Writers Talking Shop.
Gay Fiction Speaks: Conversations with Gay Novelists by Richard Canning Columbia University Press. 352 pages, $49.50Even the most serious bibliophile can read only so many commentaries on the art of fiction, even brilliant ones, before ennui begins to set in--which is why Gay Fiction Speaks should be taken one interview at a time. The book contains some of the finest gay writers of our time, and because each writer is as eloquent (and often as chatty) as the last, the book teeters on having an embarrassment of riches. But the interviews are saved from laboriousness by the interviewer, Richard Canning, who changes the pace and shifts topics frequently. The interviews are lengthy, rigorous pieces, twelve in all, including many of the best-known American and British gay writers.
David Bergman writes in the book's foreword that "The best interviews are a form of drama in which character and ideas are simultaneously developed and revealed." Nevertheless, most readers look to these kinds of books for literary gossip or for the authors' takes on trends. In this respect, the writers in Gay Fiction Speaks are happy to oblige. John Rechy, for example, remarks: "Look at what's happening to our art and literature. It's getting smaller and more narrow. ... We're not even penetrating the state of literature."
Often the authors' ideas and styles butt up against each other. When the list includes luminaries like Edmund White and Andrew Holleran, veterans like Rechy and Armistead Maupin, and the controversial David Leavitt, the hope is that some fundamental truth will come out of the whole discourse. Instead, there are wildly divergent views, tastes completely at odd with each other, and authors who make bald criticisms of one another. In other words, don't expect to find a single prescription for how to write the great gay American novel, and don't expect to find the essence of that elusive "gay sensibility." Rather, take pleasure in discovering competing notions and tastes--which is what literature should be about, after all. Allan Gurganus and Felice Picano are two especially wise and witty commentators, and Dennis Cooper's chronic Peter Pan syndrome makes for good reading.
Rather than Delphic truths, readers of this book will find a meaty compendium of worthwhile thoughts and ideas to mull over. The interviewer and the authors have collaborated to bring forth a wealth of colorful authorial confessions, personal and historical anecdotes, prescriptions for a host of the world's ills, and takes on the intersections of life and fiction.
Andrew Holleran, for example, admits: "That's the bitch of writing. You sacrifice; you make choices. I don't like to make choices in life, and I don't like to in writing. I hate giving up anything." Gurganus offers: "My great faith is that the narrative knows more than I do. If I trust it, setting it in motion, it exerts its own laws and rules and will lead me to places I couldn't have got to if I'd sat down ... and blocked out the book in outline." Leavitt cops to a few of his writing tricks, such as beginning a story by writing the last line. His views on sex and its effect on writing and life are also though-provoking: "Obsession's what makes sex interesting."
Kudos should go to the scholarly Brit behind the interviews, Richard Canning, who's a professor at Sheffield University. Canning deserves praise for sticking to his proposed aim: to explore serious, critical issues of craft rather than literary gossip and biographical sidetracks. Further, his meticulous researching of his subjects really shines through in his probing, focused interrogations. Canning's only major fault is an excessive eagerness to impress his interlocutors, and a sometimes pedantic style that begins to abrade by book's end. But this is a small price to pay for the valuable insights he's provided into the minds that shaped and continue to shape gay literary culture.
Christopher Hennessy is a freelance writer living in Boston.
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| Title Annotation: | Review; Gay Fiction Speaks: Conversations with Gay Novelists |
|---|---|
| Author: | HENNESSY, CHRISTOPHER |
| Publication: | The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide |
| Article Type: | Book Review |
| Date: | Jul 1, 2001 |
| Words: | 652 |
| Previous Article: | A Crisis of Two Continents. |
| Next Article: | Memorable Forgotten Poet. |
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