QUEER BOOK REVIEW
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Gertrude Stein, London, 1933
In the beginning of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas the reader is told that "Alice B Toklas" will describe her life together with one of the most influential authors for the 20th Century Gertrude Stein. The reader is not let down as it tells about their joint life in the middle of the art movement developing between WWI and WWII in Paris.
However this is more so Gertrude Stein's autobiography. "Alice B Toklas" becomes a fictional character who lets Stein tell the world about herself. This fact makes it even more complicated to get to know either Gertrude Stein or Alice B. Toklas through the book. One example of this is when Toklas makes comments over Stein; in reality is Stein making comments over herself, or maybe what she thinks is Toklas view of her.
Armistead Maupin: London, 1984
The Queen has arrived to San Fransisco and her visit will change the tenants life in unpredictable ways. Mary Ann is busy covering the Queen's visit to annoyance to her husband Brian. Brian wants a child, and wants Mary Ann to settle down long enough for that to happen. He tries to convince Mary Ann but she does not seem to want to listen. Michael grives his dead boyfriend Jon. When a boat jumping English sailorman arrives to Barbary Lane he decides to change skies, and travels to London. While Mrs Madrigal is worried about Mona who has dissappeared after moving to Seattle. This is only the start of the story to unfold.
The fourth volume in Tales of the City Series. We are back with the members of the Barbary Lane family we have followed in Tales of the City,More Tales of the City, and Further Tales of the City. Babycake is followed by Significant Other and Sure of You. The series is a treat and very entertaining for anyone but especially queer people.
Edmund White: London, 1988
This book continues the story about the nameless narrator in A Boy's Own Story. In this book the narrator starts to break free from his parents, but they try to keep a firm grip over him. The most important persons in the book is the artist Maria, and the poet Lou. Maria is the narrator's best friend and has very strong influence on him. They have a short romantic affair but it does not mean much for either of them. He meets the poet Lou on a beach while living alone in his mother's apartment for the summer, who shows to be a neighbour of the mother. They go home to Lou's place and have sex.
The nameless narrator wants to be heterosexual, but he slowly starts to realize that he is in fact gay. The novels spans from early 1950th till 1969, and the Stonewall riot.
Christopher Isherwood: New York, 1976
"Christopher Isherwood", as an older man, finally reveals all about his life during the years 1929-1939. With assistance from his gay uncle he moves to Berlin in 1929 joining his friend W.H. Auden. He lives in the famous Hirschfeld Institute for awhile and was associated with Hirschfeldt and other of the famous German pre-Nazi homosexuals. In the beginning of his years in Berlin he has many casual lovers, but after awhile he gets tired of the one-night-stands and looks for more deep relationships. He would have two real relationships with men in Berlin. First he have an affair with Otto, a young man around seventeen. Their relationship was never a happy one and after awhile they split up. Christopher finds Heinz, also a young man from the working-class (Isherwood is himself from the upper class, even if his part of the family did not have wealth). Heinz and Christopher stay together for a long time, and escape from Germany together when the Nazis came to power in 1936. They flee because Christopher is afraid that the Nazis would label Heinz as homosexual and throw him into jail.
The story is very interesting because he does the same thing as Gertrude Stein does in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. He talks about himself as a young person with in an older man's position. He already told a version of these years in his earlier work, but this did not include his own homosexuality. He admits that what he has written before is not the whole truth, but that he now is going to tell truth. However you cannot really be certain he sticks to reality this time either, but when it comes to his homosexuality this autobiography is surely closer linked with reality.
Gore Vidal: London, 1956
Jim finds his first love in his friend, Bob, who Jim thinks, returns the feelings. They spend a night together, but Bob is leaving the next day, and Jim never has the chance to explore his feelings. Jim knows in is heart that Bob is "normal", and finds him more attractive because of this. During the next decade he goes from relationship to relationship, with mostly men, waiting for the moment when he can get together with Bob. In the end he confronts Bob, who is now a married father.
City and the Pillar is placed in New York and Hollywood. Describing the gay society in both of the cities during this time and therefore is very interesting. But it is seen with a foreigner's eye, but not necessarily from a heterosexual point of view. One little detail that is notable is that the male homosexuals themselves are using the word gay, and even the word queen is used in the same way that it is used today. The lesbians are portrayed, but not in so many details.
James Earl Hardy: Los Angeles, 2001
The supermodell Raheim lives the perfect life, has a kid, a good job, an excellent ex-girlfriend and hot lover. But all this is threaten when he finds out that his idol Eazy-E has died. His biggest fear is that he might have AIDS himself, and decides to take an HIV-test. The problem is that he lied to his boyfriend about taking the test. His son also has problem in the new school, while the boy's mother finds a new man. To top it off a ex-lover reenters his life, wants him back, and will not take no for an answer.
