Book Review: The Golden Age of Gay Fiction
This review first appeared in the Nov. 2010 issue of the Orange County & Long Beach Blade.
Consider how much landmark twentieth-century fiction was gay or, at least, had gay overtones. Think about how many classic movies (some with the gay content excised) were based on such fiction, and then add how much popular gay-themed pulp fiction of past decades may be unjustly forgotten, and you'll find a book like The Golden Age of Gay Fiction to be an invaluable reference.
In this book, 19 authors contribute 23 essays analyzing 20th-century literature often written largely by and for the evolving gay community, and the emergence of a distinct literary tradition within that community. One entire section is devoted to legal battles involving pornography (which affected explicit sexual content whether gay or straight) including the relevant Supreme Court decisions on freedom of speech and expression.
Some other essays contained here are devoted to the emergence of gay themes in genre fiction. Gay horror didn't start with Anne Rice's vampire Lestat, gay Westerns didn't start with Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain" and, since the 19th century, much classic detective and crime fiction has had gay overtones. Many major authors were part of what the book calls, "the first great explosion of gay writing in history," including Gore Vidal, James Baldwin, John Rechy, John Cheever, Mary Renault, Patricia Nell Warren, Patricia Highsmith, Jean Genet, E. M. Forster, and Christopher Isherwood.
One of the more interesting aspects of this book is how much of modern pop culture has been influenced by gay novels (or, at least, literature with gay overtones). Isherwood gave us the Cabaret franchise. Rechy's "City of Night" inspired a Doors song.
Some movies that were based on popular novels--often considered shocking when first published because of their gay themes--range from Maurice, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and The Sergeant (which kept their gay content in the transition to the screen) to From Here to Eternity and Knock on Any Door (which didn't).
This book also reminds us how some landmark gay-themed properties have languished undeveloped in Hollywood for decades--one glaring example being Warren's The Front Runner. If such an unforgettable best-seller can be so easily forgotten, out of sight and mind in some Hollywood file cabinet, then perhaps some of the more obscure titles unearthed here need to be freshly approached as well.
Link on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Age-Gay-Fiction/dp/1608200485
Link on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7205111-the-golden-age-of-gay-fiction?from_search=true
Consider how much landmark twentieth-century fiction was gay or, at least, had gay overtones. Think about how many classic movies (some with the gay content excised) were based on such fiction, and then add how much popular gay-themed pulp fiction of past decades may be unjustly forgotten, and you'll find a book like The Golden Age of Gay Fiction to be an invaluable reference.
In this book, 19 authors contribute 23 essays analyzing 20th-century literature often written largely by and for the evolving gay community, and the emergence of a distinct literary tradition within that community. One entire section is devoted to legal battles involving pornography (which affected explicit sexual content whether gay or straight) including the relevant Supreme Court decisions on freedom of speech and expression.
Some other essays contained here are devoted to the emergence of gay themes in genre fiction. Gay horror didn't start with Anne Rice's vampire Lestat, gay Westerns didn't start with Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain" and, since the 19th century, much classic detective and crime fiction has had gay overtones. Many major authors were part of what the book calls, "the first great explosion of gay writing in history," including Gore Vidal, James Baldwin, John Rechy, John Cheever, Mary Renault, Patricia Nell Warren, Patricia Highsmith, Jean Genet, E. M. Forster, and Christopher Isherwood.
One of the more interesting aspects of this book is how much of modern pop culture has been influenced by gay novels (or, at least, literature with gay overtones). Isherwood gave us the Cabaret franchise. Rechy's "City of Night" inspired a Doors song.
Some movies that were based on popular novels--often considered shocking when first published because of their gay themes--range from Maurice, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and The Sergeant (which kept their gay content in the transition to the screen) to From Here to Eternity and Knock on Any Door (which didn't).
This book also reminds us how some landmark gay-themed properties have languished undeveloped in Hollywood for decades--one glaring example being Warren's The Front Runner. If such an unforgettable best-seller can be so easily forgotten, out of sight and mind in some Hollywood file cabinet, then perhaps some of the more obscure titles unearthed here need to be freshly approached as well.
Link on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Age-Gay-Fiction/dp/1608200485
Link on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7205111-the-golden-age-of-gay-fiction?from_search=true
posted by Lyn Jensen | 11:57 AM
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