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My Queer War
A POWERFUL STORY OF SEXUAL AWAKENING DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR FROM THE MEMORIST AND CRITIC
In My Queer War, James Lord tells the story of a young man’s exposure to the terrors, dislocations, and horrors of armed conflict.
In 1942, a timid, inexperienced twenty-one-year-old Lord reports to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to enlist in the U.S. Army. His career in the armed forces takes him to Nevada and California, to Boston, to England, and eventually to France and Germany, where he witnesses firsthand the ravages of total war on Europe’s land and on its people. Along the way he comes to terms with his own sexuality, experiences the thrill of first love and the chill of disillusionment with his fellow man, and in a moment of great rashness makes the acquaintance of the world’s most renowned artist, who will show him the way to a new life.
My Queer War is a rich and moving record of one man’s maturation in the crucible of the greatest war the world has known. If his war is queer, it is because each man’s experience is strange in its own way. His is a story of universal significance and appeal, told by a wry and eloquent observer of the world and of himself.
In My Queer War, James Lord tells the story of a young man’s exposure to the terrors, dislocations, and horrors of armed conflict.
In 1942, a timid, inexperienced twenty-one-year-old Lord reports to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to enlist in the U.S. Army. His career in the armed forces takes him to Nevada and California, to Boston, to England, and eventually to France and Germany, where he witnesses firsthand the ravages of total war on Europe’s land and on its people. Along the way he comes to terms with his own sexuality, experiences the thrill of first love and the chill of disillusionment with his fellow man, and in a moment of great rashness makes the acquaintance of the world’s most renowned artist, who will show him the way to a new life.
My Queer War is a rich and moving record of one man’s maturation in the crucible of the greatest war the world has known. If his war is queer, it is because each man’s experience is strange in its own way. His is a story of universal significance and appeal, told by a wry and eloquent observer of the world and of himself.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
57 people are currently reading
611 people want to read
About the author
James Lord
15 books8 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
James Lord was an American writer. He was the author of several books, including critically acclaimed biographies of the artists Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso (with whom he became acquainted in Paris during his Army service in the Second World War).
James Lord was an American writer. He was the author of several books, including critically acclaimed biographies of the artists Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso (with whom he became acquainted in Paris during his Army service in the Second World War).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
June 27, 2011
With a garish pink triangle stretched across Twin Peaks, it seemed like the right weekend for a queer memoir. Unfortunately this one nearly implodes under its own prose. The clotted syntax almost stopped me before I'd started, but Lord is good storyteller once he gets going. The thwarted, repressed romance of the first few chapters, unfolding in the deserts of Nevada, had me on edge – gay novels of the 40s and 50s usually ended in death and disaster (The City and the Pillar; Quatrefoil). Lord survives. He was, by his own account, a remarkably incompetent soldier yet, if even half of his tales are true, he had luck, integrity and undaunted charm. This is a young man who not only had handsome officers throwing themselves at him, but as soon as he got to Paris, managed to make friends with Picasso and Gertrude Stein. He sent a fevered letter to Thomas Mann, who answered him, only to have his generous reply published here with a couple inserted [sic]s.
Several of the stories unfold like set pieces in an arc of improbable dialogue and denouement, but the trajectory of Jim Lord's war is basically believable. For my taste, though, it wasn't nearly queer enough.
Several of the stories unfold like set pieces in an arc of improbable dialogue and denouement, but the trajectory of Jim Lord's war is basically believable. For my taste, though, it wasn't nearly queer enough.
May 28, 2023
So far, I'm hating the self-conscious, bloated prose. Faulkner he ain't.
July 14, 2010
This a beautifully written and fascinating coming-of-age memoir of a young gay man in World War II. He's an aesthete and an aristocrat, and he vividly describes both the atrocities of the war and the gay underworld that existed at the time, probably not found in many history books. He meets both Picasso and Gertrude Stein (and Alice B. Toklas) in wartime Paris.
February 12, 2017
What a sensational premise: while serving in the military, the author is recruited into an intelligence division and trained to "pinpoint the shrewd duplicity of others" while at the same time hiding his own sexuality. All autobiographies present obstacles, but this is a real humdinger, a high-concept fiction thriller film perhaps. About the title: it works beautifully on many levels. And the courageous Lord doesn't let anyone stop him from a number of romances, and a few heartbreaks as a result thereof. The writing itself is glorious, the language intelligent: how often does one come across words like 'disestablishmentarianism'? But at the center of the story, we have a soldier fighting among other soldiers. And to James Lord, who passed into another realm in 2009, thank you for this magnificent, honest, beautifully written book.
