From the “It’s-Not-Too-Late-To-Read-A-Summer-Book” Department: a glance at four very different lesbigayish books. For a reviewer in the Chicago Sun-Times, (8/19) E. Lynn Harris’ Any Way the Wind Blows is like junk food, tasty but not memorable. Harris has a formula, says the review, consisting of pop culture references, and “sassy black gay” men. Wind concerns a former Broadway star and her two bisexual lovers (who also have been involved with each other). Sounds like a beach book to me.
For the more serious minded, Gielgud: A Theatrical Life by Jonathan Croall, reviewed in The New York Times Book Review (8/12) tells of the great actor’s life on and off the stage. The reviewer praises the author for not stinting on Gielgud’s homosexuality. Among anecdotes: Gielgud admitted he had problems in physical scenes with women. One of his Desdemonas said she practically had to strangle herself. Gielgud’s first lover, John Perry, was stolen by powerful producer (I’m not making this up) Binkie Beaumont. His second lover, Martin Hensler, was a “rather sullen but expensive partner.” When Gielgud made a pass at a plainclothes policeman in a public lavatory and was afraid to go on stage in the show he was appearing in, Dame Sybil Thorndike, after embracing him, said “Oh, John, you have been a silly bugger” and took him onstage. “Come along, John darling, they won’t boo me!” A complete and well-written life history, says the Times.
The New York Times (8/5) also reviews The Scarlet Professor: Newton Arvin, A literary Life Shattered by Scandal by Barry Werth. It shows the closeted gay life of a professor at Smith College in the 1950s. Arvin, a noted scholar of Hawthorne, Whitman, and Melville collected beefcake magazines and gay pornography, and kept sexually eplicit diaries. The postmaster general was leading an anti-pornography campaign, and Arvin was exposed and arrested. He also named names when requested to by the police r.e. others with similar tastes. The biography is a bit unsympathetic to Arvin, noting also that he disouraged the love of his life, Truman Capote, from visiting often as he needed to be alone. A glimpse into how different sexual matters were in America merely 50 years ago would be useful to many readers who didn’t live through that era.
The New York Times (8/19) has a front-page story illustrating the fact that with fear from AIDS fading, many gay men are ignoring the old preventative messages the community has thrown up. Seth Watkins, an HIV prevention educator and counselor, is infected and goes to the back room of the Powerhouse on Folsom Street where he had unprotected sex. His behavior reflects increasing HIV infection rates among young gay men. The internet is sometimes involved. One study shows meeting sexual partners this way increases by four times the possibility of unprotected sex.
The Chicago Sun-Times (8/19) reviews a documentary, 5 Girls, which shows the socio-economic diversity of five young women from Chicago and their relationships with their friends, family and community. One young woman, Corrie, was dissatisfied with her portrayal. “I felt that I was painted as the token bisexul. I have a lot more in life. I’m certainly more than my sexuality.” The director, Maria Finitzo, said about all the girls: “Most of the time, I wasn’t even aware that I was with adolescent girls. … They had a depth that we don’t often give girls credit for.”