Reviews (22)

Land of Enchantment, Land of Pain
Joe Hayes wrote all of these stories in one bunch, like a sustained orgasm of creativity, that spilled over into legend.Now when we think of Southie, we think of Hayes' accomplishment, for even if his details are sometimes a little wonky, or his chronology askew to one degree or another, so were William Faulkner's, and yet Faulkner's fabled Yoknapatawpha County exists in its own right just as much as any other Mississippi place, and so Hayes' anguished and sexually alive and violent south Boston exists shoulder to shoulder to the real-life, family-centered place we know today.Whitey Bolger is on the run, and so is South Boston's soul.That said, there is so much in Hayes' two books to admire one hardly notices the loss.
Courage from Southie
After living in Boston for 30 years, I know better than to tell people from South Boston about my impressions of their neighborhood without being asked. I will leave to others whether Joe Hayes' book, This Thing Called Courage, accurately portrays every Southie nuance and idiomatic expression.As I see it, photograhic realism is not the point of the book in any case.
People like us. . .we get killed every day
How often have you been blessed with this experience?You're walking along a book-strewn sidewalk, and a title or a cover photo catches your eye, and you pay the 25 cents, and you get on the bus and flip to a story, and God knows how much later you realize you've missed your stop because you're crying.
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Subjects:  1. Catholics    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay    5. Irish American families    6. Short Stories (single author)    7. South Boston (Boston, Mass.)    8. Working class families    9. Literature of special Gay interest    10. Modern fiction    11. Short stories   

Reviews (10)

A Great Story, an Okay Story, and Two REALLY Bad Stories
Four stories, only one that's worth reading.Kenry manages to present himself as a competent writer, with an amusing cast of characters that manage to be only amusing and nothing else.This is only a problem because Kenry tries to make an actual love story, which doesn't work with characters as shallowly drawn as his.The story is a fluffy summer read, and he makes the egregious mistake of forgetting it.Mann's characters aren't even amusing--they're annoying.Four chapters in, the ending is already obvious, and reading the rest of the book simply to find out if some twist of an ending was waiting at the conclusion proved utterly pointless.The final writer in the book, Tyler, is the least competent author of all (and after Mann, I thought it was going to be hard to get any lower).His characters are so poorly constructed that they make Mann's characters seem entertaining in comparison.Somewhere in the story are little glimmers of ideas that might have been creative at first, but Tyler's utter ineptitude destroys any artistic merit the story might have claimed.Why his story ended up last is an utter mystery to me.I not only consider his work the worst in the book, I am loathe to call it professional work at all.Somewhere in the literary world, a piece this bad must be a crime. A CELEBRATION OF GAY LOVE!
All four stories are great and I have a wonderful time reading them. My favorite is "Outline of a Torso". Like one of the reviewers, I wish Schell has extended this unique short story into a novel. Schell has written a gem and one wishes there is more. "Sugar Daddy Summer" is commendable and it is worthy of Kenry. Mann is one of my favorite writers and has proved himeself once again with the relatively light hearted "The Perfect Husband". I never like Tyler's style but "Satisfaction" is a fun read and has less "Hollywood" influence which I dread. Do yourself a favor and get this book.

Frothy, fluffy but with a bit of a bite...
4 simple stories of finding and rediscovering love, gay-style... I find that in 3 of them, they fall in love way too fast and the resolutions are way too pat and too perky.BUt who wants to read a party-pooper of a book in the bright, sunny days of summer anyway.But they are all charming in their own way.Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthologies (multiple authors)    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay    5. Gay men    6. Love stories    7. Love stories, American    8. Short stories   

Reviews (3)

A strong and witty debut
An excellent debut - I'd read Andy Quan's "How To Cook Chinese Rice" in an anthology several years ago, and it struck me as inventive, adventurous and very tightly written.This debut collection more than lives up to the promise.
When I grow up, I want to be Andy Quan
In reviews of this book, much is made of the author's race and sexual orientation; little has been said about his talent for fashioning words and sentences into crystalline, jewel-like stories.Quan explores themes of self-discovery and the search for identity among shifting layers and labels, and accumulates a number of exotic literary passport stamps along the way.This is fiction the way fiction ought to be written.Quan's prose is poignant, taut, and lucid:he finds just the right way to put things, free from excess, and achieves small miracles with this minimalist technique.... his writing is so transparent, non-writers overlook his technical skill to yap about the politics.This does the book a disservice.Check this one out.Andy's a hell of a storyteller, and the themes he explores speak to a broad range of human experience.I had to get a friend to send me this book from Canada well before it was available in the States, and it was worth the effort.This is a writer to watch.

