Vincent Slatt, who recommended the non-LGBTQ book we'll be discussing this coming Wednesday--Dinaw Mengistu's The Beautiful Things Heaven Bears--was kind enough to suggest some questions we might ponder as we read the novel:
"The P Street stroll has heavy allusions to James Joyce's Ulysses and Bloomsday. Is this a stretch? Is it well done? Has the stroll become a literary trope?"
"For gay men who have strolled these Washington, D.C., streets for years and remember what they were like in the 1980s (or before): Do Mengistu's observations have a distinctly straight perspective? If we walked this strip now, how would we describe it? Are there other parts of the city about which we'd like to read similar accounts?"
"Gender, race and class represent the crux of the heterocentric patriarchy that works to oppress LGBTQ people and workers generally. Are there aspects of gay liberation, or even liberation theology, that are echoed in the community relations Mengistu describes in his novel?"
"Is the author tone-deaf on class warfare? Or does he contribute a unique perspective on the subject? Do the capitalists among BookMen lament of celebrate how the protagonist operates his store?"
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