Editorial Review

Video pornography has been a staple of gay male culture for decades, but there is little written about the people who perform or produce this entertainment. Charles Isherwood has written a modern tragedy about the life and death of porn star Joey Stefano. After a rapid climb to the top, Stefano died of an overdose at age 26. Isherwood is a good reporter who holds no illusions about the porn industry. Read more

Reviews (37)

Why?
The only thing that I got out of this book what that Joey Stefano broke the glass celing in the porn world for being a bottom. It is his life story but it is just the same: A troubled kid with a drug, sex, and alcohol problem. I would have like to have read a store where he turned his life around and made an impact. I dont recommend this book.

Sad story.Not a tragedy...
What I got out of this was a portrait of a beautiful, self-involved, rather self-indulgent young man who gave in to his weaknesses and lack of motivation or ability to do anything aside from relying on his looks and sexual prowess.As such stories usually go, this mindset led Stefano down a road of self-destruction and eventually death.It's certainly a fascinating portrait of a time and place very specific in Gay pop culture and adult-film history; this is a must-read for any porn aficianado for the very colorful events and characters that pop up in Joey Stefano's story.The author does a good job of outllining the events of his life and contextualizing them in the gay-porn scene of the late '80s to early '90s when gay video really came of age.
A Tragic Life Revealed.
The first time I saw Joey Stefano in film I was overwhelmed by his beauty, his body, his sexual appetite, and his vulnerability.I think that vulnerability; that good boy/bad boy persona that was able to reach out beyond the screen is what made him into the "star" he became.Those who saw him fantasized being with him, and in the process, perhaps to protect him from all those things that could and would hurt him. His meteoric rise to fame, and his tragic demise are recounted in this sad tale about a man who became a legend in his own time.
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Subjects:  1. 1968-1994    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Erotic films    7. Gay actors    8. General    9. Motion picture actors and actr    10. Motion picture actors and actresses    11. Specific Groups - Male Gay Studies    12. Stefano, Joey,    13. United States    14. Biography & Autobiography / General    15. Gay & Lesbian studies    16. Gender studies    17. Stefano, Joey   

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Fiction - General    5. Gay    6. Homosexuality    7. Male prostitutes    8. Personal Memoirs    9. Prostitution    10. United States    11. Biography: general    12. Gay studies (Gay men)   

Reviews (7)

Worth reading through to the end.
I almost didn't finish this book.My initial impression was that this guy's life is as dull and as vapid as anyone else's.He visits a department store with his mother and her neighborhood friend -- big deal.His dad finally gives in and buys the big freezer for the kitchen -- so what? Cooper's Best
Far and away the strongest material Cooper has written, "Truth Serum" is one of the best memoirs I've ever encountered.It ranks with Theodore Dreiser's "Dawn" as a stunning evocation of early life.His language is fluid and beautiful.He writes about childhood as vividly as if he were watching intimate scenes from his past on a movie screen.Except that he describes feelings and thoughts-- unfilmable-- so freshly.The reader enters into the child Cooper's head and perceptions in astonishing ways.This is exceptional writing and the sense of immediacy (with the exception of the abstract final piece) is wonderful.

Intense Focus
I checked this book out of the library and read half of it before Irealized that I had to own it, so I bought a copy the next day and pickedup where I'd left off in the other copy.It's not a book-length memoir asmuch as it's a series of shorter memoirs.And what I find the mostcompelling in this book is his sense of focus.He writes a ratherextensive essay about high school called "101 Ways to CookHamburger," and it essentially consists of three scenes.But fromthose scenes, I get a strong sense of his high school experience as awhole. Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. American authors    3. Authors, American    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Gay men    9. Literary    10. Specific Groups - Male Gay Studies    11. United States    12. Biography: general    13. Literature: History & Criticism   

Reviews (5)

A lot of good info, but it reads like a newspaper
I'm giving this book 4 stars, because I'm a huge fan of Ellen, and as far as I can tell, this is the only biography available.If there were a few more biographies available, I'd probably only give it two stars.
Not the real story of Ellen
Ellen; I would like to hear your real story. You know something like "The Truth" by Ellen; would be nice. From what I can tell; the author did an unauthorized book as she never seems to meet Ellen directly. I bet Ellen didn't even get a dime for this book. UGH! Another case of glam/slam by a writer trying to cash in on a person that had the guts to stand up for their own truth! (...)

