David Avery's Blog

THE PRETTIEST STAR

The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels




This is one of the most searing, beautifully written, heart-wrenching, and insightful novels I have read in years (and I read a lot, especially in the area of gay fiction). If I were an English teacher, I would teach this book to my classes - it's that good. It took me on an emotional roller coaster ride with peaks and valleys of love and hatred and terror and bravery. I couldn't put it down.

One of the reasons this book spoke to me is how closely it hit home. I was a teenager in the 1980s and remember the "Gay Plague" headlines that terrified people everywhere, including people like me, who were terrified not just about AIDS, but about the sexual thoughts that swirled around in my head and what they might mean about me and who I was.

I remember the story of the young man in West Virginia who wanted to swim in a public pool on a hot day and created a local and national uproar that Oprah covered with a humanity lacking most everywhere else. I remember the shock of Rock Hudson's AIDS diagnosis and his gaunt face on magazine covers. I remember reading about young men who had escaped the hatred and small mindedness of their hometowns and then had to come back because they needed a place to die. I also remember a pervasive sense in the world that gay people deserved to get AIDS because of the perverted sex they had (i.e., men sleeping with men). I am happy the world is a better place, but I also think it is important to remember the shameful past (and the beauty and selflessness that shown through in even the darkest times).

THE PRETTIEST STAR captures all of the above with a haunting beauty and a masterful use of language and structure. It deserves to be an American classic. Thank you, Carter Sickels, for giving us this great gift.

5 stars!





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My Bare Naked Heart - Free on Amazon for 5 Days!

In case anyone would like to read MY BARE NAKED HEART and has a Kindle, I am giving the electronic version away for free from tomorrow (April 18, 2020) through Wednesday, April 22, 2020 on Amazon.com.

Please feel free to pass this along to any friends who you think might enjoy it.

I know this awful coronavirus is wreaking havoc on lives and ways of life around the world (I live in New York). All my best to everyone.

David Avery

QUATREFOIL is a beautifully written and important mid-20th century novel that should be better known than it is.

QUATREFOIL is a beautifully written and important mid-20th century novel that should be better known than it is. It tells the story of Phillip Froelich, the scion of a wealthy Oklahoma family, and Tim Danelaw, the scion of a wealthy Milwaukee family with a vast brewery fortune. It begins with a 23 year old Phillip about to be court martialed from the US Navy in 1946. At his darkest hour, he meets the handsome and mysterious Commander Danelaw who uses his connections in the Navy and his vast wealth to guide and protect Phillip when he most needs help. Tim is 10 years older and had longer to come to terms with who he is, and the familiar older-younger vibe of the story was appealing to me and believable.

The book jacket sums up the plot, so I won’t do that here. I will say the eloquent use of language and rich vocabulary pulled me right in, and I was sorry when the novel ended. The WWII era and its aftermath were impactful in the opportunities they presented for gay men and women to continue the slow, but steady march towards broader acceptance in law and society – a march that has taken decades and still continues. I understand that QUATREFOIL, which was published in 1950, is the first (or one of the first) books to show gay men and their love for each other in a positive light. That historical perspective alone makes QUATREFOIL worthy of reading.

It is saddening to think of the challenges both Phillip and Tim faced and the internal conflicts and conversations with oneself that each had to have. Gay sex was illegal then, and the threat of punishment and fear of blackmail made me uncomfortable enough to skip ahead to find out what happened, because I didn’t think I could bear to continue if the guys were to hate or kill themselves. I also found the treatment of women rather disturbing to read, since there seemed to be little sympathy or regard for women unwittingly tricked into marrying men who could never fully love them.

The book isn’t perfect, but probably could have been with a different editor. Structurally, I think the tension of the impending court martial could have been used to better effect in terms of driving the plot. Additionally, as rich as the language is, I think some passages and conversations between Phillip and Tim continued longer than they should have and bogged the story down. With tighter editing, those could have been fixed and QUATREFOIL would edge over the line to greatness. That said, I loved the book overall and would put it on the shelf next to THE CITY AND THE PILLAR, GIOVANNI’S ROOM, and A BOY’S OWN STORY in terms of its importance to gay-themed literature, particularly of its time.

5 stars!

Tab Hunter! A Fun Memoir of a Sexy (and Gay) Screen Icon

Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star by Tab Hunter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I only had a vague awareness of who Tab Hunter was until I came across the TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL documentary on Netflix, which definitely piqued my curiosity and which was based upon this book. Man, what a hottie!! When he was in his 20s, women (and men) couldn’t get enough of his All American blond California boy looks, which is what America seemed to want in the conservative 1950s. Even though he was in his early 80s when the documentary was filmed, he came across as very handsome, fit, charming, and had a self-amusing way of speaking that made me want to learn more.

A vintage clip in the documentary has Tab saying “I’m Tab Hunter, and I’ve got a secret.” Boy, did he ever. While being sold as Warner Brothers’ major blond beefcake #1 sex symbol of the ‘50s, Tab’s secret was that he was gay. He kept that secret from the public, but his friends certainly knew and he was open with them. And despite the challenges of the times, he appeared to stay true to himself as he pursued a relationship with Anthony Perkins and had dalliances with others before settling down in the 1980s with a cute, dark-haired producer named Allan Glaser who was 30 years younger and produced the doc. His first long-term relationship appeared to have been with Neil Noorlag, a cute, dark-haired guy whom Tab was with for 7 years. (Since they spent so much time together, I would have liked to have heard more about him and their relationship).

I like books about old Hollywood, and this is a very good one. With no sense of ego, Tab writes about what it was like to be a major heartthrob poster boy in the 1950s as he rises up from a rough childhood and morphs from Art Gelien into Tab Hunter. Yes, Tab Hunter had a secret. But, he didn’t seem tortured by it and lived his life the best and happiest way he could given the constraints of the era. Despite a few brief flirtations with female actresses in his 20s, he was unapologetically content pursuing relationships (and clearly some side flings) exclusively with men even if he didn’t care to make his private life public.

Tab kisses and tells in TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL, but he doesn’t go into any details behind closed doors. Prurient minds (like mine) would have liked to have known some juicy details to go with the names he named. But, it probably would have been out-of-line with the tone of the book and, frankly, how he lived his life to tell too much other than to say that he fooled around with x, y, or z – even when in relationships. (My heart broke a little bit for cute Neil Noorlag to read about how Tab fooled around with Rudolf Nuryev in Rudolf’s London home while Tab and Neil stayed with him and Neil went out one day).

There were a few areas that felt thin to me and, if developed further, could have kicked this very good book up a notch to be classic memoir of this genre. But, overall, it was definitely a very fun, easy read that kept me engrossed and I definitely recommend it.

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5!



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A Gay Hero Fought for the Simple Dignity of Gay Men Being Allowed to Buy A Drink at a Bar. The 1966 New York Times Article About it Is Captioned: “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars”

Gay people are celebrated today in ways unthinkable before heroes like Dick Leitsch helped make it possible for gays to exist more fully in mainstream society. In 1960s New York and elsewhere, bars could refuse to serve people who were gay, and there were rules in some bars requiring patrons to be facing the bar so they could not be perceived as “cruising.” Police routinely set out to entrap men for seeking gay sex and arrest them. The New York Times routinely referred to gay men as "deviates" and simply being gay was seen ipso facto as being disorderly.

I didn't know Dick Leitsch's story until I read his obituary over the summer, so I wanted to post it here to commemorate his actions and thank him posthumously for making the world a better place. He set out to change those rules and staged a “sip in” at a bar in Greenwich Village where he and some friends identified themselves as homosexuals to the bartender, who refused them a drink and placed his hand over a glass in a photo that captured the moment.

One of the reviewers of MY BARE NAKED HEART expressed skepticism about my depiction of the discrimination against gay young men in college in the 1950s saying she didn’t remember the gay men she knew as having it that bad. The 1950s predate me, but I know with all certainty from my experiences of college life in the ‘80s that the ‘50s certainly had to have been bad and the discrimination and hatred very real. It only got better from the actions of many heroes who should never be forgotten.

There’s still a long ways to go, particularly if you are a gay couple who wants to buy a wedding cake from bigoted red state bakers. But, the world is a better place because of the actions of heroes like Dick Leitsch. A huge thanks, Dick, and here’s to you!

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/ob...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/ny...

Catholic School Rejected Its Gay Valedictorian’s Speech. So He Gave It With a Bullhorn

Now that I am a grown-up, I very often marvel with misty eyes when hearing about young people who speak out with a courage and eloquence I did not have when confronted with the hateful actions of adults in power. It's a core theme of my book that is set in the 1950s, which I felt (and accepted) when I was a high school student in the 1980s, and which saddens me to see in 2018, despite the incredible progress I never would have dreamed possible when I was graduating high school.

If you have a moment, please click through to this New York Times article on a brave young man named Christian Bales who earned the title of valedictorian of his Catholic high school in Kentucky but was denied the right to give the traditional valedictory speech - so he stood at the front of the school and gave it with a bullhorn provided by a proud and loving father.

The school rejected the speech for being too angry and polarizing (it isn't at all!), so one can't help but wonder if Christian's open gayness and the high heels he wore to the prom were the deciding factors in denying him the honor he had earned through years of hard work and innate brilliance. The article provides a link to his uncommonly eloquent and inspirational speech (he's only 18!), which I hope will move you as much as it did me.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/28/us...

All the best to you, Christian Bales, as you live a beautiful life!

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME - Oscar Nominations!

I was so happy to read that the film CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, which was based on the novel of the same name by Andre Aciman, was nominated in 4 Oscar categories:

Best Picture
Best Actor - Timothée Chalamet
Best Adapted Screenplay – James Ivory
Best OriginalSsong - (Sufjan Stevens - Mystery of Love)

The book is an intense, heart-wrenching gay love story and the film is absolutely beautiful. Timothée Chalamet’s performance, especially in the final minutes of the film, just simply wrecked me. I’m so happy the film and the above-listed individuals received this well-deserved recognition!

Ryan O’Callaghan’s plan was always to play football and then, when his career was over, kill himself.

This article made me teary-eyed. Former Patriots and Chiefs tackle Ryan O’Callaghan comes out as gay. He's 33, 6'5 and 330 lbs. He used college and professional football as his closet and his beard - and his lifeline, for his plan was to kill himself once his career was over. Luckily, he didn't.

Anway, I thought this was a very moving piece:

https://www.outsports.com/2017/6/20/1...

Another 99 cent Amazon Sale

Hi, everyone - If you or any of your friends haven't had a chance to read MY BARE NAKED HEART, I've made it a little easier this week. Until this Saturday, May 6, the Kindle version is on sale at Amazon for 99 cents.

It also continues to be free on Amazon Kindle Unlimited.

Thanks!

99 cent Amazon Sale

If you haven't had a chance to read MY BARE NAKED HEART, I've made it a little easier this week. Until next Saturday, February 18, the Kindle version it is on sale at Amazon for 99 cents.

And if you're open to writing a review and posting it here and on Amazon, I'm happy to send you a copy this week for free :) Just send me a message.

Thanks!