November 18, 2011
Lord may have purposely written this book as if he were the well-read, pretentious 20-something that he was during the period it covers -- if so, it's an interesting device. (I suspect what happened is that he culled from his journals from the time and the editor didn't really do his part.) But it doesn't make the writing any less insufferable. Lord uses alliterative phrases and archaisms to the point that he's a parody of himself. "Anent" in a regular sentence? Seriously?
I stuck with the book to the end because author has a fascinating story to tell, and the arc of the book is excellent. He's also incredibly honest. Hence the three stars -- otherwise I'd give it one star or wouldn't have even finished.
I stuck with the book to the end because author has a fascinating story to tell, and the arc of the book is excellent. He's also incredibly honest. Hence the three stars -- otherwise I'd give it one star or wouldn't have even finished.
July 18, 2023
This book tells the story of a 21-year old (Jim Lord) from New Jersey who enlists in the US Army in 1942. He happens to be gay, so it’s interesting to read how he experiences so much from Nevada to Boston to England to Paris. It’s not just about being gay during World War II. It’s about friendship, power, longing, stress, life, death, genius, hope and searching.
The book made me think of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1951) by James Jones which was set in 1941. It also reminded me—in parts—of HOLD TIGHT (1989) by Christopher Bram, a story about a WWII sailor, working in a gay brothel in NYC.
This book kept me interested and seemed very autobiographical. It was written by James Lord, the main character was James Lord. It was published in 2010, a year after James Lord died in 2009. It’s not designated as a novel, so who knows what parts are true. I especially liked his meetings with Picasso, the artist, in PARIS and his correspondence with the author Thomas Mann (both considered men of genius).
Here are the lines that captured my interest while reading:
And yes, oh, I did long to find a man beside me who would always be a friend to guide me.
I knew nothing about his private life, which remained as securely unknowable as his private parts, though my imagination toyed, so to speak, with both, and at times I caught myself crazily glancing at his crotch.
If you go to war, you can’t count on things coming out right, because war is wrong.
James Joyce (author of ULYSSES) said that a man of genius changes the world. He does. And I believed with all my being in the life-enhancing grandeur of genius.
How can you tell just when the person you like becomes the one you love? Or just why? You may recall where this happened, never forget what the clock said. But your mind spins in the space of the marvelous, the dazing conjecture of the physical and stupefying transformation of survival. Yes, a lifetime in an instant.
What mattered was not what I was leaving behind but everything I would travel toward.
Five days later, the unprecedented, unexpected, unpredictable, unimaginable, and the unbelievable but blessed and beautiful salvation came straight out of the dawn.
France…their country of convenience as clandestine meeting places for secret agents.
“This is your first time, isn’t it?” he said in my ear. “I can tell. I’ll show you what it’s like. You’ll like it. Just let yourself go, baby.”
So I did, and he did, and I did.
“Tell me about the miseries of your adolescence.”
“We’ll, what did you think? Did you realize that everybody has secret secrets? A hidden life. You have. I have. Didn’t you ever wonder?”
Then far beyond me in the snow they hailed a lone taxi, got in together, and the sickening automobile veered away, red taillights fainting into the void.
Riding the bike back…I had never in my life felt a breeze so gentle and euphoric in my hair.
“We all look to England—in America, I mean—we look to England because England’s where everything came for us, the language, of course, literature, laws, traditions, et cetera.”
“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.”
“The sooner suspects are questioned, the better the chances for results.”
PARIS was glorious, everything I had ever wanted it to be, and I had wanted it to be everything I had ever wanted.
I had dreamed of men of genius, staking the fantasy of future fulfillment upon their example.
A Picasso statement in a 1939 exhibition:
“A picture lives life like a living creature, undergoing the changes imposed upon us by our life from day to day. This is natural enough, as the picture lives only through the man who is looking at it.”
“All the world has bad places, and bad places naturally produce bad people, and the worse the people become, the worse the places get, and the worst places produce unthinkable consequences.”
I realized that my sexual life had been revived after a very long hiatus.
I wished for nothing more than freedom to do as I pleased day and night in this captivating city…Paris.
“Together we’re just right.” (what I said after he said he was in love with me).
“We’ve found that gay boys are often more inventive and adaptable than straights. Could be because they’ve had to be inventive to get along in straight society.”
Always remember that everything in an individual’s experience has a meaning, nothing is truly accidental, what may appear to be happening is in reality an act.
Like every beginning writer, I longed for publication.