CHEAP REHASH OF MAGAZINES, NEWS ARTICLES AND VIDEOS
I bought this book expecting a carefully researched, full biography on Ellen. Instead it was basically a rehash of magazine articles, videos, and news stories about Ellen and her Coming-Out. The author did not even interview Ellen, so we don't get a true, direct-source picture of Ellen's life. Instead, we have old information taken from other sources and condensed into this book. It doesn't sound like the author interviewed Ellen's closest friends and associates, either; I got the impression that a lot of the information was third- or fourth-hand, not directly from the sources. This book is crassly commercial and written at the time that public interest in Ellen was at its peak. It reads like a fan magazine and its sole purpose was to make money, not to provide an insightful biography of Ellen DeGeneres. I would only recommend it to those who no longer have access to the magazines and videos about Ellen's show and her coming-out. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Comedians    5. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Television Personalities    7. Specific Groups - Lesbians   

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Reviews (9)

A Boy in a Million
Some days in the summer, the Ozarks are like a hot tray of frying fish."Even the wind is too hot to move," sighs Grandma Rouse who lives there, deep in first-time author Wade Rouse's memories of living life as a gay toddler, than a fat teen in an oppressive community and yet a warm, loving extended family who tolerated his eccentricities.Especially his older Bro Todd, four years older, like Wally to Beaver, the one who taught him how to stand up for himself and how to defend himself when bullies waylaid him on his way to school.
A smart and relatable memoir
Perhaps a small town in the Ozark Mountains is not an ideal place for a young man who feels very different from everyone around him. Small American towns can be claustrophobic and, in the extreme, bigoted and intolerant. But if that young man is born into a flamboyant and loving family, acceptance and comfort may come in the end.
Don't Believe the Hype
Just shows what great cover art will do for a book.I bought it impulsively based on the great graphic on the jacket.Ooops, that was the first and last time.It is also the first and last time I buy a book based on the collective start rating on Amazon.Who reviews these books, 14 year olds?
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography And Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Gay men    7. Gay youth    8. Homosexuality    9. Missouri    10. Overweight persons    11. Personal Memoirs    12. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs    13. Bargain   

Subjects:  1. Erauso, Catalina de,    2. Film & Video - General    3. Gender Studies    4. In literature    5. In motion pictures    6. Lesbian Studies    7. Performing Arts    8. Popular Culture - General    9. Semiotics & Theory    10. Sociology    11. b. ca. 1592    12. Biography: political    13. Chile    14. Cultural studies    15. Literary Criticism & Collections / General    16. Peru    17. Spain   

Reviews (12)

More than you need to know
The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde is an encyclopedic (539 pages) compendium of late Victorian sexual activity.Such behavior seems to have been far more extensive than one might have thought, but the book has verisimilitude and suggests that virtually every man in London, from the Royal family through the Cabinet right down to petty clerks, was gay.
all the sordid details you suspected confirmed.
this book is hard to put down,for a wilde fan impossible.even by todays standards which are more lenient toward the Uranian persuasion,Wilde would have landed on a sex offender list due to his infatuation leading to action with underage boys.As i was reading i wonder if the marquiss of Queensbury,raving maniac that he no doubt was, might have saved his son Bosie from jail by being the first to spill the beans on Wilde and his Uranian guruship. The Marquis always threatened to go to Scotland Yard about Wilde and i was wondering if he hadn't already made some kind of deal with prosecutors to get his son Bosie off. Since Bosie wasn't underage when he was with Wilde,Queensbury might have been aware of his son and Wilde's criminal activity in respect to jueveniles. At the end of his life Wide admitted to his admirers that he was indeed guilty and he felt contempt for his adorers that tried to flatter him by believing he was completely innocent.Wilde's genius is undoubted and his works are still worshipped,but I'm reminded of an old saying,"Show me a hero and I'll show you a tragedy".Wilde wouldn't have wanted to be a hero anyway.Somewhere he must have made a quotation about this.

