Reviews (1)

Sensitive, subtle autobiographical stories
This is a wonderful chain of stories from Loewenstien's childhood. The child in the book lives in a child-reality that is totally accurate.I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Autobiographical fiction    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - General    5. Girls    6. Lesbian    7. Short stories   

Reviews (1)

enjoyable queer irish storytelling
The editor of this book reports that gay sex was decriminalized in Ireland in 1993, and that Ireland quickly went on to become a fairly progressive country in regards to lesbian and gay rights.Indeed, the stories in this collection could be from any western nation, except that these stories havea particular "irish lilt" to them.Humorous, sad, bittersweet,and often poignant, these stories deal with some universal themes in thelives of gay men:sex, coming out, identifying each other, families,friends and lovers.This book keeps alive the skill and art of Irishstorytelling, adding queer voices to the mix. I read this collectionquickly, and while no story really reaches an incredible literary height,many manage to be enjoyable and illuminating, haunting and evocative. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. English fiction    3. Fiction    4. Gay    5. Gay men    6. Gay men's writings, English    7. General    8. Popular English Fiction    9. Short stories, English    10. Literature of special Gay interest    11. Modern fiction    12. Short stories   

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

Subjects:  1. American fiction    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay    5. Gay men    6. Gay men's writings, American    7. Men authors    8. Short Stories (Anthologies)    9. Literature of special Gay interest    10. Modern fiction    11. Short stories   

Reviews (9)

Dark But Well Done
Ordered because I like Jay Quinn's _Back_Where_He_Started_, I found the stories in _Rebel_Yell_ to be diverse and dark with a couple of uplifting tales. Of the 14 only a few were memorable: "The Wilds" where a lighthouse and oleander figure prominently, "The Pump Jockey" with an implausible ending where the character does an about-face and the magnanimity of twins raises an eyebrow, and, of course, "465 Acres", Jay Quinn's own contribution. Ah, romance! I was reminded of my own upbringing in the South and could certainly identify with some of the expressions used and customs cited--although I have never eaten grits. Must be a SouthEast thing rather than a Texas thing. If you like dark, you'll like this compilation.

Don't waste your time or money
A very repetitive collection: about 80 % of the stories are about stereotypically "gay" boys and the Liza Minelli shows they do, or about how they get beaten up by their parents. Nearly all stories are set in the 1960s and 70s and read like some kind of childhood/youth recollection.
Some Good Stories Here
Jay Quinn publishes here 14 stories by, in his words, "contemporary Southern gay authors." He doesn't clarify whether or not the writers, in order to be included in this anthology, had to be born in the South or just live there. It is impossible to tell from the brief bios of the writers if some of them meet either of these requirements, if indeed, those are the requirements for inclusion. Some of these stories are not very good, some of them are so-so-- since being polite is an innate Southern characteristic-- I won't name the stories I didn't care for-- and two or three of them are first class. Almost all the writers-- regardless of their abilities-- discuss what makes Southerners different and point out the uniqueness of Southern gays. For example, there is an emphasis on family, a greater amount of prejudice against anyone different, an identification with masculine men; and Southern gays-- at least until very recently-- were probably more prone to remain in the closet and lead double lives, at least in small Southern towns. Of course fundamentalist Christianity is the dominant religion in much of the South as well.Read more

Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay    5. Gay Studies    6. Gay men    7. Gay men's writings, American    8. Literary Collections    9. Literary Criticism    10. Short Stories (Anthologies)    11. Short stories, American    12. Southern States   

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Lesbians    3. Short stories, American   

Reviews (2)

What a great read, nothing like it
All I say is what a great read! What a great read, nothing like it
All I say is what a great read!Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Gay    4. Short Stories (single author)    5. General & Literary Fiction    6. Literature of special Gay interest   

Subjects:  1. American Short Story Collections    2. Fiction    3. Gay men    4. Gay men's writings, American    5. Short stories    6. Short stories, American   

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

Reviews (1)