Very interesting book, with a storytelling style as interesting as Armistead Maupin's. We are taken into the post-AIDS era, where gays have to deal with AIDS, and their own fears about the desease. The character's are very real, imperfectly human, but very likeable.
Danny P. Jackson: Wauconda, 1997
King Gilgamesh is the powerful ruler of Uruk, who takes even married women to his bed. His people begs the gods to get him distracted. At this time a shephard meets the brutish wild man Enkidu, that lives with the animals. The shephard, afraid of Enkidu, asks his father for advice how to get rid of him. The father tells him to bring a sacred girl from the temple in Uruk, and let her meet Enkidu. He follows his father's advise and Enkidu falls in love with the girl, and sleeps with her. Afterwards when he tries to go back to his pack, but they do not allow him because he is now a human. The girl persuades Enkidu to come with her to Uruk and see the king. The king and Enkidu meets and have to battle. But during the fight they start to see sides of each other that they like. In the end they become friends and start a journey together to kill the evil god Humbaba.
Gilgamesh is the oldest existing written text. It was written in a time that we now know little about. This an adaption of the original text is very interesting because it brings the epic to a modern language, but still holds the key to the story and the epic verse.
Ted van Lieshout: Amsterdam, 1996
[English Title: Brothers | Swedish Title: Bröder]
Luuk's brother Marius [Maus] died of an odd decease. One day, on the dead brother's birthday their mother tells Luuk that she will clean up Marius' things and make a bonfire of them. She tells Luuk that he should g and see if there is anything he wants to have to remember his brother, but to stay away from his personal things. The most important thing Luuk can think of is the diary he gave his brother. Marius never really liked writing in the diary which he had received as a birthday gift from Luuk, but his sickness and inability to communicate with the world drives him to write there. Luuk steals the diary because he wants Marius thoughts to be saved. He starts to write in it to stop his mother from burning it with the other stuff. But also starts to read the diary, and finds out who is brother really was.
The book is a fantastic exploration of two brothers, so different yet shares the same background and perhaps future. A great book for young people figuring out their sexuality, but also interesting for older people looking for a good story.
James Baldwin: New York, 1956
David escapes a disastrous life in the United States. In Paris he falls in love with Giovanni, but have a lot of problem admitting this to himself. He projects his fears about homosexuality to Giovanni and hates him strongly while still loving him. David's girlfriend Hedda adds to the problem when she comes back to Paris after travelling in Spain. David is now forced to make a decision if he will stay with Giovanni or go back to Hedda.
David and Giovanni become two counterparts. David is a self-hating bisexual that wants to be "normal" but is driven by his nature to men. Giovanni on the other side don't feel any guilt being bisexual, and have a very un-orthodox view when it comes to love.
Timothy Conigrave: Ringwood,1994
Tim grows up in the Australian city of Melbourne. He early experience his sexuality and does not really face any homophobia. All his friends seem to be OK with it. When he starts high-school he meet John Caleo, an Italian boy with lovely eyelashes, and he falls in love with him. To his surprise the feelings seems to be responded and soon start dating. However since they are both of Chatolic backgrounds they decide to keep it hidden from their families, who think they are just very good friends. They are figured out however and they are being disallowed to see each other. But they both rebel and continue their relationship. After this the reader get to follow the couple through break ups and reconciliations, and in the end when they both find out that they have AIDS, then through the final far well.
The author is very honest in his depiction of their relationship, not exluding the infedility or the insecurities he himself had in the relationship, and the pain he felt when his partner of 15 years dies. It is one of the more touching love stories I have ever read.
Manuel Puig, New York, 1980
Molina and Valentin share an Argentinean prison cell in the 1970th. Molina is in jail for trying to pick up an under-aged boy, while Valentin is a political prisoner. Valentin, who identify himself as heterosexual, at first feels very uncomfortable with Molina, who is still a man but who identifies as a woman. When Molina starts to re-tell her favorite movies to kill the time under the sleepless nights a friendship slowly starts to develop between them. Molina avoids asking questions about his fellow prisoner, because he is afraid that the prison guards will question him about Valentin. Soon Valentin falls sick.
The novel was printed in Spain during the on-going dictatorship in Argentina, and was translated into English. It was banned in Argentina for its critical statement of the regime.