Blood, Sweat and Tears
I guess I'll read any life of Oscar Wilde, as I will of Kipling, Robert Frost, Frida Kahlo, or Frank Lloyd Wright, just because their lives were so twisted and strange that everyone has their own take on why, what happened.Just hand me one and don't come back for days, I'll be lost to you.Neil McKenna's new biography, whichdwells clinically, unflinchingly on the sexual side of Wilde's passion for young men, wore its reviews on its sleeve when I came across it, nd I was thinking, oh it sounds awful.But I was mildly surprised right at the beginning when McKenna skips all that stuff you've heard a million times, the subject's ancestry, parents and childhood, three topics on which most biographers spend pages and pages.McKenna leaves that all out and goes right to the meat, to Oxford, where he first finds Oscar having sex with men.
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Subjects:  1. 1854-1900    2. 19th century    3. Authors, Irish    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. England    9. Gay men    10. General    11. Great Britain    12. History    13. Literary    14. London    15. Relations with men    16. Sex customs    17. Wilde, Oscar,    18. Biography: general    19. Literature: History & Criticism   

Reviews (6)

For the aficionados.
This book lifts a veil on a still rather taboo issue. A lot of well known people are mentioned in it, but I felt that most of the chapters were written more for insiders. Worthy of a magazine
After a quick glance of my friend's copy, I picked this up, curious to find out more about the current state of affairs for gays and lesbians in Hollywood.While it's certainly encouraging that many lesbian and gay writers/producers/et al are now able (thanks to Ms. DeGeneres) to live their lives more openly, the book itself offers little insight other than Ellen DeGeneres and a couple of other passing (gay) cultural moments, such as Howard Ashman's lover's acceptance of his posthumous Academy Award.Being a supposed historical exploration, the book flips back and forth in time and era, never focusing on one person or subject long enough to discover anything insightful. Its coverage of the early part of Hollywood's gay history is slight at best, focusing mostly on Rock Hudson, and offers little to illuminate that situation. It has the depth and tone of a good magazine article, but as a book it doesn't offer enough: it seems padded, and interviews are quoted verbatim with every bit of bad syntax and "you know"'s intact.I learned nothing from this book that I wasn't aware of through soundbites on entertainment news shows.I really don't like writing a negative review, but reading this was increasingly frustrating and ultimately unsatisfying.

Very intelligent and insightful
The author examines Hollywood like it is a set decoration being used in a movie.He shows us the attractive scenery (the Hollywood that middle America sees every day), as well as behind the scenes: the nails, glue, and sandbags that hold the set in place.In this case, however, the nails, glue, and sandbags are decades of deception, denial, and hushed tones that the industry continues to use.Ehrenstein writes with a knowledgeable pen, yet rarely if ever comes across as smug or elitest.His narrative is conversational, but structured.It allows the reader to understand better many individual stories in Hollywood's past and present while showing them in context relative to time and social acceptance."Open Secret" is well-written and comprehensive. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Film & Video - History & Criticism    3. Film - History & Criticism    4. Gay actors    5. Gay motion picture producers a    6. Gay motion picture producers and directors    7. General    8. Lesbian Studies    9. Motion picture actors and actr    10. Motion picture actors and actresses    11. Performing Arts    12. Performing Arts/Dance    13. Pop Arts / Pop Culture    14. Social History    15. United States    16. United States - 20th Century    17. Films, cinema    18. Gay studies (Gay men)    19. USA   

Editorial Review

At the time of his death in 1992, David Wojnarowicz was one of the most vital and important names in the New York arts scene. His openness about his HIV status and engagement in public debates about health care and AIDS policy placed his highly political and determinedly provocative art and writing in a new context. Read more

Reviews (3)

Reflections
It's indeed strange to read about oneself after 30 years-to relive those moments-to know for the first time that you actually helped someone you loved and to wonder why you did not express your feelings more directly inyour personal relationship that lasted sporadically for those many years.David's years from age 14 to 21 or 22.

The life and times of a gay writer and artist.
These journals of David Worjnarowicz are an account of the famed writer, artist. They begin when he is seveteen years old and end at the time of his death. The beginning explains some of his troubled background: hisalcholoic father, his street hustlering in Times Square at a young age, andso on. The entries are most appealing when David speaks about hisrelationship with other men, especially about his love affair withJean-Pierre, a man he meet while in Paris. These entries are fluid, full ofa joy that one is in touch with when in the throes of love. EventuallyDavid leaves Paris and is back in New York. It is this particular time andplace, New York in the late 1970's to early 80's do we see an extremesexual behavior of many gay men. This is seen not only with this work, butin the photos of Mapplethrope, and many accounts of gay men that have livedin this time period.The other entries concerning his HIV status and allthe myriad emotions concerned with the fatal disease are rivetting. Thediaries are, at times, disjointed, and some of the early entries I feelreally don't need to be within the book. However, the book reveals a man oftrue in insight, an artist who felt everything, and wrote it all down wordfor word. A very good book!!!

