The Penguin Book of Gay Short StoriesDavid Leavitt, Mark Lindsey Mitchell This is an anthology of stories that, in the words of its co-editor David Leavitt, "illuminate the experience of love between men, explore the nature of homosexual identity, or investigate the kinds of relationships gay men have with each other, with their friends, and with their families". It is not a collection of stories written exclusively by gay authors; indeed, readers may be surprised to discover that some of their favorite women writers and straight male writers have also explored the territory. What the stories do share is a refusal to ghettoize gay men as denizens of the gay nocturnal subculture. The men in these stories live very much in the world; their sexuality, though an important aspect of their lives, doesn't singularly define them. The thirty-nine stories brought together here suggest the ways in which gay experience has - and hasn't - changed over the course of this century, starting with the tender, unarticulated longings of two boys swimming in D. H. Lawrence's "A Poem of Friendship" and ending with the explicit sexual interaction of two boys in a bathtub in A. M. Homes's "The Whiz Kids". In between there is every imaginable kind of gay story, as offered by well-known authors and by those less familiar to the devotees of the genre. There is wry humor in Barbara Pym's clever manipulation of romantic convention; painful accounts of discovery in Larry Kramer's "Mrs. Tefillin"; the consolation of age in Edmund White's "Reprise"; and in Randall Kenan's "Run, Mourner, Run", the breaking of both racial and sexual taboos. The anthology also encompasses a richly diverse subcategory of stories inspired by AIDS, from such writers as Allen Barnett, Michael Cunningham, StephenGreco, Dennis McFarland, and Peter Wells: stories that explore not only the tragedy of the epidemic but also the triumphs, even the erotic possibilities, that have been generated in its wake. These stories illuminate the common ground of gay male experience - as well as its astonishing diversity. |
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Page 191
... beautiful ? Do you think she talks too much ? Don't you like her legs ? Do you think she ought to cut her hair ... beautiful . I mean you're practically senile and there isn't much light in here , but you look very beautiful to me ...
... beautiful ? Do you think she talks too much ? Don't you like her legs ? Do you think she ought to cut her hair ... beautiful . I mean you're practically senile and there isn't much light in here , but you look very beautiful to me ...
Page 292
... beautiful little epileptic with high potential . " On my mother's lips , " beautiful " meant not a pretty face but a case of grimly classic textbook orthodoxy . " The children loved me . Several of them were afraid of me - I guess they ...
... beautiful little epileptic with high potential . " On my mother's lips , " beautiful " meant not a pretty face but a case of grimly classic textbook orthodoxy . " The children loved me . Several of them were afraid of me - I guess they ...
Page 325
... beautiful young golden gods and goddesses frolicking on the beach . Rivka had never seen so many beautiful children before . Tim had black hair all over his body . He looked like an ape . Sometimes she wondered how he could have been ...
... beautiful young golden gods and goddesses frolicking on the beach . Rivka had never seen so many beautiful children before . Tim had black hair all over his body . He looked like an ape . Sometimes she wondered how he could have been ...
Contents
CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD | 24 |
NOËL COWARD | 72 |
J R ACKERLEY | 109 |
Copyright | |
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A. M. Homes Angela Antibes arms Arrowsmith asked Barbara Pym Barbie beautiful Bradley called course Daniel dark David Leavitt Dean door dressed drink E. M. Forster Enzo Eric everything eyes face Farragut father feel felt fucking George Willard Gertrude girl glass golliwog hair hand head heard homosexual Horst Jason Jimmy Jody kids kissed knew laughed lived looked Louise Lymie Mace-Hamilton Mack Milo mind morning mother mouth Nathan never nice night Noah Noël Coward Öçi opma Perry Peter Prairie Oyster pulled remember Rivka saké Sally seemed Sergio sitting smile someone stay stood stopped story sure talk tefillin tell there's thing thought told Tony took Torridge turned voice waiting walked watched Wiltshire window Winesburg woman wondered young