Putting the "adult" in adultery: a gay couple's open relationship is put to the test in Christopher Bram's probing new novel, Exiles in America.

Christopher Bram's latest novel, Exiles in America, is so compulsively readable it's easy to overlook its brimming wisdom. The story follows Zack and Daniel, a long-term openly nonmonogamous couple, and Daniel's fiery affair with a married Iranian Muslim painter. From the boredom to the bickering to the unexpected moments of love and support between the two partnered men, Exiles is a refreshingly honest take on the ups and downs of gay domestic life. In a gay-press exclusive, Bram--the award-winning author of Father of Frankenstein, the hit biography of gay Hollywood director James Whale that later became Gods and Monsters--spoke with The Advocate about his current book, open relationships, and why, after 26 years with his partner, he has no need for a court-sanctioned stamp of approval.

Why did you choose Robert Louis Stevenson's quote on marriage, "a sort of friendship recognized by the police," as the epigraph for the novel?

It puts marriage in a realistic, not romantic, light.

You've stated that most gay couples you know have tried open relationships. While writing Exiles, did you worry about the reactions of people, straight and gay, to Zack and Daniel's sexual arrangement, now that same-sex marriage is such a contentious issue?

No. I'm lucky. I don't think about what people are going to say when I'm writing. It's only me and the characters. But I can imagine the criticism: "Oh, what will straight people think? Is it good for the gays?"

Did you have an open relationship?

[Pauses] My partner and I have had an open relationship. It's casual and has its parameters. It's not problem-free, and it gives you a new set of things to argue about. But it's a more interesting thing to fight about than whose turn it is to take out the garbage.

Don't you think the legalization of same-sex marriage would change the institution, as conservatives fear, because many gay male couples practice nonmonogamy?

Not really. I think everybody makes their own marriage, straight or gay, even without the police involved.

Tell me why you chose an Iranian Muslim as Daniel's lover.

When the novel began to come to me and I needed another couple opposite Zack and Daniel, I thought it might make an interesting mix if the man were Iranian and Muslim. While I was still making up my mind, I walked by the art gallery at [New York University] one day and saw they were having a show of recent Iranian art. I went in and decided, yes, my character will be from Iran. Only after I made my choice did I see all the political, philosophical, and sexual colors involved.

American culture perpetuates the myth of monogamy in long-term relationships, both gay and straight, ignoring the role that extramarital affairs or sexless companionships play in sustaining those relationships.

Yeah, they want to play up that myth. Look at the Clintons. They have a marriage that clearly works. It's almost like a gay marriage. The joke is that Clinton was the first black president, but you could say that he had the first gay marriage. And they've stayed together, unlike Newt Gingrich, who divorces his wife on her deathbed and no one bats an eye. Comparably, the divorce rate of conservative Republicans is extremely high.

I like Daniel's line about "putting the 'adult' back into adultery." Do you think that's possible?

I think you can try, but you can't succeed. Even in French movies and novels, the stories are always about when it goes wrong, which it seems ultimately is going to happen. I'm sure there are many cases where it doesn't go wrong, but that doesn't make an interesting story.

For the most part, Zack seems so tolerant and well-adjusted to Daniel's affairs. Are you like that with a partners lovers?

Generally. But then you'll be surprised who makes you jealous.

Would you get legally married if you could?

No. We've been fine for 26 years without it. We went to a lawyer about a decade ago and had the wills and power of attorney and necessary papers drawn. We've registered with city hall, for all that's worth. Why jinx it?

Bahr will be featured in the upcoming anthology From Boys to Men: Gay Men Write About Growing Up (Carroll & Graf).