esrosedotblog

I just finished reading a time capsule left of the days of un-American activities and the scouring of homosexual men out of their establishment hiding places.

American Studies (1994) by Mark Merlis.

This is Merlis' first novel and while it covers a heavy, sad, repressed, pre-Stonewall time, it is funny, blithe and great to read.

Reeve finds himself in the hospital after being beaten up by a trick he brought home. Not a unique experience, bringing a trick home, but a first as far as getting beat up.

In his recovery, he reminisces about his life and, in particular, the time spent with his mentor Tom a "famous" professor who was the opposite of Reeve. Closeted in the extreme with a fondness for G-rated relationships with handsome boys he was teaching. "Wheaties" boys, Reeve says.

Tom is a full professor and expert on "American Studies", the excavation of late 19th century American literature. He reminds me of my own gay professors, one a drama guy with an interest in in 20th century works and another who ran a senior invitation only seminar on American authors of the post WWI period. Dead ringers for the kind of arch transparent interest in young men that stopped short of anything untoward. Very attractive to a younger gay man. Gaydar was working on all cylinders even then.

Tom has the bad fortune to also be a fellow traveler with more than a slight history of membership in Communist party fronts at a time when such memberships are suddenly thrust into the spotlight.

Congressional investigations.

Tom is discovered and made to resign. When he is reluctant to do so, his friendship with young men, one young man, the first love ever, the first consummated love, is uncovered and used against him. At Yale!

The book moves quite quickly and is funny because it has the fifties queens way of talking, the voice.

I knew a lot of men like this. They were one generation ahead of me. I am post Stonewall.

Very entertaining and sad at the same time. A perfect blend.

Merlis went on to write a book called The Arrow's Flight which is now a kind of classic. It concerns a modern retelling of the story of Pyrrhus, Achilles' gay 21-year-old son and how he comes to embrace a destiny that takes him far beyond the urban gay ghetto--and the half-hearted ""job"" of dancing nude and hustling--that he's resigned himself to.

I will be re-reading it.

It is great to find the older book and put the more successful book in context. There is another Merlis book which I will read soon, Man About Town. It is on my Kindle.

Labels: books