Funny, inventive and punchy: this one's a keeper
A few years ago, a Yale graduate named Eric Liu published The Accidental Asian, an eloquent series of essays tracing the young author's quest to come to grips with his Oriental heritage after growing up under the Euro-dominant influence of continental USA. That book now seems rather quaint beside the Canadian-authored Calendar Boy. It isn't just Andy Quan's value-added "otherness" of queer sexuality that gives this book more edge - although some of the bitchy irony that drives these stories surely arises from that. It's rather that Quan is a lot funnier about cultural disharmony, less forgiving of polite society and more aggressive in taking the piss out of PC earnestness. In "What I Really Hate", there's as much disdain for the cha-cha-cha-ing Chinese dancers as for the drooling rice queens. His take on fetishism is refreshingly inventive, as in "How to Cook Chinese Rice" and "Hair", and yet there's a haunting sort of beauty in the darker subject of a Japanese girl's attempted suicide ("Almost Flying"). With a disciplined, poet's eye - short, punchy sentences and well-rendered visuals - this book's a keeper (review originally published on Red Salamander's website.) ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Australia    2. Canada    3. Chinese    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. Gay    7. Gay youth    8. General    9. Short Stories (single author)   

Reviews (10)

annoying
The stories ramble on like a drunk friend boring you to tears with long drawn out stories.Even his writing style is annoying.I couldn't read much of each story before I disliked it enough to put it down.

The Author Sings With Poetic Beauty
The fact that Thomas Glave is the first black man since James Baldwin to win the prestigious O. Henry Short Fiction Award, and that his work has appeared in perhaps more "Best Gay Fiction" anthologies than the work of almost any other writer on the scene today, should then not surprise his fans (and those surely to be) that his first published collection is so good. What is truly surprising is just how damn good it is!
Glave brings a new level of intensity to his work
Thomas Glave forces us, through his work, to confront an intensity which often lies buried in our consciousness. The work is at times overwhelming due to the images conjured up such as the erotic and in some cases, the violent undertones (See stories on "Accidents" and "Whose Song"). The reader has to, in the process of reading, face these images and dwell on them as the stories progress. It can either be a comfortable, "inhibition-lowering experience" or totally uncomfortable.The reader's mind has to expand to accomodate the content and the scope of the stories.Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. African American Novel And Short Story    3. African Americans    4. American First Novelists    5. Caribbean Area    6. Fiction    7. Fiction - General    8. Gay    9. Gay men    10. Race relations    11. Short Stories (single author)    12. Social life and customs    13. United States    14. American English    15. Black studies    16. Fiction / General    17. Fiction anthologies & collections    18. Literature of special Gay interest    19. Modern fiction    20. Short stories    21. USA   

Reviews (3)

A nice anthology
This anthology offers a cornucopia of gay writers--some notorious and others undiscovered. We are offered different perspectives on the gay experience, and the stories transgress not only time periods, but age groups as well. The writers are gifted in their writing techniques, creating characters that are identifiable yet anomalous. I would recommend this anthology for those who are new to gay literature.

A great resource!
This is an excellent collection of gay short fiction, many from the pre-Stonewall period of obscurity. With the current explosion of GLTB literature, a sequel is in order:)

39 Inteligent pieces of litrature - source of pride!
The anthology is an excellent book. The stories were not written exclusively by gay authors, and surprises are waiting for the readers (e.g. Noel Coward's beautiful story). The 39 stories are offered by well-known authors (e.g. Forster, Isherwood), known young authors (Leavitt, Kramer) and by those less known. In so introducing new and promising authors to the readers, Leavitt and Mitchell prove yet again that the distinguished house of Penguin made the right choice in selecting them as editors. RUN TO BUY! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Gay    4. Gay men    5. Short stories, American    6. Short stories, English    7. Social life and customs    8. Fiction / Literary   