The book made me think of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1951) by James Jones which was set in 1941. It also reminded me—in parts—of HOLD TIGHT (1989) by Christopher Bram, a story about a WWII sailor, working in a gay brothel in NYC.
This book kept me interested and seemed very autobiographical. It was written by James Lord, the main character was James Lord. It was published in 2010, a year after James Lord died in 2009. It’s not designated as a novel, so who knows what parts are true. I especially liked his meetings with Picasso, the artist, in PARIS and his correspondence with the author Thomas Mann (both considered men of genius).
Here are the lines that captured my interest while reading:
And yes, oh, I did long to find a man beside me who would always be a friend to guide me.
I knew nothing about his private life, which remained as securely unknowable as his private parts, though my imagination toyed, so to speak, with both, and at times I caught myself crazily glancing at his crotch.
If you go to war, you can’t count on things coming out right, because war is wrong.
James Joyce (author of ULYSSES) said that a man of genius changes the world. He does. And I believed with all my being in the life-enhancing grandeur of genius.
How can you tell just when the person you like becomes the one you love? Or just why? You may recall where this happened, never forget what the clock said. But your mind spins in the space of the marvelous, the dazing conjecture of the physical and stupefying transformation of survival. Yes, a lifetime in an instant.
What mattered was not what I was leaving behind but everything I would travel toward.
Five days later, the unprecedented, unexpected, unpredictable, unimaginable, and the unbelievable but blessed and beautiful salvation came straight out of the dawn.
France…their country of convenience as clandestine meeting places for secret agents.
“This is your first time, isn’t it?” he said in my ear. “I can tell. I’ll show you what it’s like. You’ll like it. Just let yourself go, baby.”
So I did, and he did, and I did.
“Tell me about the miseries of your adolescence.”
“We’ll, what did you think? Did you realize that everybody has secret secrets? A hidden life. You have. I have. Didn’t you ever wonder?”
Then far beyond me in the snow they hailed a lone taxi, got in together, and the sickening automobile veered away, red taillights fainting into the void.
Riding the bike back…I had never in my life felt a breeze so gentle and euphoric in my hair.
“We all look to England—in America, I mean—we look to England because England’s where everything came for us, the language, of course, literature, laws, traditions, et cetera.”
“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.”
“The sooner suspects are questioned, the better the chances for results.”
PARIS was glorious, everything I had ever wanted it to be, and I had wanted it to be everything I had ever wanted.
I had dreamed of men of genius, staking the fantasy of future fulfillment upon their example.
A Picasso statement in a 1939 exhibition:
“A picture lives life like a living creature, undergoing the changes imposed upon us by our life from day to day. This is natural enough, as the picture lives only through the man who is looking at it.”
“All the world has bad places, and bad places naturally produce bad people, and the worse the people become, the worse the places get, and the worst places produce unthinkable consequences.”
I realized that my sexual life had been revived after a very long hiatus.
I wished for nothing more than freedom to do as I pleased day and night in this captivating city…Paris.
“Together we’re just right.” (what I said after he said he was in love with me).
“We’ve found that gay boys are often more inventive and adaptable than straights. Could be because they’ve had to be inventive to get along in straight society.”
Always remember that everything in an individual’s experience has a meaning, nothing is truly accidental, what may appear to be happening is in reality an act.
Like every beginning writer, I longed for publication.
January 24, 2013
This is the story of a young gay man who joins the US Army in a half hearted gesture that sees him thorugh a series of odd circumstances deriving from his homosexuality into the Military Intelligence Servivce and sent to Europe in the rear guar of the invading armies. The whole affair has a decidedly Catch 22 flavour as the absurdities of the circumstances of his military servce unfold. The cast of characters are very reminiscent of Joseph Heller's insane tribe.
The pith of the book is held in the author's scathing observation of the conduct of the second string rear end soldiers who have absolute power over the Dp's and POW's in their charge and who exercise that power, with malice, brutality and complete disregard for common decency. There is no sacred son here just petty men corrupted absolutely by that absolute power.
It always seems to be the way with arimies and has so been throughout history that those who actually do the killing are far more the repository of human decency than those sadists, bullies, opportunists and self righteous non heros who follow them.
There are interesting observatruions of Gertrude Stein and Picasso who this young man had the temerity to front, seeking something greater than the humanity that was the sea in which he found himself forced to swim. He was to be disappointed and in the end he begins to come apart facing the incredibly disgusting display his fellow liberators were capable of. A reading here for anyone draaped in the flag of unsullied setimentality that attaches itself to the picture of the liberating American armies.
