The Gay Novel in America
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The Gay Novel (the male Homosexual Novel in America). It was first published in 1981 and a second edition was published in the late eighties.
This is by far the most complete study of the gay male novel available. Other books may claim to survey the gay novels published in the late 19th and 20th century but none include nearly so complete a list of works. This work describes many books not discussed anywhere else. It includes information about little known authors and places all of the books into the contemporary prevailing ideas about gay men. Many ideas, now long discarded or rejected can be found in the early works. The gradual change from the nineteen sixties onwards are then carefully documented. The final chapters highlight the effects of gay movement politics, the AIDS crisis, and the major changes in gay men's lives in the twenty-first century. Overall the book is a solid reference book as well as a fabulous guide for readers who want to find books about the lives of gay men.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
The Moral of the Story Is
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A prosperous American couple have two boys, but early in life one child is presumed dead after a tragic car crash. The surviving boy is raised with great indulgence. By comparison another boy is raised in abject poverty in a rural village. Ironically wealth and entitlement lead only to disappointment and eventual tragedy while poverty and bigotry prove to be the challenges which underlie success and happiness. This novel weaves themes of contemporary treatment of children with current social issues such as police brutality and being gay in the present world. The reader must decide what the oral of the story is.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
Death of a Dowager
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When the ancient matriarch Alice Hepplewhite is found dead by her granddaughter Kate her body was already decaying. Kate called the funeral home to come take the body for burial, but the funeral director thought it surprising that he had not been called sooner and notified the police. Kate had assumed that her grandmother who was 100 years old had died in her sleep, but the police found evidence of possible poisoning and a blow to her head. When it came to light that the impoverished Kate was the beneficiary of almost the entire assets of the estate, the police arrested her for murder. Kate asked to Logan Green to defend her, and against his better judgment he took her case, Although it held little chance of monetary reward, he instinctively believed she was innocent. As he began to do the investigation which the police avoided he uncovered a history of crime beginning almost eighty years earlier, but nearly gets killed in the process. The final solution owes more to his husband Kevin and their two sheepdogs than Logan's legal prowess.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
Too Many Suspects
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Professor Richard Harriman-Harkness was a pompous, badly educated bigot who kept his job only because of tenure. His only students were ones who had not been forewarned to avoid his classes at all costs, and a few of them had created a game called Death to Dirty Dick which involved elaborate means for his death. But the school boy humor leads to Vinnie Diivino being arrested for murder when the professor turns up dead and dismembered. Because Vinnie is gay and was dating a friend of Logan Blake's, Logan ends up with the case. Finding someone with a motive to kill the professor is no problem. (Just about everyone with whom he came in contact had a solid reason to desire him dead.) But finding information about who killed him is difficult because everyone is trying to hide their own motives. The district attorney wants a conviction more than abstract justice so Harlan will need some luck to bring the actual killer to justice.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
National Rifle Assassination
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Meet Logan Blake (a Wall Street lawyer) and Kevin Tyler( a Broadway dancer.) They were a trendy gay married couple in Manhattan who tired of hectic city life and retreated to a quiet Chesapeake Bay town. Logan has a law practice; Kevin has a ballet school, and all is idyllic until their next door neighbor, Congress member Harley Cameron is killed. Logan reluctantly becomes the lawyer for Harley Jr., the chief suspect in the killing. Everyone appears to hate Harley Jr., the gay son of his NRA supporting dad. Harley Jr. had good reason to despise his father, a perfect opportunity to kill him and he owned the rifle which was used to shoot his father. He’s certain to be convicted unless Logan can discover the actual killer. Join Logan as he unravels a history of family secrets that produces an excess number of suspects but no killer. Then Logan channels his inner Nancy Drew, discovers a long-hidden secret passage (what else?) that hides clues to an old crime and finally unmasks the real killer.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
The Quacking Duck Mystery
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Logan and Kevin are back again. Their time to play in the newly equipped dungeon is sparse because this time a wealthy elderly client of Logan’s is found dead in his library that was locked from the inside (no other possible exits, of course) and without a single clue of the identity of the killer. The deceased lived in a gated community, Quacking Duck Acres, which would have been impossible to get in or out. The deceased’s wife insists on Logan’s help, but he barely gets started when a second man is killed. Clearly one of the quirky neighbors is a very clever killer, but the local police can’t solve either case. How can Logan discover the murderer? Will he get killed before he does? The clues are all here for you mystery buffs, but you’ll probably miss them.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
Somewhere Safe to Sea
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An upper-class young man and woman, William Huntington and Jane Vanderderhoven, marry in 1956 while still in college. Over the next decade they lead an ordinary life as William finishes college and law school and becomes a partner in a leading Baltimore law firm. They have two children. Almost accidentally William learns he enjoys sex with men.
