Two Halves of New Haven

by Martin Schecter

As Paul Levinson, a student at Yale Medical School, fights his way through the relentless pressure that the program presents, he struggles to come to terms with his identity as a homosexual who does not really want to become a doctor. A first novel. 12,500 first printing.

Genres: LGBT, Fiction

289 pages, Hardcover

First published June 16, 1992

Reviews

[James Frase-White]

This is a very interesting early autobiography, as Martin Schecter awakens the need to be himself. He faces a patriarchal society, working to establish a cohesive transition from immigrant to a capitalist society, as well as to integrate his religious heritage into the American system. And, most definitely, into a social network that is reticent to accept men who sexually desire other men. It begins at Yale Medical School, in company of those who have set their minds, and hearts, on becoming doctors. Martin realizes he does not fit into any of the programmed pathways set forward: he knows he can comprehend the science and behaviors of the medical creed, but his heart is not in it. His mind is driven by more expressive, artistic goals, to record, to picture, to analyze society in writing and especially cinematically. Sexually he has to negotiate the world of his physical and emotional desire towards men. Schecter's embrace, his reticence and his clear headed steps to join society are beautifully, and honestly written. Walk with him, and, maybe you may just see yourself through his eyes, and those, like he did, of the people who love and cherish him.