Powerfully Poetic/Disturbingly Realistic
Thank you, Amy Scholder (editor and introductionalist).I have just read a review of "In the Shadow of the American Dream" in one of Seattle's weekly newspapers, and I am so glad that I did.Immediately, mycuriosity was peaked.Not having ever heard of David Wojnarowicz, I am nowa devoted fan of his work.As an artist and a writer, David Wojnarowiczspeaks with a rare truthfulness unlike any other writer that I have read inrecent times.Wojnarowicz speaksof a world not many people are aware of,the world of "seedy Times Square" where he spent his youthhustling, desperately trying to make a living by selling his body to totalstrangers; the world of a gay activist, vehemently seeking to make theworld a more tolerant place for all; the world of a Person Living withAIDS, conciously, creatively expressing his pain, his hurt and his sadness,but not without hope."In the Shadow of the American Dream" is acollection of excerpts of the 31 diaries that Wojnarowicz spent his lifewriting, from the age of 17 until he died of AIDS in 1992.With writingsuch as "I saw a face in a passing car that looked like someone I onceknew.It's like that when you move on to other places in yourlife--memories of faces fading like thin ice sheets in winter sidewalkpuddles, they melt, become only a part of the water so you can't separatethem ever again, but they do remain there."Wow!Like passing anautomobile accident, you don't want to look (or read) but then you can'tput it down.I highly recommend "In the Shadow of the AmericanDream" to anyone who is slightly interested in what artistry,activism, creativity, and hope really means. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Artists, Architects, Photographers    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Essays    5. Literary    6. Literary Collections    7. Literature: Classics    8. Specific Groups - Male Gay Studies   

Reviews (7)

Chi Chi Larue gives it to you!
Oh come on and lighten up!This was a fun read.Yes, the business has a sordid reputation and Chi Chi does not really hold much back.Yes, he has a very good opinion ofhimself but why not?I think it was a nice companion to all that I haveread about the industry.I've seen Chi Chi perform as well, and if you geta chance to catch her act on the road you won't be disappointed.Buy thebook and you won't be disappointed either!I have friends in the industryand they seem to back up that this book is pretty acurate of what it islike to work for Chi Chi.It's a great book!Completely fun for fans andeven people who don't particularly like porn (though I doubt you would evenbe on this page or reading this comment if you were not into porn!).

Recommended
Follow Chi Chi and find out the inside information:In porn films, what's the best way to shoot an orgy scene? How does big new talent get discovered? Which actors consistently deliver the best "moneyshots"? What really goes on behind the scenes during a movie shoot?And just exactly how did a full-figure drag queen become one of the mostwell-known directors in the business? Making It Big tells the classicAmerican rags-to-riches story - with a twist. Larry Paciotti, a young ladfrom Minnesota traveled to California to become a part of the world heloved with all his heart: gay porn. In record time he made it big,transforming the industry with his polished, steamy movies and transforminghimself into the irresistible Chi Chi LaRue. Now, for the first time, he'sdishing the dirt, telling true stories that no one will want tofast-forward through.When he makes it big, there's no stopping theirresistible Chi Chi LaRue.

From the Otherside......It's not bad......
Okay, so our lifestyle is quite colorful. I'm insulted that people are so negative. I am in the industry and know that things in her book are quite as they are. She has chosen to market in an area that people generally findan opinion out of ignorance and have know idea what the hell they aretalking about. Live and let Live! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1959-    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    7. Female impersonators    8. Gay men    9. LaRue, Chi Chi,    10. Motion picture producers and d    11. Motion picture producers and directors    12. Specific Groups - Male Gay Studies    13. United States    14. Biography: film, television & music    15. Films, cinema    16. Gay & Lesbian studies    17. LaRue, Chi Chi   