There is much here in the internal conflict the author experiences in finding himself immersed in unjustifable cruelty and corruption that I myself felt when serving in Vietnam surrounded by that same army of which I was apart. Equally corrupt and malicious in its operations in rear areas. This filth is generally not the purvey of most combat soldiers whose lives are reduced to a very basic and clear morality, life and death entwined; where even in killing an enemy they can, if nothing else, hold him in respect as a good soldier. The camp followers effused the antipathy of what we were told we were fighting for. The REMF's were the sordid soul revelling in the psychotic surrealism that became our lives.
In the final anaalysis war, I guess is war, here the grosser parts of its ugliness are evidenced. No glory here, only deep sadness for those who lay in the myriad fields of white crosses spread across western Europe.
The pith of the book is held in the author's scathing observation of the conduct of the second string rear end soldiers who have absolute power over the Dp's and POW's in their charge and who exercise that power, with malice, brutality and complete disregard for common decency. There is no sacred son here just petty men corrupted absolutely by that absolute power.
It always seems to be the way with arimies and has so been throughout history that those who actually do the killing are far more the repository of human decency than those sadists, bullies, opportunists and self righteous non heros who follow them.
There are interesting observatruions of Gertrude Stein and Picasso who this young man had the temerity to front, seeking something greater than the humanity that was the sea in which he found himself forced to swim. He was to be disappointed and in the end he begins to come apart facing the incredibly disgusting display his fellow liberators were capable of. A reading here for anyone draaped in the flag of unsullied setimentality that attaches itself to the picture of the liberating American armies.
There is much here in the internal conflict the author experiences in finding himself immersed in unjustifable cruelty and corruption that I myself felt when serving in Vietnam surrounded by that same army of which I was apart. Equally corrupt and malicious in its operations in rear areas. This filth is generally not the purvey of most combat soldiers whose lives are reduced to a very basic and clear morality, life and death entwined; where even in killing an enemy they can, if nothing else, hold him in respect as a good soldier. The camp followers effused the antipathy of what we were told we were fighting for. The REMF's were the sordid soul revelling in the psychotic surrealism that became our lives.
In the final anaalysis war, I guess is war, here the grosser parts of its ugliness are evidenced. No glory here, only deep sadness for those who lay in the myriad fields of white crosses spread across western Europe.
December 7, 2017
It's not him, it's me.
The fact that Lord merited this* obituary in the NYT says enough about the author and his achievements. I was curious to read about the experience of being a gay GI during the second World War, and this volume both over and under delivered on the conceit.
While it's an intimate examination of one man's experience in the war --and an angle I'd never read before-- the focus shifts repeatedly, and for a memoir, it lacks much of any emotional punch (save for the story of Hanno). I found it a lot more "telling" than showing.
My biggest problem with the book, though, is how overwritten it is. Gah. How many similes, metaphors, ancient Greek, medieval English, 17th century artist references can be piled into a single paragraph before the reader has wandered off on her own path, suddenly, desperately, seeking Hemingway?
* http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/art...
The fact that Lord merited this* obituary in the NYT says enough about the author and his achievements. I was curious to read about the experience of being a gay GI during the second World War, and this volume both over and under delivered on the conceit.
While it's an intimate examination of one man's experience in the war --and an angle I'd never read before-- the focus shifts repeatedly, and for a memoir, it lacks much of any emotional punch (save for the story of Hanno). I found it a lot more "telling" than showing.
My biggest problem with the book, though, is how overwritten it is. Gah. How many similes, metaphors, ancient Greek, medieval English, 17th century artist references can be piled into a single paragraph before the reader has wandered off on her own path, suddenly, desperately, seeking Hemingway?
* http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/art...
July 26, 2014
If you enjoy reading about gay men in history, you will enjoy James Lord’s memoirs spanning his WWII experiences in the US, Great Britain, Normandy, France, and Germany. The first chapters reveal a 20 year old boy’s aimlessness, and search for meaning and purpose in life, as an ugly, cruel war rears its ugly head ready to swallow a naive American boy. The slightly pretentious, but ambitious use of language of the first few chapters is forgivable, obviously written by a very talented young man in his green years. But as the story progresses, his writing shows that he transformed into a highly sensitive a perceptive writer, who captures all of the conflicted emotions of a boy at war. The images that he paints with his pen are extremely vivid and will stay with you forever, especially the chapters devoted to the aftermath of D-Day in France and the POW camps in Germany. I don’t put links to booksellers, as I would prefer to buy books from independent sellers.
