Recently Noted:
MIDNIGHT AT THE PALACE The subtitle of Pam Tent’s “Midnight at the Palace: My Life as a Fabulous Cockette” promises an insider’s account of the primarily queer male, drugged out, improvisational San Francisco-based theater troupe enormously popular from roughly 1969 until 1972. The troupe spawned such queer icons as Hibiscus, the charismatic and famously beautiful lead organizer, as well as the disco star Sylvester and Divine of filmmaker John Waters fame. Unfortunately, Tent’s book is literally a memoir, and a painstaking one at that. It reads like the musings found in a 16-year-old hippie’s stoned diaries and not in a good way. (Abby Tallmer)
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Raising Boys Without Men Dr. Peggy Drexler addresses the much-debated but little-researched subject of same-sex and single-parent households and concludes that lesbian and single moms are producing the “next generation of exceptional men.” The book marks the first in-depth, scholarly study on the matter and debunks various myths. Unfortunately, Drexler also ultimately reinforces many of the same stereotypes she presumably wishes to challenge. (Eileen McDermott)
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ALEC GUINNESS: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY Talent is a deep mystery, but in Guinness’ case, the secret of his celebrated range is exposed in Piers Paul Read’s new biography, one of the best actor’s biographies ever written. Read makes clear that Guinness’ chameleonic gift at submerging himself under the skin of diverse personalities was nothing less than an essential survival tactic for him. (David Noh)
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THE COMMITMENT Dan Savage, the gay man who writes the famous sex column “Savage Love” syndicated widely and also edits the Seattle newspaper The Stranger,” has more recently extended his talents to penning books. I heard an excerpt on NPR from his latest tome, and was impressed by the delicacy of his approach to the gay marriage debate. He didn’t rant about right-wing hypocrisy or lampoon gay and lesbian couples spending thousands on ceremonies more appropriate to a debutante. He didn’t roll his eyes at radical queers who reject gay marriage as a capitulation to heterosexual patriarchy. (Chris Schmidt)
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THE LIFE OF POETRY Imagine a lost literary treasure so essential that a publishing house is established to mine its neglected riches. Such is Muriel Rukeyser’s book of essays. Ten years ago, poet Jan Freeman founded Paris Press with the purpose of bringing “The Life of Poetry” back into print. Rukeyser—lesbian, feminist, Communist, activist, and most of all poet—was the author of 15 volumes of poetry, plays, children’s literature, and biographies. (Betsy Andrews)
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MOTHER OF SORROWS This is an arresting collection of stories, a refreshment of tellings, by Richard McCann, director of the graduate writing program at American University in Washington. The stories are not rendered in the deadening and consumer-oriented rubrics of thick description, but rather in the fleet and sometimes strophic manner of the ode. This collection could not conceivably have written itself; it could not and would not have voluntarily relinquished for inspection its many troubled and troubling secrets. (James McCourt)
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THE ONLY BUSH I TRUST IS MY OWN “The Only Bush I Trust Is my Own” is not a feminist critique of the White House, as the title suggests, but a light-hearted rant about everything from airport security to coprophilia, or getting off on defecation. So, maybe it is a critique of the White House. At any rate, Periel Aschenbrand’s funny little book is like sitting down to coffee with an artsy, sardonic, native New Yorker friend. (Sheila Cosgrove)
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PHALLOS Enigmas fill the ancient world––a turtle bests Achilles in a foot race; Zeno’s arrow never reaches the target; the Sphinx dares the traveler to name what animal possesses a different number of legs during different parts of the day. Samuel R. Delany’s latest novella is centered on this tradition of ancient enigmas. Not riddles, but enigmas. Riddles are meant to be solved. (Stefen Styrsky)
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THE SECRET LIFE OF OSCAR WILDE When first published in England, Neil McKenna’s biography won universal critical acclaim for revealing for the very first time how Wilde was a militant precursor of the modern gay liberation movement long before his famous speech from the dock in defense of “the love that dare not speak its name.” Now released for the first time in the U.S. by Basic Books, this extraordinary book also gives an entirely new and revealing portrait of Wilde’s sexuality. (Doug Ireland)
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SMOKING CIGARETTES Want to read a book about hot sex, larceny, finding true love among multiple bedfellows, murder and the Lord? In his second novel, “Smoking Cigarettes,” Reginald L. Hall presents all of this in his account of the life of Rashad Smith, a 22-year-old African-American, gay man in Philadelphia, delving into the anguish of looking for love in dangerous places and the penalties of a life spent outside the law. (Tyler Pray)
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