Reviews (11)

a pleasant change
In that it gives a look at some other murders outside of the mysterious death of John Paul I, this is a refreshing book. Yet, since it does not invlove a Pope it is likely to suffer unfairly from less interest. I recommend you not pass it up. An alternative is Lucien Gregoire's "Murder in the Vatican" which takes one on a methodical imvestigation of the murder of eight men which combination was the leadership of the progressive movement in Church - including the 'murders' of John Paul I and Paul VI.That all of these men died mysteriously within a few months of each other itself would arouse ones suspicions - but Gregoire offers much more than just that.I would recommend you buy these books as a package.
Great read.
This is another book that deals with the hypocrites in the Vatican.
GOOD READING
ALTHOUGH THE BOOK I THINK DOES NOT FINALIZE THE CONCLUSION, I FOUND THE METHODS THE AUTHOR TRIED TO PASTE TOGETHER THE BITS AND PIECES OF TRUTH OR INFORMATION WELL WORTH THE READ. IN THE END I THINK THE BOOK ANALYZES THE CHURCH MORE THAN IT SHOULD BUT THEN AGAIN WHY NOT? ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Case studies    6. Conspiracy & Scandal Investigations    7. Estermann, Alois    8. Gay men    9. Guardia svizzera pontificia    10. History    11. Police murders    12. Political    13. Sexual behavior    14. Tornay, Câedric    15. Vatican City    16. Biography & Autobiography / Political    17. Follain, John    18. Tornay, Cédric    19. True crime   

Reviews (3)

Things that will never be again revisited
This is a lovely read by a gentle man who felt he was really a woman in a mannish body, and also it is the story of a German who lived in parts of Germany and Berlin that are gone and will never be again.I felt a nostalgia for times past for the neighorhood around the Alexanderplatz in Berlin which used to be the gay and lower class neighborhood and also the red light district.If one goes to Alexanderplatz today there is the hideous Russian Funkturm radio tower and almost everything has been bulldozed, and there is a huge statue of Michael Jackson (of all things) in the space where Alexanderplatz was, and the neighborhoods Charlotte knew will never be replaced.He has struggled bravely to take pieces here and there where he could and save them for the ages, fighting bravely in the face of the Soviets stealing everything from Berlin that wasn't nailed down and the east German mentality of bulldoze and build worker flats and raze what is the capitalist past.What a time to live in and how amazing to have the story of a transvestite who lived them and knew every thing and place from the bottom up, so to speak, it puts a new face on history.5 Stars!

Engaging story of a memorable transvestite life
Young Lothar Berfelde loved stylish women's clothes, and as he got older he tried them on.Amazingly, he got enough support from loved ones to have the strength to follow his inclinations.He also had the clarity of mind to observe what was going around him with historical perspective and perspicacity, i.e., the Soviet occupation of Berlin, the rise of the Nazis (his brutish father was an enthusiastic Nazi), the persecution of the Jews, the murderous suppression of the working class by the post-WWI socialist government, etc.Driven to killing his father, he fell into the hands of the Nazi "justice" system and survived.From his teenage years he was captivated by Biedermeyer era furniture and collected what he could.In the near-anarchy following the war and through circumstance and chutzpah he was able to "acquire" a Berlin mansion in which he created a museum to the pre-WWI furniture, household objects and consumer culture that he loved.He struggled to maintain the mansion and the museum's priceless contents, but was only partially successful.East Berlin bureaucrats and their Stasi agents were formidable foes.But Berfelde, who had changed his name to Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, never succumbed to glorification of the capitalist west.He eventually traded his taste for stylish women's clothed for the peasant hausfrau look of his later years and was strangely content with playing the simple housefrau.However this was an affectation, for he was a very broad-minded and humanistic man.He lived a remarkable life and his story is very much worth the reading.
moving, emotional, and a must read
I bought the book because I wanted to understand transvestites, but I came away with so much more.This book should be used in schools to illustrate a part of war they don't teach you, and also how being gay, and/or a transvestite is only part of who a person really is. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1928-    2. Berlin    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Gay Studies    8. Gay men    9. Germany    10. Homosexuality    11. Mahlsdorf, Charlotte von,    12. National socialism    13. Personal Memoirs    14. Specific Groups - Male Gay Studies    15. Transvestites    16. Social Science / Gay Studies   

Reviews (12)