October 15, 2024
Good story. Heinously pretentious writing.
October 20, 2012
Interesting and compelling, this is the story of a young man, confused about his sexual identity, who joins the air force in the Second World War and ends up in Intelligence. After much writerly angst, he comes to accept his sexuality before being shipped to Europe where he earns a bronze star for reasons unclear even to himself. There is a Catch 22 quality to the military world he depicts, complete with black marketeers and plenty of blatantly self-serving superiors. Lord has a talent for antagonizing those in charge, however, and ends up being assigned to interview Displaced Persons (DPs) not covered by the Geneva Convention, and then German POWs. His descriptions of the starvation and appalling conditions these people were subjected to while under American care is sobering and depressing.
Unfortunately, Lord's convoluted sentences and general writing style seem self-consciously "intellectual" to me. This undercuts the apparent honesty of the recalled life. Nonetheless, this memoir is a worthwhile read and a rare window into the gay subset of the generation that came of age in the 40s.
Unfortunately, Lord's convoluted sentences and general writing style seem self-consciously "intellectual" to me. This undercuts the apparent honesty of the recalled life. Nonetheless, this memoir is a worthwhile read and a rare window into the gay subset of the generation that came of age in the 40s.
July 2, 2018
James Lord left college and volunteered to join the U.S. Army at the tender age of 19. He soon discovered that the U.S. Army, in a time of war, was not going to be an exciting journey into manhood, but a series of humiliating and exasperating experiences that would force him to grow up, like it or not. That these experiences also include him coming to terms with his sexual attraction to other men renders some of his wartime experiences much more painful, and adds a note of hilarity to others. As an historical document, this is a valuable record of queer sensibility more than two decades before "gay liberation," and for anyone who thinks that "gays in the military" is something we've only had to deal with in recent years - well, guess again, Mary!
August 24, 2010
Entertaining, he's got an amusing viscerality, sort of Genet-light. Very light. Laden with alliteration. I enjoyed reading it probably because I enjoy reading about gay men describing their lusts. Very marginal on actual war/Air Force info but the parts where he is in Boston are very engaging and may drive me to read more about the underground scenes of New England.
October 13, 2019
Picked this up years ago at my university’s bookstore, where it was on super clearance. The prose is excellent, if occasionally stuffy, and it has a nice narrative arc. Fascinating glimpses in to both the LGBT “community” in the US army and some of the moral, erm, lapses of war.
December 6, 2011
Absolute twaddle. Lord's closest friends say this
'memoir' is a haughty toss-off of his rejected '50s
novel. He died before the pub party. Good move.
'memoir' is a haughty toss-off of his rejected '50s
novel. He died before the pub party. Good move.
August 26, 2022
This novel is phenomenal. I had a really insightful and long review for it, but Good Reads didn’t save it when I switched apps really quick and had to come back, so I’m shedding a single tear. Ya’ll need to update that or something!
Anyway, this book is really what humanity is about. Lord captures everything so beautifully. I will admit there are times where his prose was a bit pompous or drawn out, but it never really bugged me because I knew his intentions were nothing but good and pure. He’s a human trying to figure out who he is and what the world around him means.
I thought it was very insightful that Lord highlighted the many ways a war can be queer, and being gay is the least of anyones worries. What’s more queer is an army doctor refusing to save a POW’s life or a sergeant’s inability to see the humanity in his enemy. Those are way more queer for humankind than any man loving another man.
I also thought it was important how Lord touched on the physical aspect of the war. Society thinks it’s queer for a man to be with another man physically, but what about the pain war inflicts on the bodies of everyone involved? That is way more queer to humanity. This also made me think about the difference between being hateful with physicality and loving with physicality. How can any physical form of love be condoned, while we still celebrate the physical form of hate during war time?
Lord’s narrative also made me think about my own life as a gay man. It made me grateful that I live during this current time period. I will admit when I first grabbed this book, I wanted to learn more about a gay soldier’s experience during WWII, but I also low key wanted some forbidden lover elements to pop out, maybe followed by some homoeroticism. Lord immediately humbled me though. There’s a stereotype that gay men are horn dogs (which is only half true), but I immediately felt bad for coming to the book with those expectations after hearing Lord out. He shows how seeing people hurt and inflicting that pain made him unable to be physical with anyone for a period of time. His body couldn’t accept love because he was seeing so many other bodies being inflicted with pain and hate. That shared experience and understanding for how the war impacted others was very humbling and honestly what humankind is all about.
