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RARE & SECONDHAND GAY RARE & SECONDHAND
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Fiction of Gay Interest
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Plot / Content: Rating: G "This is primarily the story of two young men, Phillip Froelich and Tim Danelaw, who are irrestistibly drawn to each other. Both are in every obvious respect what is generally considered masculine, and live and work in a completely normal man's social and professional world. Other men respect and admire their courage and ability and even their physical prowess. Women are very much attracted to both of them. "Tim, the older of the two, has already recognised and resolved the problem of his sexual deviation. Phillip has not. A product of rural life, with is patriarchal background, he has a fierce contempt for 'queers' and at the same time a deep and secret dread that the germ of homosexuality may be buried somewhere within himself. One or two incidents in his life have shaken him profoundly and have made him determined ruthlessly to crush any tendencies in himself as well as to avoid any close relations with other men. He is engaged to be married as soon as he is discharged from the Navy, and he intends to rear a big family, to take over the operations of his family's bank and other interests, and to become a responsible and civic-minded leader in his community. "As the story opens, he has almost reached the refuge and security he has so carefully planned. But then he meets Danelaw. From that moment the struggle begins - a tense and shattering emotional upheaval composed of aversion, self-contempt, admiration and - finally - love." (from the jacket) Background / Biography: James Fugaté published the novel Quatrefoil and other works under the pseudonym James Barr, an alias he also used in his work as an activist in the homophile movement of the 1950s. Information from and continued on glbtq.com Reviews: ". . . there are strong reservations to be voiced about James Barr's novel - not least because the central character, Phillip Froelich, is such an absolute shit and the other major character, Tim Danelaw, really is too good to be true. ". . . The women in the book aren't up to much either. Mr Barr appears to hold clichéd views about females: the species can be divided into two distinctive categories: saints and whores. Unfortunately his saints are simply boring and his whores unbelievable. "Characterization is not, however, the main failing of this ponderously long saga: the prime fault is with Mr Barr's writing style. To be perfectly blunt, Quatrefoil is written in a way which suggests that the author has imbibed too deeply from some dreadful [eighteen-]Nineties novel; the worst of Wilde, perhaps - The Picture of Dorian Gray. Mr Barr is excessively keen on description and acres of adjectives are brought into play to describe frocks and buildings, interiors and landscapes. It is all very wearisome. "Essentially a sprawling Mid-Western epic about rich folk, the core of Quatrefoil is the struggle, which Phillip, heir to the family banking fortune, has with his homosexuality and his developing love for Tim, his superior in the United States navy. Set in 1946 ... the book is heady with conversations in which these two men discuss the psychology of homosexuality. Unfortunately . . . it is impossible to read this book as positive. Phillip and Tim are too closely intent on ensuring their masculinity - and too keen on voicing the belief that if they become anything other than macho morsels, they will be on a disgusting downward slide to degeneracy. "First published in [the UK] by Vision Press and first encountered by me about twenty years ago, Quatrefoil was not a book that remained with me. Perhaps my xenophobic approches [sic] to American writing may be to blame - but there are far more British titles worthy of republication, to my mind, than this hideous tale." Peter Burton, Gay News (London, UK) no. 242 (date not known) Arbery Books currently (November 2011) has a copy of Barr's second novel, The Occasional Man, for sale. Arbery Books also sells secondhand and rare non-gay fiction and non-fiction. Click here for our full list. |
"There was fog at midnight, as gray as storm-shadowed ocean, as cold as salt spray exploding across a derelict's bow. But in storm and spray there is the challenge of combat. The fog offered no challenge. Relentlessly it moved over the Oregon coastline like the unhinged jaw of some gigantic, feeding reptile. The listing ship moored against the dock was being scrapped instead of having her battle wounds repaired, for the was was over. This was June, 1946. Once more the world was safe. Not for democracy or anything else this time, just pleasantly safe. " opening paragraph Secondhand booksellers |
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