Disappointing
I have heard of The Naked Civil Servant for many years and finally decided to pick it up to read.In many ways it is a great piece of gay history that would have been lost were it not for Quentin Crisp's acerbic wit and very English sense of time and place.As a historical piece, The Naked Civil Servant is well worth reading.
I don't give five-star reviews
What kind of title is that? Well, for 35 years, he was a nude model for art classes. So there you go. A naked civil servant. Now there's a career choice my high school guidance counselor never told me about.
An Unusually Riveting, Exuberant Autobiography
"This is an unusually riveting, exuberant autobiography of a man who, in 1931, 'came out' in the streets of London as a self-confessed and self-evident homosexual. At a time when the slightest sign of homosexuality aroused immediate disgust, Quentin Crisp made the courageous decision to be true to his nature. He adopted an outrageously effeminate manner and appearance ('I wore makeup at a time when even on women eye shadow was sinful'), and his flamboyant exhibitionism, henna-dyed hair, and unconventional behavior shocked London society of the thirties. Though he was harassed, ridiculed, and beaten, he was determined to spread the message that homosexuality did not exclude him or anyone else from the human race. � Quentin Crisp has become a cult celebrity since the highly acclaimed dramatization of The Naked Civil Servant was first aired on American television. His is a unique life story. One feels the strength and humor of an honest man, determined to face the world with the truth about himself."--� zebraz
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Subjects:  1. 20th Century English Prose    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Crisp, Quentin    7. England    8. Gay men    9. Literary    10. London    11. Sexuality In Literature    12. Specific Groups - Male Gay Studies    13. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs   

Reviews (2)

A Tour of Two Worlds
Most of us are commoner, middle class and heterosexual. We don't give thought to other worlds until something strange happens--the murder of Versace or the death of Princess Diana. This book lifts up the rug on these two worlds and allows us to glimpse at something quite alien from our own. Beneath the upper crust of society there is a social dictum that allows the rich and the well-connected to be "doing it and excusing it" as long as it's done with discretion. Behind the facade of certain marriages are gay people in hiding--arranged marriages of convenience. It is a social hypocrisy that didn't start with the Edwardian era but it certainly continues through today. Billed as a double bio, this book is more the biography of Violet Trefusis, lesbian daughter of Alice Keppel, King Edward VII's mistress and the great-grandmother of Camilla Parker-Bowles. But to tell the story of Violet, one must understand Alice and the Edwardian social set. This story is a tour through strange worlds indeed, richly told with text from the letters and published works of the main characters. This is biography that gives you the pathos of real people.Diana Souhami tries to balance the scales by telling the story of the famous lesbian affair between Vita Sackville-West and Violet Trefusis from Violet's point of view. One feels sorry for Violet but also annoyed. How long does it take for Violet to accept that Vita isn't willing to commit to their relationship? Violet, the victim, is a self-deceiving at best, dense at worst. Violet hasn't inherited her mother's ability to make the best of whatever social situation she's in. That's the ultimate tragedy of it. The hypocrisy of society will be with us forever. Only the strong learn to use it to their advantage. It's a lesson we all learn, whatever our place in this world.

Thought provoking biography
After having read this book, I can't stop thinking about it and pondering what makes us happy in life.The people in this story, constrained by the morals of their time, sought happiness through influence, fame, wealth, and sexual relationships with varying success.Today, although our society is more open and free, achieving happiness is still a challenging business.As I read about Violet Trefusis' unhappy life, I wondered how different it would have been had Vita Sackville-West eloped with her.What if their times had been more accepting of openly homosexual relationships.What if Violet had been able to live within the lie of her marriage. If this story had played out today, could it have ended with happiness for Violet.Are things so different for us today. Read more

Subjects:  1. 1894-1972    2. 20th century    3. Family    4. Family relationships    5. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    6. Great Britain    7. Great Britain - History    8. History    9. Lesbian Studies    10. Novelists, English    11. Novelists, French    12. Sexual behavior    13. Social Science    14. Trefusis, Violet Keppel,    15. Women    16. Women In Literature    17. Biography: general    18. Edward    19. Keppel, Alice    20. Relations with women    21. Sackville-West, V    22. Trefusis, Violet Keppel    23. United Kingdom, Great Britain   

Reviews (16)

Bitter/Sweet
This book was very well-written, and very biographical eliciting a bitter-sweet and depthful authentic quality. Ones who peer into the book 'Farm Boys: Lives of Gay men From the Rural Midwest' may feel somewhat of a voyeur, but there is a purity concerning the content of this book that will leave you slightly melancholic but satisfied.

