I Love Stephen McCauley’s Insignificant Others.
I love Stephen McCauley’s new novel, Insignificant Others. It is frequently humorous and for this reason, some are referring to it as a “comic novel.” But this term does not do justice to this book. Because it implies a surface cleverness. And there is nothing superficial about this novel. The term “comic novel” also implies [...]
Read Sebastian Stuart’s The Hour Between
As you probably have read by now, Sebastian Stuart’s The Hour Between won the Publishing Triangle Award for Fiction. The best thing about this news for me was that I discovered a book that I had somehow missed when it was published in September. Anyway, here is my long-overdue review:
The nineteen-eighties were not a particularly good [...]
Allan Carr as Gatsby?
This queer reader doesn’t usually find himself reviewing books with titles like Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll Starring Allan Carr. Let alone those with covers like the one shown on the left. No, what attracted me to this book was the simple fact that it was written by [...]
On The Boys in the Band and its Sequel
When Gay Plays: The First Collection was published in 1979, the editor, William Hoffman made the conscious decision to omit Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band. There were a lot of reasons why 1970’s gays didn’t like The Boys in the Band. And these objections were sometimes coached in quasi-political terms. But I suspect the [...]
David McConnell’s The Silver Hearted is Excellent.
I’m delighted to report that David McConnell’s new novel The Silver Hearted is excellent. The Silver Hearted is a suspenseful adventure story that is clearly influenced by Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad and Edgar Alan Poe. This unfortunately implies a pastiche. But Mr. McConnell has a style that is all his own. And it [...]
Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln! America’s Second Gay President?
Today is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. It’s a good time to read (or re-read) C.A. Tripp’s The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln. In it, Mr. Tripp intelligently makes the argument that President Lincoln was gay.
Abraham Lincoln is depicted as a tall, handsome–even sexy–young man who displayed virtually no interest in women. He had several [...]
Four Gift-able Queer Coffee Table books
Here are four gift-able queer coffee table books–in no particular order:
Gore Vidal’s Snapshots in History’ Glare.
Mr. Vidal has assembled an amazing collection of photographs–mostly candids of him and his friends. We see Paul Newman, Johnny Carson, Tennessee Williams and many others. They are often positioned casually around a pool or at the beach–frequently shirtless. The interiors [...]
Edmund White’s City Boy: Literate, Historical, Delightful.
Edmund White’s City Boy is the kind of book we rarely see in the United States: a literate memoir. It is an important book. And It is also a delightful book. In a conversational–frequently humorous–style, he chronicles his own life in the sixties and seventies. For most of these years, Mr. White was struggling. I [...]
Read Christopher Bram’s Mapping the Territory.
Queer readers no doubt will be tempted to read the most tantalizing articles in Christopher Bram’s new book first and then perhaps not get around to reading the others. “Homage to Jimmy,” for example is a fascinating explanation of how “Gods and Monsters” grew from a personal obsession to a novel and finally, an excellent film. “Faggots Revisited” [...]
Good News: Bob Smith’s Selfish and Perverse is in paperback today.
Queer readers have reason to rejoice. Bob Smith’s Selfish and Perverse is available in paperback today. Mr. Smith’s book is both laugh out-loud funny and surprisingly wise. I don’t use these words lightly. I personally almost never laugh out-loud when reading a book. But Selfish and Perverse had me laughing out-loud repeatedly–from the first page.
Mr. [...]
When Gay People Get Married
Yesterday New York University Press published an important book: When Gay People Get Married, What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage. As the title suggests, this book is an in depth analysis of how societies have been changed by the legalization of same sex marriage. There is a particular emphasis on The Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries–because [...]
Happy Birthday Henry David Thoreau!
Today is the birthday of Henry David Thoreau. So let us take a few moments to celebrate this great American. He was, of course the author of the classic: Walden; or Life in the Woods. What makes Walden a masterpiece is its combination of a transcendental appreciation of nature and a surprisingly humorous flinty-dry wit. Many of these [...]
This will be our year.
June is a special month for my neighborhood: Chelsea. In an annual migration, the circuit boys have landed here for the month, en route to Provincetown, Fire Island and points beyond. This ephemeral splash of beauty is enhanced by the occasional appearance of long-lost acquaintances–acquaintances I’d long thought were dead. The experience is quasi-religious: a virtual resurrection. No, he didn’t [...]
Happy Birthday Katharine Hepburn! Read William Mann’s Kate.
Today is Katharine Hepburn’s birthday. It’s a good day to pick up a copy of William Mann’s Kate (available in paperback). Here is my complete BlogSpot review:
Having read William Mann’s classic queer Hollywood history, Behind the Screen, I expected his new Katharine Hepburn biography to be very good. It isn’t very good. It’s great. Mr. [...]
Now Make Him Do It
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with reformers in the Oval Office, he responded to their requests with three cryptic sentences: “I agree with you. I want to do it. Now make me do it.” This possibly apocryphal quotation has become something of a viral cliche. I only mention it because shortly after taking office President Obama posted [...]
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