Lover of My Soul: A Search for Ecstasy and Wisdom

by Perry Brass

"I see at the close of this century a vast emotional, spiritual, and psychological deprivation. Gay men experience this more than others because our images are usually excluded from advertising and the mass media. Therefore, we are more in touch with this deprivation -- and have a greater need to fill it"."Perry Brass's combination of white hot eroticism and spirituality is unique among gay writers. His work is both fantastic in his imagination, and utterly believable in its human passion". -- William J. Mann, author

Strikingly designed. The holiday gay book of 1997! How does a gay -- and Jewish -- man develop a relationship with the mysterious figure of Jesus? What is the hidden "work" of gay men? How does one pull depth and nourishment from a commercialized "gay lifestyle"?

These questions are addressed in The Lover of My Soul, acclaimed poet/novelist/essayist Perry Brass's first collection of poetic writings since Sex-charge. For readers who don't do poetry, The Lover of My Soul will be a revelation. Brass has put the flesh and blood of experience into this unique form. Unsparing. Direct. Honest. Lover does for the yearning for the gay spirit what Lammy-nominated Sex-charge did for poetic eroticism -- and always with the delightful humor, heat, and pathos for which Brass has become famous.

Also included are Perry's extensive -- and hilarious -- collection of "zinger" aphorisms called "How to Survive (And Even Overcome) the Stupidities of What Passes As the Wisdom of Modern Life"

The Lover of My Soul is a guidebook to the place we seek: the union of ourselves with something more powerful, forgiving, and wise.

97 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1997

About the author

Perry Brass has published 23 books, including poetry, novels, short fiction, science fiction, and advice books (How to Survive Your Own Gay Life; The Manly Art of Seduction; The Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love). A member of the New York Gay Liberation Front, he has been involved with lgbtq rights since 1969, shortly after the Stonewall Uprising, co-editing Come Out!, GLF’s groundbreaking newspaper. In 1972, with two friends, he co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Project Clinic, the first clinic specifically for gay men on the East Coast, still thriving as the Callen-Lorde Community Health Service. His sexually frank novels are visionary: they include Albert or the Book of Man, 1995, which prefigured the rise of a White Christian Party that would control America, curbing reproductive, gay, and women’s rights; The Harvest, 1997, about the wholesale use of “harvested” human organs; The Substance of God, a Spiritual Thriller, 2004, about the rise of a powerful religious fundamentalist network of business interests; and Carnal Sacraments, 2007, about a mega-corporation (Amazon?) that would rule the world. His latest book is A Real Life, “Like Mark Twain with Drag Queens,/b>,” a memoir. He can be reached through his website, http://www.perrybrass.com or on Facebook.