Fay Weldon: South Yarmouth, 1983
Ruth is an ugly misfit creature, who never will be happy. Her husband Bobbo marries her only because she happens to carry his child, and because his love for the moment decide to engage herself with another man. Bobbo decides their marriage will be a open one. He takes different lovers and careful to tell Ruth all about them. In the end he always return to Ruth to gloat. This changes when he meets Mary Fisher, a beautiful harlequine-writer and falls in love with her. He decides to leave Ruth and his two children for her, telling Ruth that their house is to be sold. But Ruth has other plans for her dear husband. She wants to destroy Mary Fisher, and get back with her husband, but on her own terms. She burns down the house, and takes the children to the home of Mary Fisher and leaves them there. To complete her revenge she has to become rich, beautiful and unrestistable. She gets important friends and lovers to help her in her sweet revenge, amongst others the mother of Mary Fisher, the secretary of Bobbo, the judge that can put Bobbo into prison. She becomes rich by starting an agency for unsuccessful women, with a girl friend that is top over head in love with her.
Life and Loves of a She Devil is in a kind way making fun of women, and the feminist movement. The book was also made into a very good movie with Rosanne Barr cast as Ruth. If you have seen the movie read the book anyway. The book is much more daring and ends quite differently.
David Leavitt: New York, 1986
The Lost Language of Cranes is the story about a family in crisis. Rose and Owen has been living in their apartment for 25 years but is now close to eviction. While they have to decide what to do, Philip, their son, meets the perfect man. He falls in love with him, and starts to plan their future. However his soulmate is not ready to settle down, at least not with Phillip and soon flees. Brokenhearted he decides that it is time to come out to his parents. He does not know how they will react. He becomes very but his father Owen's reaction is very odd indeed. Owen who always had gone to gay porn cinemas while still being married to his wife. When his son comes out he is forced to revaluate his life.
Very interesting book. Especially the comparishment between the father's and son's sexuality.
Oscar Moore: New York, 1991
A Matter of Life and Sex tells about the young boy Hugo Harvey's growing up. At the age of 14 he starts to go to toilets for anonymous sex, adopting the persona David, who is a daredevil and does not care about anything else than to get random sex. He falls in love but the men abandon him. As he become older he gets used to the casual sex and the drugs around him. He becomes prostitute for the easy money and to support his addiction. The important point in the novel is that he chooses this himself. Nobody forces him. In the end he gets AIDS, and sees his partner and friends die in the same decease. Two women have a great importance in his life. The first is his mother, who he adored as a child, and who comes to his hospital bed and stay with him until the end. The other one is his friend Cynthia, the woman that he under other circumstances had married.
The gay sex scenes are very explicit, and the author really tells you all the details. The gay life is described as a very cold existense in some parts of the book, and the author doesn't hide anything about the ugliness that exists in the world, but this is not to shock rather to bring out the story. The book has been influential with many of the present gay authors.
E.M. Forster: London, 1971
+The main character Maurice falls in love with his best friend. The other boy seems at first to respond and they are together for awhile, but in the end he chooses to live with a woman, and tries to make Maurice become heterosexual too. Maurice really tries to become straight, but fails. He is lonely for quite some time, but then he meets Alec.
E.M. Forster wrote the book in 1913 but decided not to publicised it until after his death.
Anne Holt: Stockholm, 2000
+Synne Nielsen works for a governmental office. One afternoon her boss Rebecca Schultz walks into the office, and the only thing Synne has in her mind is: 'I want to sleep with her!'. Rebecca is the married mother of three small children. The knowledge does not however deterr Synne from starting to plot to get her. A friendship develops between them, and soon they have crossed the line and become secret lovers. Synne only gets short whiles, stolen from Rebecca's family life. However Rebecca's husband gets suspicious and when they go away on a secret love vacation, he starts to tear down the house trying to find what his wife hides. He finds a letter from Synne where she acclaims her love for Rebecca. Rebecca has to make a choice, and as a surprise to both Synne and the husband, Rebecca chooses to stay with Synne. They live together with Rebeccas children, who hates Synne. Their relationship isn't going anywhere though. Soon the catastrophe over them...
At the same time you follow the Synnes struggle to rebuild dignity for herself, after breaking up with Rebecca. She has fled to Mauritius where she meet the black boy who she calls Petter and teach Norwegian to, and his aunt that looks after him. But who is Petter?
