Men on Men 2000: Best New Gay Fiction - Softcover

Various

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452280826 ISBN 13: 9780452280823

Publisher: Plume, 2000

Synopsis

Now spanning eight volumes and two decades, the Men on Men series continues to showcase the remarkable talent of gay literary writers. These venerable collections of short stories have become a gay literary institution, launching the careers of several, now luminary, writers--including Joe Keenan, Christopher Bram, Dale Peck, and David Leavitt. True to its tradition, Men on Men 2000 brings bright new literary talent together with established writers--such as Edmund White and Brian Bouldrey--to offer a poignant collection of gay fiction that is provocative and illuminating at every turn. This diverse group of voices etches an indelible portrait of gay life at the dawn of the twenty-first century, addressing issues such as identity and gender stereotypes, the power of love, the lingering shadow of AIDS, and the new adventure of fatherhood.

About this title

About the Author

David Bergman is a Professor of English at Towson State University, and is the author of Gaiety Transfigured: Gay Representation in American Literature and the editor of Camp Grounds: Style and Homosexuality. Bergman has published poetry in The Paris Review, The New Criterion, and The New Republic. He has edited a collection of Edmund White's essays entitled The Burning Library, and is presently working on a history of the Violet Quill group. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Reviews

Last year's Men on Men anthology, the seventh in the series, was a model of the form. Editor David Bergman chose some truly good and different--rather than truly safe or affirming--short fiction. This year, with first-time co-editor and fellow Baltimorean Karl Woelz, the collection seems to be aiming for social rather than literary significance. Many of the tales are quite enjoyable. But none, with one exception--Boston writer J.G. Hayes's contribution, "Regular Flattop," the moving story of three teenage friends, part of an Irish neighborhood gang--is exciting. Stories of common pain, common loss, common love and common death fulfill a social function (a number of stories about HIV-positive characters, in particular, remind readers that the threat of AIDS is still very real), but few of the entries achieve literary excellence. Nevertheless, contributions by Edmund White, Jim Grimsley, Brian Bouldrey and Jim Provenzano stand out, as do stories by five less established writers. A schoolteacher loses custody of his daughter to his boyfriend in Craig McWhorter's "Silent Protest"; another dispossessed but nonbiological father realizes that "whatever happened would happen between the parents and the grandparents" in William Lane Clark's "Quiet Game." Teenage boys discover love is a bitter business in stories by Kelly McQuain and Bill Gordon; a tragic accident haunts a man on vacation in Marseilles with his lover in "Second Island" by Patrick Ryan. Last year's anthology proved that GayLit could still pack a wallop. This year's proves it can also disappear into the mainstream. And for some, there's comfort in that. QPB selection. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Men on Men is, as its editors point out, ``the longest running series in gay literature.'' Its longevity may in part be explained by the high standard the annual volumes have maintained; its persistence also has something to do with the way that the anthologies have skillfully reflected the emergence of new themes in gay literature. Among those on display this year is a new emphasis on the experience of homosexuality among working-class adolescents and young men, represented in particularly strong tales like Kelly McQuade's ``Erasing Sonny'' and Bill Gordon's ``Home.'' Another intriguing trend is the attention gay writers are paying to the ways in which popular culture shapes how young people come to terms with their sexuality, explored in the moving ``Scarecrow,'' by Tom House, and in the unsettling ``Boulevard,'' by Jim Grimsley, among others. Of course, other themes are persistent: Richard McCann's ``The Universe, Concealed'' is a profoundly moving meditation on AIDS and the gay community, and David Vernon's ``Arrival'' is a deft study of the way in which two old friends try to avoid dealing with their knowledge of mortality. Another first-rate collection, impressively varied and strong: an excellent road-map to themes and voices in gay literature. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edited by Bergman, a poet, and Woelz, a freelance writer, this diverse if somewhat uneven collection of 20 short stories represents the work of primarily East Coast gay authors. The subtitle, however, seems like a misnomer. Rather than heralding a new age of gay fiction, this collection merely reworks gay stereotypes and themes that have been prevalent since the 1960s--coming out, cruising, and the loss of physical beauty in middle age. A few of the stories do manage to break out of these self-imposed literary closets: several deal with gay parenting (including two that describe breakups of that fragile unit in a way that is as destructive as any that straight parents might face); two people get reflective during a trip to Disneyland; and there is a haunting and dazzlingly descriptive piece by Edmund White set in Venice. Teen desire and the effect of AIDS and HIV on relationships round out the collection. Larger gay collections should probably add this title.
-Jeffery Ingram, Newport P.L., OR
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Plume
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0452280826
• ISBN 13: 9780452280823
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336
• Editor: Bergman David