November-December 2016
J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S CLASSIC WORK of fantasy literature The Hobbit has been enjoyed by millions of readers as a definitive story of escape. The book is equally cherished for the introduction of hobbits, an endearing variation on humanity. But the novel is much more psychologically profound and redolent with sexual symbolism than has been acknowledged by reviewers and Tolkien’s biographers.
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It would be wrong to think that Homintern is a book exclusively devoted to theorizing about the status of homosexuals in Europe. In fact, it sometimes reads as a high-class gossipy travelogue …
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With the 2015 release of Blue Neighborhood, Sivan appears to be following his musical muse rather than the movies at present, and given his X-Men history and a certain savoir-faire for self-presentation, he may be crafting himself as the LGBT community’s very first action hero.
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Reviews of Wilde Stories 2016: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction and DIG by Bryan Borland.
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Conley writes of his childhood without overwhelming passion, as if composing a grocery list, though the reader can sense otherwise. At the time, Conley felt all the emotions that go with being shamed, belittled, and quietly bullied.
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Set in Reykjavik in 1918 as the large Katla volcano in southern Iceland is erupting, Moonstone unfolds against the backdrop of the island being ravaged by the Spanish influenza epidemic, which accompanied the troops home to Iceland after the close of World War I.
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Melville’s letter, in its entirety, forms the conclusion of The Whale, a novel based on the brief, intense relationship between the first truly great writers of fiction in America.
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IF WRITER Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894) is remembered today, it is usually for her close friendship and literary rivalry with Henry James. Both writers had made a pact early in their friendship to burn their correspondence, and much of their relationship remains wreathed in mystery.
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The Glamour of Strangeness presents more-or-less chronological biographical sketches of six artists who attempted to leave behind both their homeland and their cultural identity in order to become part of a radically different culture, one that allowed them to rework their sense of self.
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KIRK FREDERICK’S biography of “male actress” Charles Pierce (1926-1999), Write That Down, greets the eye with an iconic photograph of Pierce impersonating Bette Davis, his signature role.
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