Reviews (9)

early Leavitt work shows some brilliance...
'Family Dancing' is a collection of short stories written by David Leavitt when he was in his early twenties.It is remarkable thata young man can write with such sensitivity.The prose is very fluid, and the characterizations are quite realistic.Quite remarkable considering these are *short* stories, not novels.However these stories are somewhat uneven in their overall quality, and I think I know why. Couldn't Please Me More
Leavitt is one of the true modern masters of the short story--it is ashame his novels aren't quite as well done. Here is where Leavitt launched his career, to justified critical delight. These stories are near perfection--and our of a writer in his early 20s!--with well-drawn characters and serious themes, though sometimes playful treatments. Leavitt's preoccupations seem to be with the family, homosexuality, and cancer, but he has yet to make any of these topics stale. Highly recommended.

interesting
These stories are poignant and very subtle.I enjoyed the first half of the book, but later on it gets repetitive, with the same themes of mothers afflicted with cancer, gay sons, and divorces.I did find the gay aspects of the story interesting because they're not forced upon the readers. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Gay    4. Leavitt, David - Prose & Criticism    5. Short Stories (single author)    6. Short stories    7. Modern fiction   

Reviews (3)

Diverse styles, important themes - a great anthology.
Having only just started reading gay fiction, and being possessed of an incredibly short attention span, I found this anthology a good read.The writing styles throughout are diverse, as are the themes of the stories.You're sure to find a favorite in the group.
Some Prosaic Pieces, Some Poetic Projectiles
In general, short stories vary in intensity, I feel. Some seem more prosaic, mainly just reporting the characters' experience and its significance--though enjoyably. Others are more "poetic," actually re-creating the emotions experienced so that the readers feel it too. Specifically in this anthology of 19 pieces, I found both types. Some were walks through nice but level, flat terrain-exposition.A few were hikes to mountain gardens or whatever-intense (but also controlled) experience.I prefer the latter, dynamic type. But many readers will like the lower-key stories. In them, homosexual men make do, make something new, change in lesser or greater ways, in awareness, in ability. For instances:Japanese exchange students bewitch a host-family teenager (Williams). homosexual men support their friend who has an impossible crush (Herren). A man picks up another and slowly learns that love is more than for a body part (Donahue). AIDS raises its head. A seropositive nomad rants and tilts, driven to firehose sensation by despair (Healey). The disease torpedoes a Provincetown community and leads to realignments (Lisicky). Oh, and people age. Ed White and Andrew Holleran did, and their characters do, and barely make do. And more...But a few other stories here didn't remain earthbound and just report. They got airborne and re-created the complexities of the experience for us-with us readers. Loose with emotion but tight with artistry. I found a quintet of favorites thus:Read how a pre-teen, a sissy who likes Ken dolls and soccer players' legs but loses the match for the team, runs away, but then wins his own self, bursting the tape by scoring in another and off-limits arena, in an illicit but valid coming-of-age (Satyal). Read how a highschool football superstar, himself perhaps not even homosexual finds he must take an original, disapproved stand about the whole advantageous, contaminated world of sport stardom, with its alluring prestige and money, but its atrocious sham (Cullin). Read how despair at one's inhibitions can cause pressure-cooker anger splaying out terribly, but understandably (House). Read about-well, really feel-the world of the compulsive pederast, teaching in an elite boys' school yet. Feel how he moves stunned and mesmerized, a captive fascinated by sweaty and seductive teen boyness in a crisp rendering (Robinson). Finally, last but best in my book, read the astonishing account of a straight Southern woman married for 50 years to what we now call a transsexual more than a transvestite-but it's all the great stream-of-consciousness jumble of her ambivalences which the author's superb skill make fall into place for us, the kaleidoscope clearing upon general human truths (Jaffe).The editor's afterword isa letdown. It's too long, a redundant repetitive wordy unedited too-lengthy over-extensive exposition about "homosexual publishing today." I wish he had cut it in half and then told us why he chose the stories he did, since he did have interesting criteria. I can only say which I liked and why here.But the bottom line: if you're interested in homosexual short stories, this is not only one of the few volumes currently available. It's itself well worthwhile also. Available and worthwhile-sounds like a catch, so go cruise it and pick it up, it's willing.....

A welcome addition to gay literary fiction anthologies
I had given up on ever reading another collection of gay literary fiction like the excellent Men on Men or His or Best Gay Fiction series from the `80s and `90s. They are all gone now. But I learned from a friend that one of the editors from the Men on Men series was back in business with a new anthology collection called M2M. I have thanked my friend several times now for turning me on to this new series.Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthologies (multiple authors)    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Fiction / Anthologies (multiple authors)    5. Gay    6. Gay men    7. Gay men's writings, American    8. Short stories, American   

Reviews (3)

Very Interesting Book
Very interesting book.The stories are outrageously intense.The editors closing statement must be kept in mind when reading.These stories come from submissions to a male bondage magazine.Nonetheless, it is still super interesting.

