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-7T—;- -• J'U U. Best Seilers Glamorous Lesbians rule the women’s top ten this month. A biography of singer k.d.!ang holds the number two ranking. Books on the secret loves of Hollywood women and femme Lesbians rotted out the women’s list this month. The Funny Gay Males snare the number one spot on the men’s list from Felice Picano. Daniel Helminiak’s What the Bitie Reefy Says Mont Gays, bolstered by strong sales in smaller cities, edge redo the list at number 10. Women's Boaks : 1. [1] My Sweet Untraceable You, by Sandra Scoppettone (Ballantine, mass market paperback^5.99). PI Laurent Laurano digs for clues in the theatre world toa35-year : old murdef case. 1 (-] kd kng, by Victoria Starr(St Martins, paperback, $5.50). The musician’s biography witii pictures. .3. [-] TctofZom, by Martina Navratilova and Liz Nickels (Ballantine, paperback,$6.99) A retired | professional tennis player becomes a detective when a teenage tennis star vanishes. 1 14. [-] Flashpoint by Katherine V.Forrest (Naiad, $10.95, trade papeiback); A highly-connected Lesbian activist summons three friends on the eve of an important political decision in California • 1 [-J Femme Mystique, ed by Leslea Newman (Alyson, $H.^) Poetry, short fiction, essays, and photography by jipstick and lingerie-loving Lesbians. ; 6. [2] And Say tttlb Joyce, by Deb Price and Joyce Murdoch (Doubleday, dothbound, $23.95)First 20 months of Deb Price’s syndicated column, letters from readers, and “iovemate” Murdoch’s recollections of how it all began. ; [-] The Intersection of Law and Desks, by JM. Redmann (Norton, dothbound, $22). Lesbian detective Midkey Kmght takes on the case of Cissy, the daughter of a .friend who is believed to be sexually abused. As she battles abunch of seedy tia^s, Mickey confronts her own sexual abuse as a child 8. [-] Sewing Cfccfe(Birch Lane Press, dothbound, $19.95) The hidden lives and loves of Hollywood women, including Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Katharine | Cornell, and Barbara Stanwyck. ; ; 9. [-] TastingLHeTMceed.byEJ. Levy (Avon Bodes, tradepaperback, $10). , Literary-Lesbian fiction by new American authors. 10. [-] Go Fish, by Guinivere Ttaner and Rose Trouche. (Overlook, trade paperback, $15.95).The screenplay of the 1994 surprise hit with interviews and pictures. Men's Books 1. [2] Growing Up Gay, by Funny Gay Males (Hyperion, trade paperback, $9.95).Tongue- in-cheek observations cm Gay male childhood. 2. [1] Like People hi History, by Felice Picano (Viking, clothbound $23.95). A novel of- Gay life from Woodstock to the war on AIDS. 3. [3] The Unofficial Gay Manual, by Kevin DiLallo and Jack Krumholtz (Doubleday, trade paperback, $12.50). How to be a stereotype on $100,000 ayear 4. M My First Time, ed. by Jack Hart(Alyson, trade paperback, $9.95) Gay men from around the natron describe their first same-sex experiences 5. [4] Lettin’ It All Hang Out, by RuPaul (Hyperion, clothbound, $19.95). The autobiography of the Supermodel of the World 6. [5] Absolutely Fabulous, by Jennifer Saunders (Pocket, trade paperback, $12). The tie-in to the wildly popular television series 7. [-] Memnock the Devil: The Vampire Chronicles, by Anne Rice (Knopf, hardcover, $25).The Vampire Lestat confronts both God and the devil when he searches for the beautifUl daughter of a New York drug lord. 8. (-] Skinned Alive, by Edmund White(Knopf, hardcover; $23) Eight short stones explore the workings of desire in youth and later in life, 9; [-] Flesh and the Word, 3 ed by John Preston (Plume/Penguin, trade paperback, $13.95) Thirty-one homoerotic stories, including confessionals, travelogues, and dirty stories. ■< . 10. [-] IWwf tfwBfljfefteaflySay»>ltoo«rfa^3t by OanlclJHelmlniakCAlamc^Sqpiar© Press$9.95) Top scholars show those who perceive Bible verses as condemning homosexuality are 1. ’ ' J “ Numbers in [brackets] indicate last month’s ranking, A dash (-) means the book was not included m last month’s list This month’s best sellers list reflects die best-selling books at the following stores: Category Six Books (Denver); Common Language (Ann Arbor, Mich.); A Different Light (San Francisco); j Lambda Rising (Washington, D.C./Baltimorc/Rehoboth Beach, Del.); Lammas Women’s Books and More (D.CTBaJtimore); New Words (Cambridge, Mass ); Obelisk (San Diego, Calif.)' An Open Book (Columbus, Ohio); Outwrte Bookstore and- Coffeehouse (Atlanta); People Like Us (Chicago); StEbno’s Books and Music (Pittsburgh); White Rabbit Books (Greensboro, Chadode, and Raleigh, N,C ) and Unabridged (Chicago). u —Sbeita Waist! - ' *" «' : ■*. - ' , ' Grimsley's Gothic Dream Boy Dream Bay* by Jim Grimsely; Algonquin; 195 pages; $18.95 By Charles Rank Jim Grimsley wields foreshadowing like a sledgehammer. In his second novel Dream Boy, Grimsley drops hints from the beginning. So, each event in the lives of high school lovers Nathan and Roy is both shocking and familiar. Grimsley’s second novel is (basically) a coming of age story reminiscent of Edmund White’s A Boy's Own Story or John Fox’s Boys on the Rock. Grimsley adds an uncanny twist to the tale with his constant references to “Down East” North Carolina religion and prophecy. I want to call Grimsley’s tone post-modem gothic. He uses constant references to local ghost stories. And, similar to David’s Lynch cult-classic movie Blue Velvet (which takes place in Lumberton, NC), it’s difficult to pinpoint when the story takes place. I suspect this technique is used partly to give the story universality. Grimsley also reminds us how rural America clings to it’s roots, and how little things change in small towns. . The stay centers around Nathan, a boy in the eight grade, who is befriended by his next door neighbor Roy Conelly. Nathan and his family move to Potter’s lake. Nathan’s father quotes the Bible, drinks too much whiskey, and sexually abuses his son. Nathan’s mother tries to fade into the background. Roy is a popular senior in high school, drives a school bus, drinks and smokes with his buddies, and has a girlfriend at another school. Roy and Nathan get to know each other over the pretense of doing homework. The rest of their relationship is typical boy meets boy (“You can’t tell anybody about this...”). Then things take a turn for the abstract. Grimsley paces the story efficiently and concisely. When Grimsley concentrates on details, they are illusory. Neither Nathan’s and Roy’s love, nor Roy’s friend Burke’s suspicions are concrete. Dream Boy is total fantasy. That in mind, it’s easy to overfoolf a couple of loose ends. For instance, Nat ha n’s infatuation with Roy is easily understood. Nathan obsesses .over every touch or nearness from Roy. So why is Roy so head Over heels for Nathan? Or why does Roy go from being chummy With Nathan, then sullen and jealous in three pages? Grimsley also paint’s Burke as being unaware of Nathan during lunch in the caxetena. bo how does he come to suspect what Roy and Nathan are up to? - , Roy, Nathan, Burke, and their friend Randy, go a camping trip to visit the an haunted plantation. Roy leads them through the woods, spinning ghost stories. Burke glares at Nathan over a whiskey bottle. Randy sings hymns. Nathan stays close to Roy (but not too close). See what I mean? Hint Hint Hint ? . Grimsley makes the climactic exploration of the haunted house terrifying because you know what’s going to happen Or do you? Grimsely invents his own metafantasy; the tale flirts with gothic, romance, coming-of-age, and horror. Dream Boy picks up flourishes of those genres, yet remains it’s own story, with the strangest denoument I’ve ever read. Dream Boy was an enjoyable, and (at times) chilling, page-turner. I liked it in spite of myself. And l liked it «v spit of it’s plotwholes. If you want to indulge yourself in the uncanny this Fall pick up Dream Boy. _ . 0 How Far We Have (Not) Come Out Of The Past: Gay And Lesbian History Front 1869 To The Present by Neil Miller; Vintage Books; 660 pages; $16.00. By Jesse Monteagudo In 1976, when the first historical surveys of. homosexuality appeared—Gay American History by Jonathan Katz and Sexual Variance In Society And History by Vem L. Bullough—homophile studies were still in their infancy. Two decades later, lesbian and gay scholarship has developed to such an extent that an overall histoiy seem presumptuous. Still, there is always a place for a all-encompassing study that would draw from the scholarship of others, both for the general reader and for use in gay studies courses. If this introductory survey is written by a man who knows his subject, has studied the material, and knows how to put his ideas across, then so much the better. Such is the case with Out Of The Past, Neil Miller’s survey of modem queer histoiy. Miller makes his task easier by starting his survey in 1869, the year when the Hungarian Karl Maria Kertbeny garbled his Greek and his Latin to coin the word, “homosexuality” Before that time, we are told, there were same-sex acts but no same-sex identity. Only in the late nineteenth century were people divided into die neat categories of homosexual and heterosexual. Thus it seems odd that Miller should begin his study with Walt Whitman who, for all his attraction to young men, did not see himself as being “homosexual” in the modem sense. Though not a professional historian, Miller exercised judgment in his selection of the existing literature as source material for Out Of The Past. Miller is at his best when he allows his subjects to speak for themselves, as he does in his lengthy excerpts from the works of Oscar Wilde, Andre Gide, Virginia Woolf, Radclyffe Hall, Audre Lorde and other writers. More often, Miller rushes through his subject at a very fast pace, as in his two-few pages a b o u t homosexuality in the Wild and Woolly West. A chapter on “Roman t i c Friendships Between Women”—which, like every other chapter, needs a book of its own to do it justice—runs the gamut from Willa Cather to Eleanor Roosevelt to the cross dressing “Murray Hall”. At worst, Out Of The Past is superficial. At best, it encourages die reader to further study. We must cut Miller some slack, for he covers a wide field. Out Of The Past shines with unexpected gems. One of these, a 1960 report on a bar raid in Miami, first published in One magazine, should be read by those who take our foam parties and mega-discos for granted. Another tidbit, a lengthy excerpt from Carl Wittman’s “Gay Manifesto”, though written in 1969, reminds us of how far we haven’t gone. Though gay American history makes up most of Out Of The Past, a section on the “International Scene” covers the gamut from Cuba to Argentina to Great Britain to South Africa, which proves that homophobia is not limited to a particular ideology. On the other hand, the liberal democracies of Western Europe, where die rights of gay people are most advanced, are given short shrift Continued on page 21
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