Happy Gay Pride...Now read Stonewall

Gay Pride weekend is once again upon us. And once again we are about to be subjected to numerous reverent references to Stonewall. The survivors of that 1969 riot will march at the front of our parades. And they will be referred to as "veterans"--a militaristic term that implies honorable legitimacy. And yet--let's face it--most of us really don't know a lot about Stonewall. And much of what we know is wrong.

In his book, Stonewall, The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution, David Carter debunks many of the popular myths about the Stonewall riots. But his writing style isn't at all didactic. Instead, Mr. Carter writes like a good novelist: he shows much and tells very little. By interweaving the stories of a diverse group of individuals, he constructs a genuine page-turner. And, along the way, many popular misconceptions are corrected. For example: the myth that it was mainly drag queens who rioted. While Mr. Carter makes it clear that transvestites were an important, integral part of the riot, he also goes to great lengths to describe just how diverse the crowd in the bar was that night. And he makes a strong argument that the person who actually started the riot was a lesbian.

It's such an interesting story, one wonders why it hasn't been made into a TV mini-series yet. In this day of Logo etc., that doesn't seem too far-fetched. But maybe the notion of a story where the rioters are the good guys is still too much for our corporate media. In the meantime, it makes a great book.

David Carter's

Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution

is in available in paperback.

St. Martins

Finally a reason to rejoice...

The state of queer fiction is miserable. Fewer and fewer queer titles are being published. And those that are published don't sell, because they aren't very good. It is not the intention of this blog to dwell on the negative. This blog represents a sincere attempt to seek out quality queer literature wherever it is. Keeping this in mind, let us take a moment to rejoice.

Andrew Holleran's Grief is now in paperback.

I suspect that many of you have been waiting for this. Not just for the retail price to drop to $12.00. Not just for this slim volume to be available in that much more handy format--fits so easily into the beach bag. You've been waiting for the critical dust to settle--so you could determine if it really was in a league with Mr. Holleran's great American queer novel, Dancer from the Dance.

Well, I am happy to report that it is. The quality of the writing in Grief is at least as good as in Dancer from the Dance. And Grief goes deeper. This short novel asks an open question: What is grief? Is it a finite condition, from which one must inevitably recover--an emotional flesh wound? Or is it something much more profound--an almost-mystical presence of the departed? "...grief is what we have after someone dies," Mr. Holleran's unnamed narrator states. "It's the only thing left of that person."

Mr. Holleran doesn't propose to answer this open question. And the main character's accidental discovery of the diaries of Mary Todd Lincoln doesn't foreshadow a new age happy ending. (There will be no workbook to accompany this text.) But Grief is always interesting--sometimes in surprising ways. The injection of United States history is both organic and entertaining.

Andrew Holleran's newest novel is only 150 pages long. You might find yourself reading it in one sitting. Or you might find yourself stretching it out to two or three readings. It's hard to finish it--hard to say goodbye to it. But that's what Grief is all about, right?

Andrew Holleran's Grief is available in paperback.

June 6, 2007

Hyperion