Cheap stories about bondage
It should be noted that this book is a compilation of personal tales involving male on male bondage practices.The Publisher's Afterword gives probably the best description of the book: "All of the accounts of school, frat, team and club initiations in this book originally appeared in the reader-written male bondage magazine, Bound & Gagged, and in two of its special publications, Pledges and Paddles Volume 1 and Volume 2." Synopsis
"In Hazing young men write about their rites of passage, tests of their ability to endure physical abuse, pain and humiliation in order to become members of an elite, a fraternity, a team, the inner circle of atribe...Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction - General    2. Homosexuality    3. Reference    4. Short Stories (single author)   

Reviews (5)

Some of Us Have to Get It - The Stranger - Vol 11 #15
SOME OF HAVE TO GET UP IN THE MORNING begins in a hardened-in-the-arteries mode. A housewife lives near a busy highway. Neighbors throw a party for the departure of the local thug on his way into the Marines. An unemployed father fights for the right to have his children. Daniel Scott tells these stories in a standard issue working-class shtick, using simple declarative sentences, the smug irony of none-too-bright narrators, and the catalog of dirty realistic detail found in doublewides. However, Scott rubs our nose in the made-up quality of these stories. Characters from one scene surface at opportune moments in another like Pip running into Magwitch on a London street corner. In the fruitful coincidences of his stories, in the too-good-to-be-true plot symmetries, and in the distorted details, Scott has found a storytelling style that is artificial in the way a liar elaborates or leaves out things. At the same time the stories veer from literal possibility, they suggest that these very things could really happen and in fact are happening somewhere in America right this minute. In this way, entire stories such as the long tease of a tale, "Upside Down Hart," about a gay man who falls in love and lust with his trashy and sexy criminal sister -- who happens to be married to a petty thief who happens to have sex with men for money even though he says he is straight -- revel in an ecstatic falseness. It hardly matters if this story is plausible. In this context, everything in this book makes too much sense, more sense really than anything that is merely plausible. Scott's narrators spin their stories over lives gutted by a self-hatred that puts them into seriously dangerous, end-of-the road pickles. The very long story, "The Host" the last in the book, brings this way of telling stories to a prolonged uneasy slide. Neal, the narrator, wanders around America living off the food he can scrounge out of the refrigerators of men who take him home. As his physical condition deteriorates, the quality of his clients drops and the bars he frequents go from moodily lit, to dimly lit to unlit. Finally he ends up dependent on a physically scarred, sour milk smelling man named Meyersohn. Meyersohn lives in an orderly apartment and lives a life of self-inflicted embarrassment. He performs oddly degrading acts, like plagiarizing school textbooks for grant reports and then telling his co-workers, or holding dinner parties and inviting people who hate each other. It becomes clear to Neal that Meyersohn picking up a sick, half-starved homeless person and moving him into his apartment just plays into this man's inexplicable urge to degrade himself. But as bad as it gets, everything continues to go on. The story, and the book too, ease into a celebration of disgrace.

Real Characters
In his debut, Daniel Scott has crafted characters we all know and care about. His storytelling comes straight from the people he defines so well. His stories are not dramatic adventures but the drama comes from within. With this book you'll go from each story to the next. Laughing at some, crying at others, but captivated by them all.

I Couldn't Put It Down
I loved this book. There aren't many books of short stories you can't put down, but this is one. Some stories are funny, some are gross, some are sad, some are hopeful but all of them are compelling and a pleasure to read. Best collection I've read in a long time. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Gay    4. Short Stories (single author)    5. Short stories    6. Fiction / Gay    7. Modern fiction   

Editorial Review

"Is there something that is inherently 'queered' about the books gay men bring into the English language?" asks Brian Bouldrey. "Yes, and in an exquisitely subtle way, a way that can teach anybody, gay or straight, how to speak that language." He's selected stories for the third volume of the Read more

Reviews (3)

Mixed Assortment Of Short Stories
While I typically like short fiction anthologies -- loved the Men on Men series for example -- I found this one mixed.
Volume 3
"Whether exploring topics unique to the gay experience, reinventing a genre from a gay perspective, or observing straight life through queer eyes, the stories in the third volume of this acclaimed anthology series offer compelling evidence that gay writers are producing some of the finest new fiction in America today. Best American Gay Fiction 3 highlights both outstanding new work by well-known writers and exciting original stories by emerging talents."--� zebraz

Great Assortment
This is a great assortment of fiction. Just when I was getting tired ofgay anthologies comes this very different bunch of tales. From JimProvenzano's scorching account of a gay-bashing to Adam Klein's "theMedicine Burns," the voices vary and the styles differ enough toprovide a great sampling of gay men's fiction from 1996. Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. American Short Story Collections    3. American fiction    4. Anthologies (multiple authors)    5. Fiction    6. Fiction - General    7. Gay    8. Gay men    9. Men authors    10. Sexuality In Literature    11. Short stories, American    12. Social life and customs    13. United States    14. Fiction / Gay    15. Fiction anthologies & collections    16. Literature of special Gay interest    17. Modern fiction    18. Short stories   

Reviews (7)

Blues from The Hinterlands-- And The Cities
In Wendell Ricketts' afterward to this collection of short stories "by working-class men about more or less gay life," the author states that "short stories and novels capture the. . . nature of being alive." Some of these stories certainly fit that description and rise to the level of first class literature. I would nominate my favorite, Christopher Lord's "My Special Friend," the euphemism that the narrator's decent and accepting family uses to describe his working-class/blue-collar lover (he replaces brakes for Midas)when he [Rudy] brings him home to rural Oregon for Christmas. Mr. Lord got the details of this family just right from the couch covered with the orange and brown crocheted afghan to the "twin green Barcaloungers." (I thought I was home again.) Rudy's grandmother OotieMae is a wonderfully sympathetic and funny character; she is pleased that "Our Lady of the Menopause" has been replaced by a much younger Mary in the Christmas Eve Living Nativity event at the local church. James Barr's "The Bottom of the Cloud," from his collection of short stories DERRICKS, published in 1951, in many ways was ahead of its time, although Robin and Karl had to remain closeted and pass themselves off as employer and hired man, rather than lovers. "Skins," by Rick Laurent Feely, is the story of two homeless addicts, Rat and Crow, intent on self-destruction; and we care for them deeply. "Hooters, Tooters, and the Big Dog," (Timothy Anderson) really is a hoot as the narrator, driving his "big red truck, Litle Red Ride "Em Good," plays road games with a fellow female trucker curious as to why he will not tell her his handle. There are fourteen more stories here, many of which I liked immensely.
Working Man's Blues
I've never met Wendell Ricketts, but I have long admired his writing, and the tremendous power of his own writing in many genres he now brings to an editorial project which must have seemed daunting at the start, but which winds up, in his able hands, a terrifically rewarding anthology.It's not your typical book of working class porn, where middle class designers drool over the mechanics perched under their Mercedes.Nor is it precisely a book of agitprop urging the proletariat to armed revolution by any means necessary.James Barr's long story, "The Bottom of the Cloud," which must have been written a good fifty years ago, has everything but period charm, thank God.It might have been written today, and only some of its circumlocutions tag it as the product of an era in which Henry James was widely read, even by John Fante types whose labor is of the dust.Barr's story (from his collection DERRICKS) is amazing on a sentence by sentence level, even if you don't know what exactly is happening to our hero, Robin, and his anguished pilgrimage through the gray areas of "Central City."Barr was able to rewrite John Bunyan for our own time, and out of a fiery, almost blindsided gay sensibility.Torment, bruises, bondage and pain abound, and he takes you there.Keith Banner's story "How to Get from This to This" shares some of Barr's bleakness of vision.Two gay brothers, Danny and Lucas, argue it out from either side of a tavern that might itself be mistaken for a class marker, and from either side of alcoholism itself.Lucas is pulling himself up by the bootstraps, edging himself into a higher class status, while Danny, at age 33 (Christ's age) is sinking deeper into a nickel and dime pit."I see my apartment the way it truly is, a mouse-bit bag of bread, Old Crow bottles, old textbooks I never sold back to the bookstore.The magical couch with no cushions."He doesn't have much self-esteem, as we say here in California.But maybe that lack keeps us honest.Not all of the stories are as hard hitting as these, but in general there's a rock-solid thrust to them that feels good.
Not worth my hard earned money
I'm not a formal critic, simply an avid reader.I have not even finished this book.After about 80 pages I gave up.The stories were disjointed, plots lacking (or so obtuse I couldn't figure out the point(s))and many simply lacked subject matter of interest to this reader.The title suggested an interesting read, yet many of the tales seemed laborious.I personally would not recommend this book to anyone that enjoys reading.Sadly, I consider the purchase a waste of my hard earned money.File 13 for this one. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Gay    4. Gay men    5. Gay men's writings, American    6. Short stories, American    7. Working class writings, Americ    8. General & Literary Fiction    9. Literature of special Gay interest   