In a world where homosexuality is considered pathological and very hidden, he attempts to fit some gay trysts into his life when his wife is away on vacation. She arrives home early and discovers him in bed with a man and orders him to leave. Motivated by guilt, he agrees to a disastrous divorce settlement and loses his job. In a situation that has no reasonable solution, he decides to run away and create a new identity. The novel tracks his life as a new man. He learns self-acceptance as ideas about homosexuality change. He is, however, still haunted by fear of discovery of his true identity which could bring disastrous consequences. Coming out as a gay man at mid-century was difficult and complex. Lack of information and many hostile, incorrect ideas caused serious difficulties not just for the gay person but for everyone connected with him. This novel tries to re-create that earlier period and then bring the characters into the present world.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
Thomas Wentworth Hill
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Tom Hill (1938-1996) was known to the world as the President of Hill Corporation, a manufacturer of trendy men's clothing and a philanthropist who developed modern Senior Residence Communities. This novel consists of three biographies: The first by his sister Sally-Ann omits any mention of his sexual orientation, the second by a gay scholar presents his life as gay movement activists would like to see it with a traditional monogamous long term relationship, the final biography, written on the basis of his own memoirs by a close friend gives an very different picture of a man whose wild kinky sex with ever changing partners many will find offensive. The work poses the question if the gay movement is a liberating or restrictive force in the lives of many gay men.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
Sixteen and One Half
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The first person narrator, an openly gay young man from Iowa in the 21st century takes a summer job in New York City working with gay seniors and discovers he had a distant gay relative who lived in the 1940s.Over a period of years, he learns about another gay relative who lived in the nineteen sixties and another who is about 16 1/2 years older than he. The lives of the four men, all separated by half a generation, allow him to reconstruct a history of how gay men's lives changed over the last 66 years. The narrator, who describes himself as queer, has been "out" to everyone since puberty. He defies almost every gay stereotype and has the support of his liberal parents. His gradual reconstruction of his lives of his gay relatives in the past coincides with his own personal development. By the end of the novel, he has a job, a boyfriend and a good idea of what it meant to be gay in past generations
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
I Am Not Gay - just have a wide stance
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The narrator of the book is working on his Ph.D. dissertation, a biography of a closeted homosexual Senator from Wyoming. He attends a special university seminar for men and women doing biography dissertations. Also in the seminar is handsome Nicky Farrell who seems to be seducing a new female student each week. When Nicky asks, Jeremy, the narrator to help him, Jeremy finds that he has become Nicky's latest conquest. Nicky's completely comfortable bi-sexuality is in sharp contrast to the life of Senator Marty Mount about whom Jeremy is writing. Jeremy's biography of the conservative Senator and his hidden life flows easily while he learns about Nicky's joyously random sexual exploits. While Jeremy is helping Nicky finish his academic project, Nicky is helping Jeremy learn about himself. This novel is an attempt to explore the development of three different attitudes to same-sex sexual attraction and the results they produce.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
Coming Out (of the closet)
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Through the stories of many characters, this novel shows how men became aware of their same sex attractions. Even the phrase "coming out of the closet" changed meaning from 1950 until 2000. At mid century, the term described a man who had accepted that he was gay, but gradually it began to mean sharing that knowledge with others: other gays, friends, and finally employers and family members. By viewing the lives of different characters we see how some men successfully coped and where others failed. The stories are a mix of satisfaction and frustration, joy and even tragedy, but it highlights how the process changed over fifty years. The myth that learning that one is "gay" has always been the same is dispelled and a major gap in gay history, the lives of individual ordinary men, is illuminated by these varied stories.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
The New Tree Trilogy - Part 1
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This first novel of a projected Trilogy follows Solomon and Rebecca Gold, their children and the children's families and three generations of the Jamison family from the 1890's through the first years of the great Depression. While it centers on Baltimore, Maryland, where the immigrant Golds settle and the declining Jamisons were once important members of society, the family members will spread out to New York, Detroit, and Los Angeles over the course of three decades. The nation grows powerful during the Progressive Era and is involved in World War I. The parties during the roaring twenties and new technology changes the lives of average Americans. The stories of different family members show how the political and technological changes affected ordinary lives.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
Turbulence - Part 2
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The second book in the "New Tree Trilogy", the story of Solomon and Rebecca Gold continues with more on their kids and grandchildren from 1933 to 1966. The backdrop for this book is the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War and Viet Nam. It ranges from the days of hoop skirts with poodles to the emergence of hippies with causes.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
Coming Apart At the End - Part 3
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This third and final book in the Trilogy covers the years from 1966-1999. It chronicles another generation and includes various American settings. The end of this story will examine aspects of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.
A Short History of the Novel in England and the USA
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This survey of the novel in England and the United States covers the period from the 1720's until the early twenty first century. It is meant to highlight the works generally considered by literary critics as the most important as well as some works of great popularity but less admired novels. My intention was to provide this an introduction for the generally educated reader or student without elaborate critical interpretations or excessive jargon. Each new age rediscovers these books and evaluates their relevance to its own time. To my knowledge no similar surveys have been published for half a century and this work includes older works by women, gays and Blacks that were seldom mentioned previously. It reflects changing reputations of authors such as Thackeray, Trollope, Meredith and others..
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Two Roads Diverge
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This novel looks very closely at the lives of two men starting with a sexual interlude in junior high school in a small American town, They choose different ways to cope with their same sex desires. One will eventually learn to fully accept his homosexuality while the other fights diligently to conform to society's values. They meet again forty years later and evaluate the effects of their divergent paths on themselves and those in their lives.
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The Enormous Lie
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After the trial of Oscar Wilde, the forces of conventional morality in America and Europe decided male homosexuality was dangerous and must be suppressed It was made illegal, declared immoral, and even listed as a mental illness. To their dismay, men with a homosexual orientation kept on making significant contributions to literature, drama, music, the visual arts and film. The basic response to this was simple omission of any mention of sexual orientation in the printed biographical information about these men (or in the lives of homosexual men in earlier periods.) However, as more information is uncovered one can see the contributions of homosexual men is very significant in all counties and in all the arts. This book exposes the lie and makes the contributions clear. You will be surprised at how many men were "gay" and the extent of their achievements.
This book is available on Kindle. Click here to download.