Farm Flavor
The book has interviews with Gay men who grew up in farming communities.They're arranged by date of birth, and the biographical information ranges from funny to sad, and from stories you'd like to hear more of to stories you wish they had left out.I enjoyed the chapters with the individuals who had been fully interviewed. Unfortunately, some of the chapters were short and a little off-topic.
Compelling Glimpse of the Rural Wonder of Gay America
I happened upon this book by chance in my university library at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. I am working on a report for a Sociology class on the group ACT UP, and this title caught my eye while searching for that particular book. I am from the MidWest, SouthWest, MI, and though I was not raised on a farm, I grew up in a small town with very rigid conservative Christian values, and can relate heavily to it. Cetainly the book is enthralling and captivating and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I must add though I found some of it disturbing. Several of the men featured in here engaged in bestality and incest with their brothers, uncles, cousins, etc. It seems they took a rather blithe attitude toward it, as if it was part of the culture. Even though I don't prescribe to the belief molestation makes a person gay, I can't help but wonder if it influenced them towards it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Case studies    5. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    6. Farmers    7. Gay Studies    8. Gay men    9. Middle West    10. Rural gay men    11. Specific Groups - Male Gay Studies    12. Gay studies (Gay men)    13. Rural communities    14. Social Science / Gay Studies    15. USA   

Reviews (2)

Fascinating, But...
A fascinating story of two extraordinary lives soaked in the demi-monde at the fin-de-siecle with the world of the rich and artistic as its background. Unfortunately, this telling comes with some irritating costs. The book is studded with bizarrely extraneous foonotes: does any reader of this story really need to be told who Dante, Proust, Cocteau, Sappho, Gertrude Stein, Sarah Bernhardt (among many others) were? Also, the author interpolates little autobiographical asides that have nothing to do with the dual biography at hand and merely comes across as an egotistical affectation.
A life still left in shadow
Gray is a difficult colour to master. It is enigmatic, aloof. It can be warm, with tints of peach and pink, or cold, with tints of sapphire and indigo. But no one could ever doubt that American artist Romaine Brooks was a master of gray. From her mysterious, icy portraits of members of the belle �poque and the jazz age, to her preference for colorless fashions and d�cor, to the melancholy of her own day to day existence, Brooks was almost the personification of the colour gray itself. It would take great skill to write a biography of such a woman. Therefore I was ecstatic to discover that Diana Souhami had taken on the task of writing a book on the entwined lives of Romaine Brooks and her long-time companion, Paris saloneuse Natalie Clifford Barney. Both American, both wealthy, both artistic, Barney and Brooks still made an odd pair. Barney was the ever-social butterfly, flitting from flower to flower, beautiful and flamboyant. Brooks was her exact opposite, a withdrawn, flighty creature from a background of insanity, who preferred to live in the shadows, alone. This sounds like perfect material for the talents of Souhami, who has already tackled the lives of such challenging individuals as Radclyffe Hall, Gertrude Stein and Greta Garbo. Souhami also wrote the award-winning "Selkirk's Island", untangling the threads of the life of Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Defoe's classic, "Robinson Crusoe". Yes, Brooks and Barney seemed in good hands.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Artists    3. Authors, American    4. Authors, French    5. Biography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. France    8. Gay Studies    9. History: World    10. Lesbian Studies    11. Lesbians    12. Social Science    13. Sociology    14. Specific Groups - Lesbians   

Subjects:  1. Female-to-male transsexuals    2. Gender Studies    3. Gender identity    4. Lesbian Studies    5. Social Science    6. Sociology    7. Sociology (General)    8. Transsexualism    9. Women's Studies - General    10. Biography: general   

Reviews (6)

The Title is a Lie
I'm sorry, but I won't read this book because the title is in itself a ball-faced lie, based on the fraudulent research of Alfred Kinsey, who used prison populations to arrive at the idea that 1 in 10 Americans are homosexuals.That's pure crap--propoganda that the pro-gay crowd needs to stop using.Government survey after government survey, in countries all over the world including the US, have repeatedly found that the incidence of gayness is more like 2%, not 10%.If the title is a clear lie, why should I trust the contents?

Good news for gay teachers
As a future elementary education teacher, I found this book comforting. I have been coming to terms that parents would not want me to teach their children because I am gay, but this book gives me hope. I have read the stories to my straight roommate who is also a future educator and we have been able to laugh and cry over the stories in this book. This book is not just for gay teachers but for all teachers, it shows the emotional side to being a gay teacher that most of us miss. I loved the story where the student removed the pink triangle off her teacher's car and his response was to ask her not to remove it because he did not care to buy a new one. Each of these teachers have faced homophobia not only in the classroom but also in the school, b