Reviews (29)

Trysts is creepy, fun and queerly strange stuff,a great book
Well, it's been a little bit since I've read any gay books, so I thought it was time.I had Trysts on the shelf for several months and pulled it down for a closer look.Once I started this book of short stories, I pretty much read them all thru.I like to read short stories and interject them into my novel and non-fiction reading, but these were too interesting, odd and funly strange.I especially liked the last set of stories that are all tied together and take place in small altered pockets of America.A strange event has caused certain areas to Fall, making them into twisted realms filled with magic, monsters and rag tag groups of people looking for something, be it love, drugs, sex, acceptance.
Found it, bought it, read it, liked it!
I found this book when I happened to meet Steve Berman at DragonCon back in 2002 and during a chat he skillfully talked me into buying it :) dark, erotic, and sexy... I love it!!!
Don't be fooled by this books small size!Any fan of the genre will find hours of reading pleasure with this little gem.Trysts draws the reader into the dark underworld Mr. Berman creates that is as suductive as it is compelling.One story demands you read on to the next one.It was impossible to put this book down!I don't usually leave a review, but Trysts is one of these rare finds that I had to comment on.From the erotic darkness in "Path of Corruption", to the playful, whitty and fun adventure in "Finn's Night", to the magically bizarre stories that take place in The Fallen, this book has a story that is bound to please just about anyone into the genre.I was surprised that so much character depth was created for each story in such a short framework, but it works!I found myself caring, rooting, angry, and even teary-eyed at the fate befallen some of these characters.My hat's off to Mr. Berman, can't wait for the next installment! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction - General    2. Fiction    3. Gay    4. Horror - Anthologies    5. Fantasy - Anthologies    6. Fantasy - General    7. Gays' writings, American    8. Fantasy fiction, American    9. Short Stories (single author)   

Reviews (5)

An overlooked and underrated gem
There are many novels and short stories that never receive the attention they so rightly deserve. Especially this extraordinary piece of literature. I cried, laughed out loud, and cheered on the quirky characters in this collection of short fiction. Harvey writes with an immeasurable amount of determination that I have never seen before. It is two months later and I am still thinking about these characters. That is talent.
yet another review about why EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS
the book explores homosexuality, gender, and transgender themes (among others). Ordinary People?s Extraordinary Lives
Ken Harvey's stories have appeared in numerous literary journals. If You Were With Me Everything Would Be All Right, his first book, collects a baker's dozen. Every story is a polished gem sparkling with insight into ordinary people's extraordinary lives. With quiet dignity lonely characters struggle with the human condition in a world where comic relief is dark, bizarre, and inscrutable.Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Gay    4. General    5. Short Stories (single author)    6. Gay men    7. Homosexuality    8. Modern fiction   

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. American Short Story Collections    3. American fiction    4. Fiction    5. Gay men    6. Gay men's writings, American    7. Sexuality In Literature    8. Fiction anthologies & collections    9. Literature of special Gay interest    10. Modern fiction    11. Short stories   

Reviews (6)

Real stories told with intelligence, no lifestyle fakery
Mr. Cole's stories speak with wit and intelligence to the reality of life for young gay men.There is nothing of falsified sitcom lives here -- just an honest look, from an original and honest voice, at lives that too often are whitewished or vilified.Mr. Cole's literary style is straightforward but has an undercurrent of humor and real appreciation for his audience.

Uneven but generally engaging
C. Bard Cole's laconic style limns a wide variety of gay characters in this collection of stories, from middle- and upper-class men, to denizens of the counterculture, to drug addicts and murderers. His ability to sketch a complete character in a few words is astonishing, and his deliberately documentary-like prose can make an unlikely interracial romance unexpectedly touching. Conversely, the tale of two teenage sex buddies who almost casually descend into murder and addiction chills to the bone when told this way. On the other hand, sometimes the flat style means the narratives remain--well, flat. Overall, there are enough engaging moments in this collection to keep one turning the pages, and the lesser tales are, if nothing else, short.

