What do you think?
Rate this book
Obsessed: A Flesh and the Word Collection of Gay Erotic Memoirs
An uncensored collection of erotic secret fantasies, elusive loves, and titillating, forbidden encounters features Scott Heim's "I Am Going to Eat You," Brian Bouldrey's "Ex Marks the Spot," "Field of Vision" by Stephen Greco, and Charles Flowers's "In This Corner." Original.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1999
54 people want to read
About the author
Michael Lowenthal
30 books38 followersMichael Lowenthal is the author of the novels Charity Girl (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), Avoidance (Graywolf Press, 2002) and The Same Embrace (Dutton, 1998). His short stories have appeared in Tin House, the Southern Review, the Kenyon Review, and Esquire.com, and have been widely anthologized, in such volumes as Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge (HarperCollins), Bestial Noise: The Tin House Fiction Reader (Bloomsbury), and Best New American Voices 2005 (Harcourt). Three of his stories have received "Special Mention" in Pushcart Prize anthologies. He has also written nonfiction for the New York Times Magazine, Boston Magazine, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Out, and many other publications.
The recipient of fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Wesleyan writers' conferences, the MacDowell Colony, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, and the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers, Lowenthal is also the winner of the James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize. He teaches creative writing in the low-residency MFA program at Lesley University.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Lowenthal worked as an editor for University Press of New England, where he founded the Hardscrabble Books imprint, publishing such authors as Chris Bohjalian, W.D. Wetherell, and Ernest Hebert. He studied English and comparative religion at Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1990 as class valedictorian.
Lowenthal lives in Boston, where he is an active former board member of the literary human rights organization PEN New England.
The recipient of fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Wesleyan writers' conferences, the MacDowell Colony, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, and the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers, Lowenthal is also the winner of the James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize. He teaches creative writing in the low-residency MFA program at Lesley University.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Lowenthal worked as an editor for University Press of New England, where he founded the Hardscrabble Books imprint, publishing such authors as Chris Bohjalian, W.D. Wetherell, and Ernest Hebert. He studied English and comparative religion at Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1990 as class valedictorian.
Lowenthal lives in Boston, where he is an active former board member of the literary human rights organization PEN New England.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 4, 2023
An anthology of memoirs from gay men looking at aspects of "Obsession" published in 1999. Whether a reader will consider these to be "gay erotic memoirs" is another matter, but they are certainly gay, and they are mostly memoir, although it does wander off at times into what is now called "fan fiction."
There are some well-known names — the anthology opens with Andrew Holleran and closes with Scott Heim. Heim's contribution, about his fascination with a new student in high school, a boy who doesn't even know Scott exists, echoes Heim's novels where the object of attraction was named "Bill once, Rex another time, but in truth his name was Brad and I've never been as ferally obsessed with anyone, anywhere, before or since."
In the 1990s gay men were writing for a primarily gay audience. Some of these stories veer into uncomfortable territory, but assuming the writers are aiming for honesty, I was both squirming and applauding. Should we not be free to write our own stories, with as much courage and insight as we can muster? For example, two pieces relate sexual encounters with their brothers; in one case they were twins. Stories about sex and obsession are not necessarily erotic.
Overall though, I was impressed by the depth here, and the variety of stories. These pieces are not the sentimental sanitized m/m romance which is passing for "gay fiction" these days. In this anthology, gay writers provide insight into the messy 1990s gay landscape, with all its self-loathing, queer obsessions, and hard edges. In other words, monogamy is not a feature or focus of these complicated narratives.
Rounded up to 5 stars because I've been reading it for a month, and feeling nostalgic.
There are some well-known names — the anthology opens with Andrew Holleran and closes with Scott Heim. Heim's contribution, about his fascination with a new student in high school, a boy who doesn't even know Scott exists, echoes Heim's novels where the object of attraction was named "Bill once, Rex another time, but in truth his name was Brad and I've never been as ferally obsessed with anyone, anywhere, before or since."
In the 1990s gay men were writing for a primarily gay audience. Some of these stories veer into uncomfortable territory, but assuming the writers are aiming for honesty, I was both squirming and applauding. Should we not be free to write our own stories, with as much courage and insight as we can muster? For example, two pieces relate sexual encounters with their brothers; in one case they were twins. Stories about sex and obsession are not necessarily erotic.