Diverse and Enjoyable
This was a nice break from the usual gay fiction anthology, but some writers were familiar: best Stephen Beachy's "torque", David Dakar, Richard Schimpf and Jim Provenzano, whose collage style shows ahaunting future. robert Patrick's "The War Over Jane Fonda"reveals family disagreements that lead to more.Some of the storiesfulfill the goal of providing dissident voices (Provenzano's the strongestamong that category) others are sweet in their prose stylings (CharlesDerry's "Keeping Track"). the Jack-in-the-Box cover is odd, butwhat can you expect from those wacky Canadians! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthologies (multiple authors)    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay    5. Gay men    6. Gay men's writings, American    7. Gay men's writings, Canadian    8. Short stories, Canadian    9. Fiction / Gay    10. Modern fiction   

Reviews (5)

Bueno Gay latino FIction
I read this book a couple of years ago and I will always remember it as an excellent anthology of gay Latino writing.The abstract "My Name, Multitudinos Mass" by Larry la Fountain-Stokes is the weakest in the bunch.I recommended this anthology to my G&L book group who was very impressed with the the writing.Highly recommended, I don't think you'll be disappointed.I do think several so called "gay writers" could take lessons in effective story telling from the authors in this collection.

Lack of Consistency
This book is one of the weakest collections of stories I've ever read.Painted Leaf Press has a habit of throwing out half-baked stories.It's called Editor.Get one.Many of these stories had great potential, but lacked execution. Others were just cliche.Emanuel Xavier paints a nice story.but his words on the page are flat, flat, flat.The strongest, most complete stories are by a group of San Francisco writers:Jaime Cortez, Joel Villalon and Al Lujan.They have even stronger pieces in another book that came out a year after this one:Virgins, Guerrillas and Locas.You'd be better served getting that book instead. it has a better cover too.

BESAME MUCHO (como si fuera la ultima vez!)
Do you want to cry, do you want to fall in love, con un macho muy macho.Or do you want to see what it's like Livin La Vida de una Loca? If you do this is the book for you. Filled with la vidas Latino-Gay style!A must read for all the LOCAS that are "out" there. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American fiction    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay    5. Hispanic American authors    6. Hispanic American gays    7. Short Stories (Anthologies)    8. Short stories, Hispanic Americ    9. Short stories, Hispanic American (Spanish)    10. Translations into English   

Reviews (1)

two books in one
This book is based on a collection of interviews and due to use of colloquialisms and caribbean speech patterns, can be difficult for some to read. Tongues on Fire is actually two books, one a collection of lifestories, and the other, a collection of short fiction, written by LesbianCaribbean authors. In my opinion, this book may have been more effective ifactually edited as two separate collections. It was amazing to think thatthese stories reflected the experiences of modern day caribbean lesbianlives... in my mind, the experiences outlined seemed to come from the 40'sand 50's. The fictional stories were far more palatable that thebiographical ones, being less shocking, sweeter and, in some cases, storiesthat we, as American lesbians can identify with. Tongues on Fire reveals avery strong soul of survival in the lives it depicts. It makes clear a muchgreater fluidity of definition for lesbianism as seen by Caribbean and/orWest Indian women. It brings to mind the importance of economic freedom andindependence and reminds us (amazingly) how fortunate women are in the USto have more control and more choices in our lives. Tongues on Fireillustrated clearly how the lack of either of these factors can leave somewomen with very little choice in life. Many of the lesbians featured inthis book were or are married. Most felt that they had no choice other thanto have a man in their life. This is a totally different culture andattitude than the one to which many lesbians in the US are accustomed. Thisbook touches on a wide array of issues from the definition of lesbianism,to coming out, to bisexuality, to prostitution and many issues in between.You may not love this book, but it's probably going to give you pause tothink about who you are and where you came from. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthologies (multiple authors)    2. Biography    3. Caribbean Area    4. Case studies    5. Fiction    6. Lesbian    7. Lesbian Studies    8. Lesbianism    9. Lesbians    10. Short stories, Caribbean (Engl    11. Short stories, Caribbean (English)    12. Sociology    13. Women authors    14. Lesbians' writings    15. Sex & Gender/Lesbian    16. Social Science / Lesbian Studies   

Subjects:  1. Canada    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay    5. Gay men    6. Social life and customs    7. Watmough, David - Prose & Criticism    8. Fiction / Gay    9. Modern fiction    10. Short stories   

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. American Short Story Collections    3. American fiction    4. Fiction    5. Lesbians    6. Lesbians' writings, American    7. Women As Authors (American Literature)    8. English    9. Fiction anthologies & collections    10. Literature of special Lesbian interest    11. Modern fiction    12. Short stories    13. USA   

Reviews (14)

Searching For A Complete Love Life
In all of the twelve short stories contained in "The Silicon Valley Diet", the reader encounters men who range in age, as well as race, culture, sexual orientation, and insecurities. Being a straight white female raised Souther Baptist; I was a little apprehensive of reading such a new age type of book. However trying to identify with the characters was not as hard as I thought it would be. Grayson has a remarkable ability to let the reader feel as if he/she has known the characters for years, or at least encountered such affectionate characters in their lifetime. Confusion
"The incessant familiarity of the writer's secret self makes his world entertaining and bizarre.The dialogue is consistently, even ingeniously funny" (The New York Times Book Review).Well, the only thing in this quote that I agree with is that his world is bizarre.Okay, it is entertaining also.But, there was nothing at all consistent about the dialogue.At some parts of the collection, I felt that there was a different speaker than the original point of view.For example, the last section from The Five Stages of Eating at Cuban-Chinese Restaurants.It seems as though only this section of the entry comes from Terence's point of view.Is this done on purpose or unintentionally?I found myself asking these types of questions throughout the entire collection of short stories.I became so worried about trying to find a hidden message or something along those lines, most likely due to the structure and sarcastic tone of the story, that I became even more confused.However, it is obvious that this author has a talent in writing familiarity.No matter how different a middle aged, gay man's world is from mine, I still felt a familiarity in his thoughts.Not a book that I would read every day. (...)

Worth the read
I really enjoyed this unique collection of short stories with an overall unifying theme--people and their wonderfully amusing idiosyncrasies.This quirky and slightly eccentric book is composed of twelve shorter pieces that make up the whole. As the narrator experiences each new love or each seemingly unrelated experience, he takes an inimitable approach to fitting all the pieces together. It reads like nonfiction, like a memoir of a [non straight] man's truly crazy existence as he moves from one place to another.The characters are so real and the situations so poignant that this is one book that can be read cover to cover in a single sitting.The author plays with some interesting techniques in a few of the stories like in "Moon Over Moldova" that I'm not sure worked quite the way they were supposed to.The story was interwoven with some jargin-layden paragraphs about the land of Moldova that seemed totally unrelated to the story itself (I ended up skipping most of them), but when the author stuck to the characters, he had a winning voice.One technique, that seemed to have named the book, involved a diet plan that the narrator was concocting,and amazingly enough, worked quite well.It also was a device to act as a metaphor for much of what the narrator said throughout the book and tied it all together.I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a witty and intelligent narrator with some great stories to tell. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Baby boom generation    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay    5. Gays    6. Generation X    7. Humorous    8. Humorous stories, American    9. Short Stories (single author)   

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Gay    4. Short Stories (single author)    5. General & Literary Fiction    6. Literature of special Gay interest   

Reviews (1)

recommendable book
This is a very interestig and readable book, therefore Irecommend it not only for the gay people but also the bisexual or heterosexual inclined people , including young students. However, I was astounded at the scantiness or absences of the classical Greek & Latin, Sanskrit literature, Arabian et Persian poetries, archaic Chinese and Japanese texts. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Gays    3. Homosexuality    4. Short stories   

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Lesbian    5. Lesbians    6. Popular American Fiction    7. Short Stories (single author)    8. Modern fiction   

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Gay    4. Short Stories (single author)    5. General & Literary Fiction    6. Literature of special Gay interest    7. Modern fiction   

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Gay men    4. General    5. Popular American Fiction    6. Literature of special Gay interest    7. Modern fiction    8. Short stories