Real Stories! Real People!
These are not your educated, well-bred, middle class gay people in these stories.These are real people who happened to be gay, or even straight.C. Bard Cole has written individual stories, about named individuals that are edgy, brash, and very insightful.The stories are about sex workers, punks, and characters from alldifferent backgrounds which includes teens to rich college boys.Read more

Subjects:  1. American First Novelists    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay    5. Gay men    6. Short Stories (single author)    7. Fiction / Gay    8. Fiction anthologies & collections    9. Literature of special Gay interest    10. Modern fiction   

Reviews (1)

raw and riveting
David Wojnarowicz's brief monologues from the street may indeed be somewhat romantic, as one reviewer put it, but they are also raw and riveting because they give readers a glimpse, albeit from Wojnarowizc's perspective, of the dark, rich underside or "other"-side of dominant American life.The monologues describe worlds that only suggest themselves occasionally to most of us, perhaps in the face of a homeless person or a panhandler or a tranny hustler.We tend to forget or blind ourselves to these compelling lives because they may seem so "abnormal" or so "disgusting," especially if they appear to be "chosen" lives, which some are, not just the lives of those who are desperate or despairing or impoverished or mentally ill.Whether the lives are of the latter kind or the former, we need to remember to embrace them as a part of the continuum of all American life, and Wojnarowicz helps us to do that with insight and compassion. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Gay    4. General    5. Short stories    6. Literature of special Gay interest   

Reviews (3)

Only connect
This collection of short stories is extraordinary.Unlike other anthologies of gay male fiction, In Another Part of the Forest features work by men and women, gay and straight.English and American fiction dominate but there are also selections by Canadian and Australian writers, and a handful of translated works (from Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, and Yiddish).The effect is a multi-dimensional book that has true moral value.Modern gay identity can only be understood as kaleidoscopic, always shifting, never reduceable to a single ghettoized form.Yet most gay male short fiction anthologies offer up stories exclusively from the perspective of the gay male author.By illuminating the gay experience not only from within but also from the perspective of the outside observer, Manguel and Stephenson seem to be suggesting that to be gay is also to be part of the wider sphere of being human.So alongside works by the closeted E. M. Forster and the very uncloseted Edmund White, we also have superb selections by Sherwood Anderson and Alice Munro andIssac Bashevis Singer.Another highlight is a lusciously sexy (of course) piece by D. H. Lawrence.The editors also include works from the sci-fi realm, as well as one great crime thriller piece (Marco Denevi's "Michel.")Perhaps the main link between these works is that they are all examples of excellent writing.Most important, however, is the profoundly ethical dimension to this book, in which all the gay men featured do not come off as heroes or victims (some are downright cads), an editorial choice that means to embrace the entire human community, including gays, as equally flawed, and equally deserving of respect and the right to happiness.For myself, "Contact," by John Lonie, an author I was not familiar with, stands out as the most exhilarating story in the book.In it the author illustrates the poignant challenge and the urgent necessity of Forster's mantra: Only connect.Connecting with people unlike oneself seems to be the most difficult thing there is, yet it is fundamental to our survival.And, as this anthology of glorious writing reminds us, once we connect we may discover that we are not so different from each other after all.

More Trees In The Forest Than In Some Other Anthologies
I don't know how Manguel did it. He offers more "variety plus quality" than some or even than many other gay male fiction anthologies. (1) Big and international author-names. Francoise Sagan, AliceMunro, Yukio Mishima, Isaac Basheivis Singer, others.....(2) Nice servingof gay-gay classic writers. E. M. Forster, James Baldwin, TennesseeWilliams, James Purdy, Christopher Isherwood, Edmund White, Truman Capote.(And Denton Welch's overlooked but crisp tale "When IWasThirteen.") (3) Heterosexual American writers. Anderson, O'Hara,Hemingway, oh and John Cheever.... A classic collection of gay fiction
In Another Part of the Forest is a must buy for the Collector of gay literature. Manguel and Stephenson have assembled an anthology of gay short fiction by some of the worlds most reknowned authors that depicts the role of the homosexual in the course of recent history. At times sad and frustrating these stories expose the bigotry and hatred spawned by prejudice. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Gay men    3. Homosexuality    4. Sexuality In Literature    5. Short stories    6. World Short Story Collections    7. Non-Classifiable