I highly recommend this novel for anyone who is LGBT+, been in the armed forces, loves history, or just loves a really good story about being a human amongst other imperfect humans. Great read!
Anyway, this book is really what humanity is about. Lord captures everything so beautifully. I will admit there are times where his prose was a bit pompous or drawn out, but it never really bugged me because I knew his intentions were nothing but good and pure. He’s a human trying to figure out who he is and what the world around him means.
I thought it was very insightful that Lord highlighted the many ways a war can be queer, and being gay is the least of anyones worries. What’s more queer is an army doctor refusing to save a POW’s life or a sergeant’s inability to see the humanity in his enemy. Those are way more queer for humankind than any man loving another man.
I also thought it was important how Lord touched on the physical aspect of the war. Society thinks it’s queer for a man to be with another man physically, but what about the pain war inflicts on the bodies of everyone involved? That is way more queer to humanity. This also made me think about the difference between being hateful with physicality and loving with physicality. How can any physical form of love be condoned, while we still celebrate the physical form of hate during war time?
Lord’s narrative also made me think about my own life as a gay man. It made me grateful that I live during this current time period. I will admit when I first grabbed this book, I wanted to learn more about a gay soldier’s experience during WWII, but I also low key wanted some forbidden lover elements to pop out, maybe followed by some homoeroticism. Lord immediately humbled me though. There’s a stereotype that gay men are horn dogs (which is only half true), but I immediately felt bad for coming to the book with those expectations after hearing Lord out. He shows how seeing people hurt and inflicting that pain made him unable to be physical with anyone for a period of time. His body couldn’t accept love because he was seeing so many other bodies being inflicted with pain and hate. That shared experience and understanding for how the war impacted others was very humbling and honestly what humankind is all about.
I highly recommend this novel for anyone who is LGBT+, been in the armed forces, loves history, or just loves a really good story about being a human amongst other imperfect humans. Great read!
January 26, 2025
This is the fourth and most successful assault that I have made on this memoir. The initial problem is Lord's flamboyant vocabulary -- it is as though he uses twenty words when one would do, and that those twenty words were a challenge to my already vast vocabulary. Sometimes, particularly in the Nevada scenes I could barely figure out what he was saying -- of course because the author himself could not understand what was happening. The Boston settings were more understandable, though unbelievable for different reasons: Who knew that there was an aggressive and celebratory excess of homosexual inner and outer mysteries in Boston during the early 1940's!!!
The period in England was filled with military 'hurry up and wait,' but also with the pastoral account of his relationship with a British family. In this section Lord is not burdened with military nonsense
and began to be more comfortable with himself. It really was a hinge scene.
His MOS was Military Intelligence, and he was charged with whether or not to release French POWs to go home; he almost always let them go, but his French counterpart refused to let most German POWs --teenagers almost all -- go home. There is then a wandering in the French countryside, punctuated by festive events prepared by the French resistance when they found he was an American.
This is a wandering memoir. The title -- My Queer War __ refers to his own inner battle with learning to accept his homosexuality, his queer adventures throughout the war, and the strangeness of his military assignments. His vocabulary become less of a bully as the book went along, and he was progressively clearer about what he wanted and what he was doing. A long adolescence, I think.
The period in England was filled with military 'hurry up and wait,' but also with the pastoral account of his relationship with a British family. In this section Lord is not burdened with military nonsense
and began to be more comfortable with himself. It really was a hinge scene.
His MOS was Military Intelligence, and he was charged with whether or not to release French POWs to go home; he almost always let them go, but his French counterpart refused to let most German POWs --teenagers almost all -- go home. There is then a wandering in the French countryside, punctuated by festive events prepared by the French resistance when they found he was an American.
This is a wandering memoir. The title -- My Queer War __ refers to his own inner battle with learning to accept his homosexuality, his queer adventures throughout the war, and the strangeness of his military assignments. His vocabulary become less of a bully as the book went along, and he was progressively clearer about what he wanted and what he was doing. A long adolescence, I think.
June 21, 2025
My Queer War (Hardcover) by James Lord
This is the autobiography tale of James (Jim) Lord, private id # 12183139. It starts on November 1942, when reeling from a suicide attempt, Lord dropped out of Wesleyan to enlist in the army. It ends on July - Nov 1945.
