A Lover Mourned

by Carl Corley

The story of a college boy in Mississippi during World War II, and his family's reaction when he's expelled for being gay.

192 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[H. Givens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not his most riveting work, very similar to his other autobiographical novels, but interesting in its similarities. Revisits the theme of a lover dying/PTSD after WWII, but this time the protagonist is at home while it's going on, and he focuses more on the respectable Southern family's reaction -- and how unwarranted it is when the neighbors don't really care a whole lot. It might seem a little overwrought, and the speechifying is certainly unrealistic, but the protagonist's parents are startlingly similar to my own grandparents so it's a lot more true to life than it might appear. The ending is also interesting, with the guy basically deciding his romance was once in a lifetime and he'll marry a woman now, but all mixed in with meditations on how maybe in the future gay love will be able to survive in the south.

Read on www.carlcorley.com.