In Another Part Of The Forest: An Anthology of Gay Short Fiction - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 051788156X ISBN 13: 9780517881569

Publisher: Three Rivers Press, 1994

Synopsis

In this authoritative collection of short stories on male homosexuality by gay and non-gay writers, Alberto Manguel, "an editor with a brilliant strong natural taste" (London Gazette) and Craig Stephenson present a rich diversity of visions and voices, creating an anthology that makes gay fiction accessible to a mainstream audience. Line drawings.

About this title

From Library Journal:

Among the dozens of gay and lesbian anthologies focusing on a social topic or literary genre, this is the third recent anthology attmpting to compass the breadth of modern "gay male literature." Unfortunately, this collection falls short of Edmund White's diverse The Faber Book of Gay Short Fiction (LJ 11/1/91), instead imitating David Leavitt's dreary The Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories (LJ 11/15/93). Rather than striking out with a unique definition of the genre, or offering the reader some lost treasures, Manguel and Spehenson have rounded up the usual list of suspects-even presenting some of the very same stories as Leavitt. Were this repetition not reason enough to close the volume on the contents page, Manguel's rambling introduction should have readers shaking their heads in disbelief. To say that "with one or two little-known exceptions, gay literature has no fantastic stories, no imaginary worlds" in the face of a tradition from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray through Theodore Sturgeon (whose work is included here!) to multiple award-winning Samuel Delany requires no little imagination. All libraries should have a copy of White's work, and those looking for diversity may purchase Leavitt's; the current volume is not needed.
Eric Bryant, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

This laborious anthology posits that, before Stonewall and the emergence of a gay-specific literature, there was already a rich heritage of fiction by gay and non-gay writers "touching on a gay theme." Unfortunately, most of these stories do little more than that. The range of writers is impressive--Francoise Sagan, I. B. Singer, Daphne du Maurier, Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, James Baldwin, Ann Beattie among them--but the focus is all too frequently on situations rather than on the characters. In Sagan's "The Unknown Visitor," a woman returns from shopping with a friend to find evidence of her husband's gay infidelity, while in William Trevor's "Torridge," an upperclassman in an English boarding school seeking to seduce a younger boy leaves a courtship note under the wrong pillow. And in Hemingway's "A Simple Enquiry," an interested army major interrogates a young adjutant as to his sexual preferences with only indirect reference to homosexuality. In evocative preludes to each story, editors Manguel ( Other Fires ) and Stephenson ( Between Worlds ) make valiant attempts to reconfirm the unity of the collection. However, the volume unintentionally chronicles more clearly how insignificant and tangential the portrayal of gay lives has been in the world literatures of the past.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Three Rivers Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 051788156X
• ISBN 13: 9780517881569
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 682
• Editor: Alberto Manguel