Alas, basic training proved inhospitable to this budding intellectual. Almost by accident, Lord was assigned to the Military Intelligence Service, which exposed him to the delights of Europe and the military's secret gay underground. His unflinching, insolent honesty constantly got him into trouble with his superiors, and he was shuffled from assignment to assignment (he calls himself a "tourist disguised as a soldier"). But his cheekiness also gained him entry into the drawing rooms of Picasso and Gertrude Stein, setting the stage for a charmed life and fruitful writing career. Although Lord clearly matures over the course of this memoir, his motivations and actions often remain frustratingly opaque.
Narrated from Lord's first person point of view, his style can occasionally be off-putting and fussy and the dialogue improbably boring. Particularly effective is Lord's eyewitness testimony of Allied torture during the "good" war. There are too many characters for my taste and I never cared for most of them. There is no plot, but the value of the book is in inherent way that a man handled being gay in the army during WWII.
Good for GLBT history buffs.
This is the autobiography tale of James (Jim) Lord, private id # 12183139. It starts on November 1942, when reeling from a suicide attempt, Lord dropped out of Wesleyan to enlist in the army. It ends on July - Nov 1945.
Alas, basic training proved inhospitable to this budding intellectual. Almost by accident, Lord was assigned to the Military Intelligence Service, which exposed him to the delights of Europe and the military's secret gay underground. His unflinching, insolent honesty constantly got him into trouble with his superiors, and he was shuffled from assignment to assignment (he calls himself a "tourist disguised as a soldier"). But his cheekiness also gained him entry into the drawing rooms of Picasso and Gertrude Stein, setting the stage for a charmed life and fruitful writing career. Although Lord clearly matures over the course of this memoir, his motivations and actions often remain frustratingly opaque.
Narrated from Lord's first person point of view, his style can occasionally be off-putting and fussy and the dialogue improbably boring. Particularly effective is Lord's eyewitness testimony of Allied torture during the "good" war. There are too many characters for my taste and I never cared for most of them. There is no plot, but the value of the book is in inherent way that a man handled being gay in the army during WWII.
Good for GLBT history buffs.
December 6, 2024
One of my favorite books I've read in a good while.
I have a bias towards it, being queer myself, but I think it was an incredible read regardless of orientation. It blends the aspects of Lord's life, which is to say, military and personal, seamlessly. His narration is an admirable balance between conversational storytelling and intellectually stimulating. Brilliantly done.
Definitely one of those books that make you have to look away and process at times. It was highly engaging and emotional, and you really get to know Lord as he tells his story.
I have a bias towards it, being queer myself, but I think it was an incredible read regardless of orientation. It blends the aspects of Lord's life, which is to say, military and personal, seamlessly. His narration is an admirable balance between conversational storytelling and intellectually stimulating. Brilliantly done.
Definitely one of those books that make you have to look away and process at times. It was highly engaging and emotional, and you really get to know Lord as he tells his story.
July 20, 2020
Stepping Back and Seeing Clearly
I read a research paper which mentioned this title among others re WWII. It traces the story of the writer and art historian/biographer Jim Lord via various turns finally a part of military intelligence in various parts of the US and Europe (France and western Germany) as he tests out and doesn’t - his “queer” understanding of himself and a first love to whom he had been too fearful to acknowledge his feelings... But beyond this - and in some ways I see reflected by the experiences of Donald Keene in his wartime experiences in China and Japan - it is a chilling exposé of the ugliness not just of the Nazis and their death camps but of the brutality inflicted by the US Armies - and of the rampant black market world they dealt in, too. Moral compromises and its bullying handmaidens. A brilliant memoir! Literary, linguistic, music and art - by a fine writer able to see clearly his own self and the ethical issues raised by his life.
I read a research paper which mentioned this title among others re WWII. It traces the story of the writer and art historian/biographer Jim Lord via various turns finally a part of military intelligence in various parts of the US and Europe (France and western Germany) as he tests out and doesn’t - his “queer” understanding of himself and a first love to whom he had been too fearful to acknowledge his feelings... But beyond this - and in some ways I see reflected by the experiences of Donald Keene in his wartime experiences in China and Japan - it is a chilling exposé of the ugliness not just of the Nazis and their death camps but of the brutality inflicted by the US Armies - and of the rampant black market world they dealt in, too. Moral compromises and its bullying handmaidens. A brilliant memoir! Literary, linguistic, music and art - by a fine writer able to see clearly his own self and the ethical issues raised by his life.
September 14, 2017
A fascinating read about a world I (as a straight person) would not have imagined existed. This is a very personal story about World War II, and that's made it so interesting. We see Lord interact with a range of characters, all too human characters instead of the one-dimensional heroes that we are ordinarily presented with. Fascinating, too, for how a gay man in an era and milieu frantically hostile to gays and lesbians, and a milieu hostile to somehow artistically sophisticated as Lord, navigates and sometimes even (relatively speaking) thrives over World War II.