Overall though, I was impressed by the depth here, and the variety of stories. These pieces are not the sentimental sanitized m/m romance which is passing for "gay fiction" these days. In this anthology, gay writers provide insight into the messy 1990s gay landscape, with all its self-loathing, queer obsessions, and hard edges. In other words, monogamy is not a feature or focus of these complicated narratives.
Rounded up to 5 stars because I've been reading it for a month, and feeling nostalgic.
March 24, 2024
This 2022 review was corrected in 2024 for spelling and grammar errors only).
To be honest this is not strictly speaking a collection of memoirs - I would be very surprised if most of the authors in this anthology would describe their contributions as factual accounts of what they remember, and thank god - the idea that this was a collection of reportage of past experience held me back from reading this anthology.
This anthology is a collection of fine writing that may be based on, but are certainly not written as, 'memoirs' of any authors sexual attraction/desire/obsession at a particular time, place, etc. Rather it is a fine collection of stories with a highly charges erotic/sexual element but it is first and foremost a collection of very good writing - with authors such as Andrew Holleran, Brian Bouldrey, Scott Heim and Allan Gurganus (to name only a few of the very fine writers in this anthology). I think the 'memoir' tag must be seen as a marketing description. This anthology was published in 1999 just a year before the first of J.T. Leroy's novels and three before Frey's 'A 1000 Little Pieces'. It was, maybe still is, a publishing industry truism that 'true' stories sell. It has been a pernicious and destructive idea that a novel is just a 'made-up' story whereas 'memoirs' are 'truth'.
I love anthologies and 'gay' literature and authors were lucky that from the 1980's through the 90's and into the first decade of the twenty first century some remarkably fine collections of literary fiction* were produced in response to the explosion in gay publishing. An incredible amount of the writing is still worth reading and the anthologies are a rich resource for hunting out authors to read, although often with the sad coda of discovering that the author of a brilliant story did not live long enough to fulfil an early promise.
I unreservedly recommend this anthology and have every intention of exploring the earlier and later volumes in this series.
*Sorry if this appears snobby but I am attempting to distinguish between the anthologies like the one under review and those 'themed' anthologies of love/travel/christmas/romance/holiday stories.
To be honest this is not strictly speaking a collection of memoirs - I would be very surprised if most of the authors in this anthology would describe their contributions as factual accounts of what they remember, and thank god - the idea that this was a collection of reportage of past experience held me back from reading this anthology.
This anthology is a collection of fine writing that may be based on, but are certainly not written as, 'memoirs' of any authors sexual attraction/desire/obsession at a particular time, place, etc. Rather it is a fine collection of stories with a highly charges erotic/sexual element but it is first and foremost a collection of very good writing - with authors such as Andrew Holleran, Brian Bouldrey, Scott Heim and Allan Gurganus (to name only a few of the very fine writers in this anthology). I think the 'memoir' tag must be seen as a marketing description. This anthology was published in 1999 just a year before the first of J.T. Leroy's novels and three before Frey's 'A 1000 Little Pieces'. It was, maybe still is, a publishing industry truism that 'true' stories sell. It has been a pernicious and destructive idea that a novel is just a 'made-up' story whereas 'memoirs' are 'truth'.
I love anthologies and 'gay' literature and authors were lucky that from the 1980's through the 90's and into the first decade of the twenty first century some remarkably fine collections of literary fiction* were produced in response to the explosion in gay publishing. An incredible amount of the writing is still worth reading and the anthologies are a rich resource for hunting out authors to read, although often with the sad coda of discovering that the author of a brilliant story did not live long enough to fulfil an early promise.
I unreservedly recommend this anthology and have every intention of exploring the earlier and later volumes in this series.
*Sorry if this appears snobby but I am attempting to distinguish between the anthologies like the one under review and those 'themed' anthologies of love/travel/christmas/romance/holiday stories.
February 6, 2016
Although a few of these were a bit raunchy even for my tastes, I found this to be well written for the most part, and even ordered some novels online by a few of the authors.
February 9, 2020
I helped edit the story "Love Maps," but I really enjoyed almost all of these stories. Some are funny, some are terrifying, some are moving.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews