REVIEWS Book Marks Richard Labonte | November 22, 2004 Arts and Letters, by Edmund White. Cleis Press, 372 pages, $24.95 hardcover. Edmund White's profile as a self-referentially sexual novelist is assured: is there any gay man with a shred of literary smarts who doesn't know of A Boy's Own Story? For White's fiction fans, this collection of perceptive riffs on queer-interest personalities includes "Writing Gay" – delivered as a university lecture – in which the author discusses the facts infusing his fiction; two more essays, on writing historical novels and on bisexuality, also stitch together autobiographical and critical reflections. But the other 36 essays display the brilliance and breadth of White's fecund cultural curiosity. A handful are gossipy – but astute – personality profiles: from Rolling Stone, Elton John's delightful exuberance; and from Us, David Geffen's conflicted connection to the gay world. Several come from other decidedly nonintellectual homes: Vogue (Michel Foucault), Savvy Woman (Andy Warhol), and even Amazon.com (Marcel Proust). Most are from more highbrow magazines, including White's account in the Times Literary Supplement of his feverish sexual encounter with closeted travel writer Bruce Chatwin. No matter where they first appeared, though, this is a lively, unpretentious assessment of 20th-century movers and shakers. Orphea Proud, by Sharon Dennis Wyeth. Delacorte Press, 208 pages, $15.95 paper. Wyeth writes "issue" novels with an African-American twist. Her earlier books touched on topics like slavery, family depression, interracial parents, and inner-city life, all touchstone themes in a young-adult universe. Another trendy YA topic – growing up queer and clever, brash and sassy – is the essence of Orphea Proud. And though she's not gay herself, Wyeth (who consulted with PFLAG in North Jersey) captures the voice of a black, poor, proud, and artistic young lesbian with realistic sympathy. The charming conceit of this novel is that 16-year-old Orphea is performing her life story – orphaned young, in love with a schoolgirl chum who dies after their affair is discovered – in a tiny New York performance space. The narrative, about the girl's troubled passage from a place of prejudice and hate to a safe and magical stage, is a happy-ever-after tale pitched perfectly for its 14-and-up audience. But there is also an edgy, mature lyricism to the book that an older audience might well enjoy. It's an inspirational tale for children of all ages. Whose Eye Is On Which Sparrow?, by Robert Taylor. Southern Tier Editions, 180 pages, $14.95 paper. Brendan is a privileged young white doctor with an adoring wife, adorable children, bigoted parents, and, if he wants it, a powerful political career. Jonathan is a stunningly beautiful, school-of-hard-knocks, and slightly younger African-American singer, directing an accomplished church choir while dreaming of a life in the world of opera. The twain meet over... a prostate exam. How queer is that? A melodramatic romance ensues, in which the driven doctor and the dreamy choirmaster must transcend the barriers – smartly if somewhat predictably articulated by Taylor – of class, race, culture, and sexual self-perception. This brisk novel – most chapters are fewer than five pages long – bristles with predictable angst, as the two men wrestle with their new realities. For love-intoxicated Brendan, this means confronting his wife's suspicions, his parents' angry disapproval, and the unsettling if joyous discovery that he likes being a queer. For Jonathan, this means juggling the pleasure of being romanced with the offer of a singing position in San Francisco. Does delicious love trump devastating reality? Well, there is that predictability... So Hard to Say, by Alex Sanchez. Simon & Schuster, 230 pages, $14.95 hardcover. Novels for high-school readers about coming to terms with being queer are almost a dime a dozen these days, and picture books about "different" families aren't hard to come by, either. But there aren't many gay-character young-adult novels for very young adults – for the middle-school crowd, ages 10 to 14. So Hard to Say fills the gap nicely. In alternating first-person chapters, Sanchez (Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High) tells the story of asthmatic and artistic Frederick, from white-bread Wisconsin, plunked into grade 8 in a largely Hispanic California school, and of Xio, the perky and determined chica who develops a serious crush on the new blond boy in town. She giggles with her girlfriends about Frederick, but he's attracted to hunky soccer player Victor. And they all avoid Iggy, a dimpled Latino lad derided as school fag. How Xio comes to understand the importance of friendship, how Frederick comes out to himself, and how Iggy figures into all their lives are the essential, effective, and entertaining themes of this touching and convincing novel. Featured Excerpt: How could she be dead, when only this morning I had felt her breath on the back of my neck? I opened my mouth and screamed. And I was sobbing into the quilt and pillow, seeing her face, drawing in ragged breaths of her fragrance, lemons, peanut butter, patchouli. My cheek fell upon a hard thing in the sheets, one of her earrings, a small gold hoop with an orange stone. I'm wearing it tonight, see? One of her striped socks appeared at the foot of the mattress. I cried until my sobs came up in dry heaves. – from Orphea Proud, by Sharon Dennis Wyeth Footnotes: HOW MUCH WILL gay men enjoy a series of romantic graphic novels in the manga genre, depicting "impossibly beautiful young men" – but written for Japanese teen girls? New York publisher Be Beautiful is testing the queer-reader waters by marketing translations of six bestselling "Yaoi" titles to gay bookstores: three books in the Kizuna: Bonds of Love series (by Kazuma Kodaka), about high-school martial-arts boys; two in the Selfish Love series (Nadouki Koujima), about boy-on-boy passion in the halls of academia; and Golden Cain (You Asagiri), about a male model drawn to a stunning, dangerous youth. All six novels ($15.95 each) feature long-haired and ethereally willowy young men, and the sex, exquisitely vanilla, is more implied than explicit – though Be Beautiful's American editions feature the front-cover warning, "Explicit Content: Parental Advisory." Given that the boys don't do much more than cuddle and kiss, the warning may be prompted by the fact that "pure" gay love – that is, passion unsullied by the physical act – is presented in a nicely nonjudgmental manner. For information: www.bebeautifulmanga.com... GERMAN PUBLISHER BRUNO GMUNDER is dabbling with Manga as well; Kinu Sekigushi's Manga Boys ($14.95) is a raunchier depiction of randy homosexuals at play – think Tom of Tokyo, rather than Tom of Finland. There is no dialogue, unlike the fey Be Beautiful books, but the story is vastly more erotic. Richard Labonte has been reading, editing, selling, and writing about queer literature since the mid-'70s. Previous edition Book Marks [11/11/2004]