Arts & Entertainment
Something Inside : Conversations with Gay Fiction Writers
Witness to Revolution : The Advocate Reports on Gay and Lesbian Politics, 1967 - 1999
Arts & Entertainement
Something Inside:
Conversations with Gay Fiction Writers
Reviewed by Ernie McLeod
Q: Why is Brad Gooch, one of the lesser writers featured in "Something Inside: Conversations with Gay Writers," the only writer on the front cover?
A: Because he’s a pretty boy and publishers think–not without evidence–that gay men only buy books with hunks on the cover. That pet peeve out of the way, let me say that "Something Inside," while not a book for everyone, has much to offer any follower or potential follower of "gay fiction" (exactly what is meant by "gay fiction" is one of the discussions in the book) and is a near must-read for any aspiring gay fiction writer.
As the title implies, this anthology is not so much a series of formal interviews as a series of conversations between writers. Philip Gambone, who conducted all of the "conversations," is a fiction writer himself and, as such, his questions tend towards the literary and away from gossip, fashion, and political debate. There is, however, a nice balance between specific questions about each author’s life and work and more general questions about where gay fiction’s been and where it’s going. Some examples: Can you write effectively about a plague that’s not over? Is it still possible to write an original coming-out story? Is there a gay sensibility and, if so, does it depend on the concealment of homosexuality? Is a gay writer someone who just happens to be gay, or someone whose sexuality is at the very core of his work?
As a guide through these thorny issues, Gambone is mild-mannered and perceptive, refreshingly unpretentious. Rather than following a stock agenda, he takes cues from each writer and mostly lets the conversations go where they will. Some questions are repeated: Who has inspired you? Do you have any advice for beginning gay writers? What are your work habits? As someone unnaturally fascinated by the work habits of others, particularly in comparison to my own desultory rituals, I was glad Gambone delved into the mundane yet critical matter of how various artists manage to plod through each lonely working day without going insane. I found the later interviews in the book to be more interesting than the earlier ones, which may speak to Gambone’s increasing skill as an interviewer, or simply to coincidences of arrangement.
So, who did he interview? Twenty-one men, including established writers like Ed White, Paul Monette, David Leavitt, and Christopher Bram, as well as relatively new or lesser known writers like Brian Keith Jackson, Scott Heim, and Bernard Cooper. The interviews are arranged chronologically in three groups, the first dating from 1987-90, the second from a 1993 radio series, the last from 1994-98. Though a reasonably diverse cross-section is represented, ranging from self-described pornographer John Preston, to Peter Cameron–whose sparely elegant novels and stories often lack gay protagonists, to Randall Kenan–who writes from a Southern African American perspective, it is hardly an exhaustive survey. Gambone admits that the reason certain writers appear and others do not has as much to do with happenstances of availability and promotion as with any careful design on his part. In other words, there was no book in mind originally, which gives the anthology a slightly haphazard quality.
Two of my favorite interviews are with Michael Cunningham and the late Allen Barnett. I knew and admired Barnett’s poignant collection of stories, "The Body and Its Dangers," but knew little about him except that it was his only published work and that he died not long afterwards of AIDS. Gambone’s talk with Barnett is one of the loosest in the book–chatty and spirited, sexy and profoundly sad. A reminder of how many artists were lost before they had a chance to be found. The 1993 interview with Cunningham, currently at a career high since winning the Pulitzer Prize for "The Hours," should be inspirational for any self-doubting beginning writer (is there any other kind?). Cunningham wittily and humbly chronicles his lean years, when it took absurd bravado to pursue a career he thought comparable to "building a scale model of the Eiffel Tower out of popsicle sticks." Cunningham believes that as time marches on, "gay literature" as a category distinct from other kinds of literature becomes "increasingly less interesting and useful." I agree.
One of the enjoyable things about reading Something Inside was seeing how my work-based impression of a writer stacked up against my impression after I’d gleaned a few personality insights. For instance, I was surprised that David Plante, whose work I’d found a bit lofty, comes across as pleasantly down to earth in conversation. David Leavitt, in one of the early interviews, seems defensive and slightly paranoid, which makes sense when you read Dennis Cooper’s arrogantly militant bashing of Leavitt. Andrew Holleran’s bleak assessment of gay life proves more palatable on the page–where it’s rendered in gorgeously accurate language–than in "real-life," where it’s just dreary. Then there’s the ever-articulate Edmund White, whose fiction I sometimes find mannered, but who has no equals when it comes to interviews.
Robert Giard’s black and white photographs (of many, though not all, of the writers) are a nice inclusion. No one matches Mr. Gooch’s matinee idol looks, of course, with the possible exception of Scott Heim, who confesses he’s always wanted to be famous. Depressingly, writing gay fiction is probably not the way to fame. As someone trying to carve out a such a career, I wonder how many people actually care about gay fiction, or any kind of fiction, these days? Ironically, in a time when more literature by openly gay writers is getting published, interest in this literature seems to be waning. Not so long ago, when there were virtually no portrayals of gay people by gay people except in fiction, each new book was a milestone.
In 1999, with film and TV and journalism thrown into the mix, that’s no longer the case. Perhaps efforts like this one can play some small role in bringing attention to deserving new writers and keeping attention on those around long enough to be forgotten. Maybe Oprah should get a copy?
Something Inside: Conversations with Gay Fiction Writers
by Philip Gambone
with Photographs by Robert Giard
University of Wisconsin Press, 341pp, $24.95