March 30, 2020
Surprisingly a 5 as at times it was difficult with its arcane and formal language. That said, it had real integrity, impressive strength of character, an intimate essence and very moving at times. The writer seems to write with a purity of soul rarely seen. So from a start where I was somewhat irritated to an engrossing and moving end. A profound book despite its faults.
September 13, 2021
I read this a few years ago. Beautifully written memoir by the late art critic James Lord of his youth and innocence as he embarked upon service in the U.S. Army in the 1940's. Written near the end of his long life, his prose and insights are at times both touching and slyly humorous.
May 17, 2018
I am speechless!
October 29, 2020
Interesting memoirs of the Second World War.
May 28, 2023
Exquisite, honest, insightful, inclusive, human & artistically intelligent about war.
July 6, 2014
I'd never heard of James Lord when I picked up this book (and I still know little about him), but it was on sale in a Border's that was closing down, so I added it to the stack of discounted books I was purchasing. With a gift for both word craft and sarcasm, Lord discusses his tenure in the U.S. Army during World War II, a chapter of his life that coincided with his discovery of and conflict with his homosexuality. In fact, he implies in the book that his impulse to quit university and join the service was at least partially influenced by shame and a desire to somehow overcome his sexuality. Though our lives have unfolded in very different ways, Lord's experiences in My Queer War are largely familiar and were reminiscent of some of the hurdles I've experienced myself. He also doesn't shirk from the discussion of painful times or personal shortcomings, which is sometimes a problem in autobiographies. The poignancy of missed opportunities, the self-recrimination, the subtle and not-so-subtle self-destructiveness, the eventual acceptance, forgiveness and confidence-all of it is presented honestly, but also with a humor that lightens the mood without lessening the impact (though sometimes in prose a shade too purple for my taste). All in all a well-done memoir.
April 5, 2013
This isn't your average run-of-the-mill fluff LGBT novel that you will encounter. It has a bit more how I like to say, elegance to it. The synopsis is of a gay man who joins the Air Force and ends up in the MIS due to his above average intelligence. Before departing for Europe, he finds himself in the gay-subculture of the US and with that experiences his first sexual encounter with a man. Arguably, many people say Lord comes to terms with his sexuality throughout the novel, but it's quite apparent he has little concerns about the question of his sexuality, and it is simply a matter of coming to terms with expressing it.
During his service in Europe, there is always this unspoken undertone of "What am I doing here?" Many times throughout the novel, Lord implies that his service is questionably useless and he even is awarded a bronze star to which he states he has no idea for what cause it was awarded. Lord in a sense is a rebel towards his superiors and I believe this reflects a large part of his inner conflict with the absurdity of the war that he finds himself in, especially when he is working in the DP and POW camps.
I absolutely adored the language, it's witty and carries with it a large sense of how this intellectual experiences the surreal world around him. I thought it was a great read and would recommend it to anyone that is interested in LGBT lit.
During his service in Europe, there is always this unspoken undertone of "What am I doing here?" Many times throughout the novel, Lord implies that his service is questionably useless and he even is awarded a bronze star to which he states he has no idea for what cause it was awarded. Lord in a sense is a rebel towards his superiors and I believe this reflects a large part of his inner conflict with the absurdity of the war that he finds himself in, especially when he is working in the DP and POW camps.
I absolutely adored the language, it's witty and carries with it a large sense of how this intellectual experiences the surreal world around him. I thought it was a great read and would recommend it to anyone that is interested in LGBT lit.
May 4, 2010
Somewhat of a stream-of-consciousness narrative, this is a book that wants reading more than once. The story itself is riveting, and replete with famous characters--almost implausibly so.
Ultimately, however, I wanted more out of this book. I know little more about its author after reading it than I did before--and for a book of this sort, the consequences of how it came to be written and published are almost as important as its contents. I'd be particularly interested to know whether this manuscript was published after the author had a chance to make revisions, or if it was found among the author's papers after his death and published as he had left it the last time he had the occasion to work on it.
Ultimately, however, I wanted more out of this book. I know little more about its author after reading it than I did before--and for a book of this sort, the consequences of how it came to be written and published are almost as important as its contents. I'd be particularly interested to know whether this manuscript was published after the author had a chance to make revisions, or if it was found among the author's papers after his death and published as he had left it the last time he had the occasion to work on it.
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