Tennessee Williams: New York, 1976
Tennessee Williams felt it necessary to write Memoirs after he read about himself in an Who is Who, which told all about his career as a writer as personal life, but he felt that had big gaps in the presentation of himself, especially the ignorance of his homosexuality. In Memoirs Tennessee Williams tells about his way to become a grown gay man, from the youth's experiments with other boys to the adults love life. Although the books also tells about his career the main emphasize lies in the thirteen years old relationship he had with Frank Merlo. They met in 1948 and would live together both in New York and Key West. In the end of the relationship they stopped having sex and Williams started to seek it elsewhere. This was something Frank Merlo could not stand. Williams thought Merlo was having affair (never clarified in the autobiography). They broke up, but a month after the breakup Frank Merlo got deathly ill, and was diagnosed with lungcancer. Williams rushes to his side, and stays with him till the end. It also tells about the anxiety Williams had as a writer, and the depressions he had to fight against.
This autobiography is very interesting, because at the same time as it is a story about a person, it also describes the American society and gay culture in America, which Tennessee Williams was a part of.
Derek Jarma: London, 1992
Derek Jarman decides to document his life during two year, 1989-1990, the first two years of his . In the center of the book is his garden at the Prospect Cottage in Dungeness. We follow the garden through the plantation, growing and bloom. The book is also very much about Jarman's fight against AIDS. In the end of the book the garden is sadly left behind and he has to be hospitilized.
If looking for all the goory details about Derek Jarman's private life, which is possible in the Orton's Diary, the reader is bound for dissappointments. He does mostly avoid getting too personal, even if there is glimpses of his private life, and his relationship with HB. He knew that he would publicize all these details and probably choosed to be quite reserved. What he does account for is his struggle with AIDS, which does open up interesting aspects of the illness. In the book AIDS becomes a spectacle, something displayed. I see this as a reaction against the secrecy that AIDS had during this time, and still to a certain point surround itself with. When AIDS was discovered it was signed to gay males, and because lots of these gay males were in the closet or the their families were not strong enough to deal with their homosexuality it was hidden. Here Jarman shows everything.
Armistead Maupin: New York, 2000
Gabriel Noone is in the middle of the break up of a long relationship when he is contacted by a publisher who wants him to read a book of a new writer. He first throws the package in the rubbish, but later decides to read it. He then finds himself drawn into the world of Pete Lomax, a young man who is writing about the abuse his parents objected him to. Appelled Gabriel feels that he wants to get to know this boy more, and makes contact with him. After his mother Donna allows him to call the boy, a relationship builds between the two, and soon Gabriel feels like a father for the young man. However soon important questions starts to arise. Who is Pete? And who is Donna?
The book is very interesting, as it deals with the thin border between fantasy and truth. It is very strong in some parts, and drives the reader into the story, but the reader get a nasty surprise on the way.
For fans of Tales of the City there is also a brief return of Anna, the daughter of De De and D'or.
Ola Klingberg: Stockholm, 1999
The young doctor Peter has lived in celibacy since the AIDS epidemic was known. When he meets the taxi driver Christopher who tries to get him into bed, he starts to re-think his decision. From the start Christopher says that he wants to be free, he is not after an relationship, that he wants them to be just fuck buddies. After only knowing Christopher a few weeks he goes to Paris with him. In Paris they meet the artist Jérôme, who stays with them in their hotel room under most of their vacation. When they are going home, Jérôme comes with them, invited by Christopher. He moves in with Peter. Jérôme and Peter becames lovers, but Christopher and Peter continue their affair. Peter thinks of Christopher as the boyfriend, and Jérôme, who lives with him, only as a lover. Jérôme get more and more jealous though, and soon Christopher friend Randall comes to Stockholm. Randall and Christopher are old friends, and fuck buddies. Peter has to make a decision, but it is really his decision to make? Is Christopher being honest with him?
This book is about living with the fear of AIDS, about relationships and most of all asks the question: what is love?
Joe Orton, Ed. John Lahr: London, 1986
This is the diaries of the famous British play-writer Joe Orton, portraying the last five months of his life, before his lover and life-companion Kenneth Halliwell stabbed him to death. The diaries are very interesting because Joe Orton doesn't seem to be aware of the seriousness of Halliwell's mental state. It is also very graphical and shows how a part of the gay-world in UK was working at that time. Neither Halliwell nor Orton was faithful to each other, though Halliwell tried to be, and was always very jealous of Orton's unfidelity. At the same time they seem to be very honest with each other and about the sex outside the relationship.
Included in the publication is also some funny correspondances Orton wrote under the psedonym Edna Welthorpe.
Jeanette Winterson: London, 1987
Henri, one of Napoleon's personal servants, escapes the war, after serving Napoleon, the man he belonged to. On his way from Russia he meets the beautiful Villanelle. Villanelle is fleeing a disastrous love life in Venice, where she first falls in love with a married woman, and then decides to marry a man, who likes her because she occassionally dresses as a man. Together with Henri she returns to Venice. They are not safe in Venice. Henri is French and therefor enemy, and Villanelle's husband wants her back.
I found the book very interesting because it is not only about homosexuality, but also shows a personal picture of Napoleon (even if fictional).
Pelle älskar Nicke
Lars Karlström: Stockholm, 1989
Pelle meets Nicke on a beach in Malmö, and becomes friend with him. Soon they both discover that they have more than friendly feelings for each other. They start to explore each other and find that they really like it. Together they go on a bicycle vacation. When they come back to Malmö they are a couple and starts to come out for parents and friends. Everyone accept them, and they decides to move in together
A very nice story, but little unreal. Even the author confess that he wants to show the world as it should be, not what it actually is. But it a good book for young teens who start to wonder...
Louise Boijes af Gennäs: Stockholm, 1997
+Sophie is a typical girl from the upper class in Stockholm. Married to man, with car, and a house in a good neighborhood. Her husband is successful in his business. She is a right-feminist writer and during a TV-debate she meets Kaja, a left-feminist journalist. Although they come from two different social backgrounds a romance starts to sparkle. All the time Sophie is very honest to her husband about her feelings towards Kaja, because she feels that it would be wrong to lie. The husband says that it is OK that she and Kaja meets, as long as they are discreet. But when Sophie finds out that her husband has been unfaithful with one of their friends she decides to leave him for Kaja.
Stjärnor utan svindel is much about feminism, and about political issues. Sophie, or Soffan, as she is called by Kaja's leftish friends starts to re-think her life and how she define herself. Even if the disclaimer to the novel says that it is fictional it is very hard not to make a comparison between Sophie and the author herself, whom had more or less the same experiences in her own life right before she wrote the book. (Louise Boije af Gennäs had a romance with the lesbian journalist Mian Lodalen at the time that the novel was publicized, which ended at the same period. Boije of Gennäs is now married to a man).
Harper Lee: London, 1960
Life is not easy for the young boygirl Scout, who fights with the boys, and never wears dresses. The mother died when they were young, so they are raised by their father and their nanny Mrs. Calpurnia, who always seems to have a grudge against Scout. One summer day a new boy arrives to the neighborhood and he becomes both Scouts and her brother Jem's friend. During that summer their auntie also moves in with them, because their father feels that his children need a female rolemodel. The aunt is trying to mold Scout into a lady, without really succeeding. However soon the reality of their racist society will break through. Their father is a lawyer and soon he is allocated to defend a black person accused for rape. This is not liked by the rest of the society they are living in. Both Scout and her brother has to defend themselves against the hate of the townpeople. Things are worsening the closer they get to the trial. The day of the trial they sneak into the courtroom without their father's knowöedge, and hear all the evidence. It is clear to the children that the black man is innoncent. But will a white jury in a little town of Alabama really free a black man?
Red Jordan Arobateau, 1998
+Jesse, a Black American teenager who wants to be a "player", meets Miss La-Di-Da, a fearce dragqueen, who tries to seduce him. He doesn't really know what he should feel for the dragqueen, but he let himself become friends with her. But La-Di-Da is a man under all that make-up and clothes, and Jesse has to confront his own fears about his sexuality. Miss La-Di-Da succeeds in seducing him, but he gets second thoughts and reacts to it by starting a raid of robbering. He gets thrown into jail, and the only thing he has in his mind now is to take his revenge against the one that exposed him, Miss La-Di-Da.
Karin Smirnoff: Stockholm, 1924
Years ago Anders saved Daniel from boy prostitution in Paris, and after that Daniel has lived with Anders and his sister in Sweden. Daniel is in love with one of Anders' nieces and decides to reveal his feelings for her. But when he do so, Anders starts to come to term with his own feelings for Daniel. In an attempt to forget about Daniel he asks his friend to marry him, although he know all to well he never can love her. She says that she wants to wait, but that she is willing to marry him. When Anders see Daniel and Greta together he goes crazy and finally admits to himself that he is in love with Daniel. But will Daniel ever gonna be his?
Karin Smirnoff (the oldest daughter of August Strindberg, the famous Swedish author) wrote this play in 1924, and tried to get it accepted to the Royal Dramatical Theatre, but they declined it, because of its very controversial subject. It was not played in Sweden until late 1990th. At this time the play was not longer that controversial, and was deemed as old fashioned in its view about homosexuality.
