Best American Gay Fiction by Brian Bouldrey


Best American Gay Fiction
Title : Best American Gay Fiction
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0316103179
ISBN-10 : 9780316103176
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 336
Publication : First published September 1, 1996

Since the Stonewall riots and the emergence of a vibrant, public homosexual culture, gay male fiction has been gradually coming out of the shadows and Brian Bouldrey's series Best American Gay Fiction is a fine barometer of its current state. These 21 pieces--ranging from excerpts of recently published novels to original short stories to fictionalized memoir--reflect the emotional and literary diversity of gay writing today. Bouldrey has chosen work by the already famous such as Andrew Holleran and Dale Peck, cult writers such as Kevin Killian, and up-and-coming authors such as Kolin M. Ohi and Tom House.

Best American Gay Fiction Reviews

  • Blake Kanewischer

    I've never liked anthologies because of the inconsistent styles, genres, and subject matter. Apparently I'm a slow learner.

  • Charles McCaffrey

    An amazing collection of short story fiction from some of the top writers in the genre.

  • Marsha

    This is one of the dreariest anthologies I’ve ever read. Page after page, story after story, held little but misery, defeat and despair. The stories even lack humor, which is a most egregious failing.

    These stories are filled with incidents of illness, sickness, injury, death, bloodshed, violence, crimes, sex crimes (including incest, pedophilia and prostitution), homophobia, drinking, drugs and shame. There are smatterings of something approaching joy and happiness in this tome. But most of it is just mixed up with sordid decrepitude. There is one story, named “Cassandra”, that rather startled me. But that was merely because I’d actually seen it performed as part of a stage play. The pleasure was mainly from recognition and only partially a grudging admiration of the titular character.

    The stories are undeniably well written; there is no doubt about that. The authors are skilled in getting across their various points, in creating characters that sear the memory. But I would have appreciated one good joke out of all this. Then again, one joke wouldn’t have been enough to save this collection.

  • Virgowriter (Brad Windhauser)

    This collection turned out to be better than I anticipated. Not every story is strong (what collection is?); however, these stories provide an interesting an important snapshot of our community, as far as what concerns weighed on us most in the early and mid 90s.