A Plug from the List

Going through the proposed list for future discussions, I've read And the Band Played On, Confessons of a Mask, The First Verse, The Object of My Affections, A Single Man, and The Wild Boys. Of these, the one I'm most keen on re-reading and discussing is Barry McCrea's The First Verse. We read an excerpt from it, generally liked, in Fresh Men. That excerpt was a little misleading in that most of the explicitly gay stuff was cobbled together into a "story". But the novel's through-line of obsession and pursuit is so profoundly homosexual—or even human!—that it makes John Rechy's novels look like childrens' counting rhymes. I'm not generally interested in re-reading the others (or in the case of the McCauley even discussing), even though I love A Single Man and would look forward to a discussion of The Wild Boys (an intriguing amalgam of pornography, fable, and textual mindwarp).

We haven't considered hardcovers before, mostly to prevent price from being a barrier to anyone's attending. That rule might be relaxed for an especially timely book or one that might never appear in paperback. Neither The Indian Clerk, however, nor The Story of a Marriage qualifies for such exception. Lambda Rising does offer a 20% discount but that is only available to people who are already attending our meetings (and have picked up a card—and remembered to take it with them to the store).

Finally, since it was I who suggested Blackbird and Wolf, I feel I should confess, having looked at both, that I think The Man with Night Sweats is the better choice, both on the merits and as a follow-on to our reading of Boss Cupid. (I think either more appropriate than the Mary Oliver.)

Hidden History on The New Gay Net

Our very "own" Philip is now a weekly columnist on The New Gay ("for everyone over the rainbow"), writing about DC's "Hidden History." Quick, read his first column about Pornograpers & Poets today—the second comes out tomorrow! A few more clicks will lead you to discover the general value of this website, which accurately bills itself as "An Online Resource for Alternative Queer Events and Ideas in Washington DC."

Hail, Fellow Bookmen (of Mystery...:-)

Greetings, Colleagues--

While turnout was low for last week's meeting, those of us in attendance enjoyed our discussion of Will Fellows' book, A Passion to Preserve: Gay Men as Keepers of Culture.

This coming Wednesday, July 16, we will gather to discuss the selections found on pp. 53-116 of the anthology Men of Mystery: Homoerotic Tales of Intrigue and Suspense (edited by Sean Meriwether & Greg Wharton).

Don't forget that we have shifted our discussion of Thom Gunn's final poetry collection, Boss Cupid, from July 2 to August 6. The book is available at Lambda Rising for a mere $3.98 (and that's before the 20% discount). When I went by LR last night, there were 7 copies left, but at that low, low price they may not last!

Looking ahead: I am in the process of putting together a list of titles for the next iteration of our reading list and would warmly welcome your nominations, particularly for anthologies of poetry, short stories and essays. All titles should be in print and available in paperback; if you can provide a capsule description and/or links to online reviews, that would be great, but it is not required. I'd like to have all suggestions by August 1, sooner if possible; please e-mail them to me via this site (they'll be automatically forwarded to me) and we'll go from there.

Cheers,Steve Honley

The New Gay Teenager

Thanks for your kind comments, Steve. I'm looking forward to many more years of thoughtful and stimulating discussions. And on that note, I'd like to call everyone's attention to a recent "Pride" article by Kenji Yoshino (author of Covering, a book we all liked) on the new gay teenager, the older gay community, and the surrounding homophobia in which we all live. "They're Queer, And They Don't Need Us ... Or Do They?" appeared recently in The Advocate. Note his praise for Ritch C. Savin-Williams' The New Gay Teenager. I think we should put this book on our next reading list.

Greetings from your new facilitator (aka benevolent despot)! :-)

Greetings, fellow Bookmen. I want to thank Tim Walton for the great job he's done in leading meetings and keeping us organized for the past three years. He will be a tough act to follow, but with his help--and yours--I'll do my best. (I'm delighted to report that he will remain active in the group.)

As I hope all of you already realize, last night was our last Tuesday meeting, for which we had a good turnout and a lively discussion. From now on, we'll meet on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, but still at the same venue and still following the current list of titles. Thus, our summer meetings will now be on July 2 and 16 and August 6 and 20.

Looking ahead: Our current reading list runs out in September, so I'll soon be putting out a call for recommendations and then tabulating your votes. Stay tuned...:-)

Hope to see you soon!

Cheers,
Steve Honley

The Yacoubian Building

The Yacoubian Building is the title of an Egyptian novel published in 2002 and of a film released four years later. Alaa el-Aswany's novel tells the stories of some half-dozen contemporary inhabitants of downtown Cairo. I found it interesting but not compelling. Usually I try to give a novel and its film some inbetween time, whichever I experience first. For reasons I can no longer remember (perhaps because I wasn't that impressed with the novel or didn't expect to be with the movie) I didn't and I saw the movie a week after I'd finished the novel. The novel and the film have been wildly popular in Egypt. That's certainly one reason to read and see them, i.e. if you have an interest in Egypt or Arab culture more generally. Another is that one of the novel's main characters, Hatim Rasheed, is homosexual. Hatim is a successful newspaper editor. He's not "out" (nobody apparently in Egypt is) but he's unmarried and makes no pretense of being a ladies' man. After years of various failed arrangements he hopes to mentor a young man into a lifelong companionship. Not that the young man need live with him (that would be asking too much!) but that he might become near, dear and particularly attentive. Hatim thinks he has found such a companion in the person of a policeman, whose career and marriage (!) Hatim promotes. None of it however works out and Hatim is sad, aging and lonely at book's end. Reading The Yacoubian Building will take you back to sometime in the early last century. El-Aswany does not introduce Hatim to damn him, but whenever he writes about his condition there's much talk about "the homosexual". These passages read as though they were put there to enlighten an uninformed but excitedly curious public.

The movie is almost three hours long. It's striking how effortlessly exotic it can be, just the sights and sounds of Cairo bring that about. Most of the novel reaches its apogee of unfamiliarity merely in the characters' names. Viewing the movie I was continually struck by how much had been left out and how confusing it might be to a naive viewer, but that underspecification might have given it a mysterious momentum which it lacked for me. The homosexual Hatim is of course in the movie too, but cinema being a more popular genre it's not enough that he be left sad, aging and lonely. A hustler (the cutest actor in a decidedly uncute cast) sees to it that Hatim has an appropriate terminus.

Bottom line: the book and the film are must read/see if you're interested in homosexuality in contemporary Arab culture. Otherwise, stay home and re-view The Children's Hour.

"Covering" — obligatory reading!

Our man from the Tar Heel State informs me that Kenji Yoshino's Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights has been chosen as this summer's obligatory reading for incoming freshmen to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I couldn't agree more. I expect everyone at our last meeting would concur. It's one of the best books we've read. Do take a look at it—even if you aren't interested in civil rights!