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That Certain Summer
The poignant novel of a young boy who discovers his father ia a homosexual - based on the most important and acclaimed TV drama in years!
- GenresFiction
139 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 5, 2025
This book really pissed me off. It’s a novelization of the 1973 gay made for TV movie That Certain Summer. The movie was groundbreaking for being the first sympathetic representation of gay people on US television. But the TV network ordered that there couldn’t be any physical contact between the men playing the couple and that lines of dialogue needed to be added that showed opposing viewpoints and that being gay wasn’t something that the main character wanted for himself.
So basically when I learned there was a novelization I was interested to read it to see if maybe the network orders for the story would be ignored since it didn’t have to air on television. I wanted to see if there would be more intimacy between Doug and Gary and if Doug’s coming out speech would not include the lines about “some people think it’s a sickness” or “if I had a choice, it isn't something I'd pick for myself."
But NO. The book goes even further into Doug being a self loathing character and having negative thoughts about other gay men and the ways that they live their lives and behave sexually. And also, there’s a completely new scene where he cheats on his boyfriend with a woman! The book can only show Gary once putting his arm around Doug’s shoulders, but there can be an explicit scene of him having sex with a woman? Fuck off.
On top of my disdain for how the queer content was handled, I also thought that the writing here was pretty awful. There are so many bad descriptions and aspects of the story feeling overwritten.
If you can find a copy of the film I think it’s totally worth the watch. But under no circumstances would I recommend the book.
So basically when I learned there was a novelization I was interested to read it to see if maybe the network orders for the story would be ignored since it didn’t have to air on television. I wanted to see if there would be more intimacy between Doug and Gary and if Doug’s coming out speech would not include the lines about “some people think it’s a sickness” or “if I had a choice, it isn't something I'd pick for myself."
But NO. The book goes even further into Doug being a self loathing character and having negative thoughts about other gay men and the ways that they live their lives and behave sexually. And also, there’s a completely new scene where he cheats on his boyfriend with a woman! The book can only show Gary once putting his arm around Doug’s shoulders, but there can be an explicit scene of him having sex with a woman? Fuck off.
On top of my disdain for how the queer content was handled, I also thought that the writing here was pretty awful. There are so many bad descriptions and aspects of the story feeling overwritten.
If you can find a copy of the film I think it’s totally worth the watch. But under no circumstances would I recommend the book.
July 30, 2025
God, this was bad. I like the TV movie it's based on, despite the changes that had to be made to the script. But this was terrible even as a novelization. Ponderously written, with more time given to Doug's self-loathing than to any positive gay themes. The movie is worth seeing but avoid this book at all costs.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews