr.

Audiobooks include the adaptations of 'PINS,' (narrated by Paul Fleschner) 'Every Time I Think of You' and its sequel, 'Message of Love' (narrated by Michael Wetherbee). The curator of 'Sporting Life,' the world's first gay athletics exhibit, he also wrote the syndicated Sports Complex column for ten years. A journalist, editor and photographer in LGBT media for three decades, he lives in San Francisco.

www.jimprovenzano.com

jimprovenzano.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/JimProvenzanoAuthor

twitter.com/jim_provenzano

www.goodreads.com/author/show/620500.Jim_Provenzano

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
50 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Foster Corbin
5.0 out of 5 stars Quite An Amazing Novel
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2005
Verified Purchase
In this quite amazing novel by Jim Provenzano, fifteen-year-old Joey Nicci and his family have just moved to Little Falls, New Jersey from Newark where he attended a private Catholic school. Now he is in public high school for the first time and a member of the wrestling team. It's the only sport he really cares about as he loves the body contact with other nearly naked boys. Joey also wrestles with his feelings for other boys and is in love with Dink Kohrs, another member of the team.

The author deals with homophobia, both internalized and the other kind; gay bashing; the refusal of the church to acknowledge that some teenagers are different and to welcome them as they are-- in this instance the Catholic Church though unfortunately that organization doesn't have a monopoly on this attitude; the problems that parents and siblings have with gay family members-- Joey's younger brother Mike gets a shiner in school when another kid makes a derogatory comment about his brother and he defends Joey-- and finally the utter loneliness of being a teenager who is different. While awful, dark things happen in this novel that tear at your heart, its message is ultimately about hope and having the courage to do what is right. It could not have been written twenty-five years ago. Certainly no teenager could have told his wrestling coach then that he was gay.

Mr. Provenzano writes evocative, sparse language: "In math, Joey spent way too much time looking ahead, waiting for him to turn around. When Dink didn't, he watched the back of his buzzcut turn a dozen colors, depending on the light; copper, straw, even gold. As his hair grew out, the hair on the nape of his neck began to curl like a question mark. In practice, Joey got to hug in close to it, to find answers." These complex characters are alive-- all of them, even minor ones. The assistant coach Fiasole is completely fleshed out, and Joey's plumber dad is very believable and the most decent of fathers. There are wonderful human touches when Joey and his family visit their relatives in Newark, for instance, and a moving Christmas Day scene that pulses with life. You will care deeply about Joey, Dink, Anthony, Dino-- Joey's father-- et al.

PINS (the title has a two-fold meaning) is as fine a coming-out novel as I can remember. But it is much more than that and certainly rises above any "gay" literature category it might get placed in. You will not be able to put this novel down for it's quite a page-turner and should be on every high school library shelf in this country.
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Phillip Crawford Jr.
4.0 out of 5 stars Honest Treatment Of Homophobic Teenage Jock Culture
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2016
Verified Purchase
Earlier this year four high school wrestlers from Norman, OK were charged for their alleged roles in the sexual assault of two younger teammates, and such headlines are not uncommon.

Jim Provenzano explores the homophobic teenage jock culture which sometimes can escalate to such ugly incidents in his 1999 first novel PINS. The story is told through the eyes of 15-year-old sophomore Joey Nicci ("his name was not pronounced Nitchey, but Nee-Chee, after which he was dubbed Neech") who has just made the varsity squad wrestling team and fallen for teammate Donald "Dink" Kohrs ("everybody called him Dink because his penis was small -- Dinky Dick -- but the way it pushed up in his sweat pants, Joey figured that wasn't always true"). While Neech and Dink explore their mutual attraction, the team's bullies direct their homophobic wrath against Anthony "The Whiner" Lambros who not only is gay but perhaps more damning is a poor athlete who never wins a match. It's a brutal ending for poor Anthony, and that tragic moment becomes a turning point for Joey Nicci.

Jim Provenzano provides an authentic voice in portraying the high school locker room, and accurately captures every nuanced dynamic in this complex environment. PINS honestly portrays wrestling's homoerotism and how that can result into homophobic defenses among teenage boys, and captures the innocent rough-and-tumble world of boys and how that can escalate into sinister over-the-line violence.

The book's narrator Joey Nicci is a likable kid with a Jersey accent -- he wrestles in the "one-twenny-six" weight class -- that makes me smile each time it comes out but it's not so constant that you have to be fluent in "Nerk" (translated as "Newark" in the King's English) in order to understand him. Neech is as nuanced as the book. He's no choir boy but he's a good kid who in the end does the right thing after appreciating that one doesn't go along just in order to belong. It's also refreshing to see a teen character who genuinely loves his family which is there for him in both the triumphant and the trying times. "It's an Italian thing," as Joey says.

God bless Joey Nicci in PINS. Notwithstanding all the homophobic crap that Neech went through on his high school wrestling team, he found love and kissed a boy.
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Mark Ian Kendrick
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2001
Verified Purchase
Wow. You know those stories that you wished never ended? Well, this is right up there at the top for me. I loved every page.
You don't know how many times I had tears in my eyes as I savored, slowly, every paragraph, sometimes sentences; even reading them aloud, so I could get the full impact, the full effect. I was there, in the story, the whole way through.
This novel totally appealed to my kinesthetic sense. I loved Joey/Joseph/Joe's warm Italian family. I could feel Dino's love for him. I could feel every pin that Joey made and was held in. I felt his angst, his sadness, his desire. I felt his despair, his anger, his fatigue. I felt him hurl when Anthony was killed. I felt the happy pills.
I was enthralled from start to finish.
Since I was so completely taken with Mr. Provenzano's writing, my copy was continually highlighted in red pen as I read. Here's just a taste of this guy's brilliant writing style:
"Dit. Dit. Dit. The sound of his tears christening the shoes."
"He couldn't refuse the link, the fragile bond from one generation to the next, the lost pieces, the lost men."
"He wondered how long before those particles of Dink he'd licked would become part of him. Would he taste more like Dink?"
"He hadn't scheduled this conversation, not today, not while he could still feel Dink's bites and chafes."
"He ran from the school, left his gym bag in his locker. His arms felt naked without the bundle over a shoulder weighing him down, keeping him tied to the earth."
"But." He waited for silence, a nod, permission to speak. Then he said, slowly, softly. "Please...don't...do this. Don't just make me disappear. I done that."
I could go on and on, with the eloquence with which Jim crafted this tale. And I was so happy that Joe got Dink back.
Simply awesome.
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