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Whose Eye is on Which Sparrow? by Robert Taylor
When a privileged young doctor falls in love with a handsome black man, he searches for the courage to follow his heart down an unexpected path, leaving behind a wife, children, and a promising political career. Can Dr. Brendan Garrison give up his white-bread world of servants, cocktail parties, and charity events for a future with Jonathan Miles? Can Jonathan leave the security of his job as church choir director to pursue his dream of singing opera? And can their love survive the stigma of homosexuality and the oppression of subtle racism that is still very much part of society? Whose Eye Is On Which Sparrow? reaches across the boundaries of class, culture, race, and sexuality to tell the story of the difficult choices that sometimes complicate a simple love.
- GenresLGBT
Mass Market Paperback
First published October 15, 2004
12 people want to read
About the author
Robert Taylor
6 books1 followerRobert Taylor – author of The Innocent (1997), All We Have Is Now (hardback in 2002, paperback in 2006), Revelation and Other Stories (2002), Whose Eye Is on Which Sparrow? (2004), and A Few Hints and Clews (2007) – was born in Abilene, Texas, on July 22, 1940. He lived in a number of towns and cities in Texas while he was growing up, but thinks of San Antonio as his hometown.
As soon as he learned to read, he fell in love with books and started spending as much time with them as he could. Working on his high school newspaper solidified his interest in writing and led him to major in journalism at Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) in Lubbock. He was managing editor of the college newspaper his senior year and president of a number of campus organizations. In recognition of this, he was selected to appear in the 1961-1962 edition of Who's Who among Students in American Universities and Colleges. He graduated with high honors from Texas Tech in the spring of 1962 and was named Outstanding Male Graduate in Journalism.
He had joined ROTC as a way to help pay for college and upon graduation was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Army Intelligence. Graduating first in his class at Intelligence school led to an assignment at the Pentagon, in the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence. The war in Vietnam kept him from being released after his original commitment of three years was up. He was promoted to first lieutenant and then captain. He was sent to Vietnam in October 1966 and was assigned to the Intelligence staff of the Commanding General at Headquarters, U. S. Army Vietnam. At the end of his year there, he was awarded a Bronze Star for Meritorious Service.
During his years in the Army, Taylor had lived with the constant fear that his homosexuality would be discovered, which would have led to an automatic dishonorable discharge. Once he was a civilian again, he was determined to leave that kind of fear behind. Although all the institutions of society were, at that time, still united in their abhorrence of homosexuality, he nevertheless told his family, friends, and coworkers that he was gay and has lived openly ever since.
Taylor’s first novel, The Innocent, was published in the fall of 1997 by Fithian Press in Santa Barbara, California, and is still in print in a second printing. His second novel, All We Have Is Now, was published in hardback by St. Martin’s Press in New York City in June 2002 (later republished in paperback by The Haworth Press in 2006). Eleven short stories and the novella, with the title of Revelation and Other Stories, were published by Puckerbrush Press in Orono, Maine, in the fall of 2002. A third novel, Whose Eye Is On Which Sparrow?, published in 2004 by The Haworth Press in Binghamton, New York, was named the “Best Gay Romance of 2004” by the InsightOut book-of-the-month club and won the 2005 Independent Publisher Book Award for the best book of the year with a gay or lesbian theme, including both fiction and nonfiction. Taylor’s most recent book, a novel called A Few Hints and Clews, published in the spring of 2007 by The Haworth Press, was a finalist for a 2008 Lambda Literary Award.
In May 1994, an essay by Taylor on the history of gay rights in America was included in Gay Pride: Photographs from Stonewall to Today, a book of photographs by Fred McDarrah published by A Cappella Books. A short story, “One Last Drink on the Piazza,” was published in the Winter/Spring 1999 issue of The Peninsula Review. Another, “Death Is Our Destination,” was published in the Winter/Spring 2002 issue of Puckerbrush Review. An essay by Taylor called “The Story of an Almost Marriage” was included in an anthology called I Do/I Don’t: Queers on Marriage, published in 2004 by Suspect Thoughts Press in San Francisco, California. This book won the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for best nonfiction anthology.
As soon as he learned to read, he fell in love with books and started spending as much time with them as he could. Working on his high school newspaper solidified his interest in writing and led him to major in journalism at Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) in Lubbock. He was managing editor of the college newspaper his senior year and president of a number of campus organizations. In recognition of this, he was selected to appear in the 1961-1962 edition of Who's Who among Students in American Universities and Colleges. He graduated with high honors from Texas Tech in the spring of 1962 and was named Outstanding Male Graduate in Journalism.
He had joined ROTC as a way to help pay for college and upon graduation was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Army Intelligence. Graduating first in his class at Intelligence school led to an assignment at the Pentagon, in the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence. The war in Vietnam kept him from being released after his original commitment of three years was up. He was promoted to first lieutenant and then captain. He was sent to Vietnam in October 1966 and was assigned to the Intelligence staff of the Commanding General at Headquarters, U. S. Army Vietnam. At the end of his year there, he was awarded a Bronze Star for Meritorious Service.
During his years in the Army, Taylor had lived with the constant fear that his homosexuality would be discovered, which would have led to an automatic dishonorable discharge. Once he was a civilian again, he was determined to leave that kind of fear behind. Although all the institutions of society were, at that time, still united in their abhorrence of homosexuality, he nevertheless told his family, friends, and coworkers that he was gay and has lived openly ever since.
Taylor’s first novel, The Innocent, was published in the fall of 1997 by Fithian Press in Santa Barbara, California, and is still in print in a second printing. His second novel, All We Have Is Now, was published in hardback by St. Martin’s Press in New York City in June 2002 (later republished in paperback by The Haworth Press in 2006). Eleven short stories and the novella, with the title of Revelation and Other Stories, were published by Puckerbrush Press in Orono, Maine, in the fall of 2002. A third novel, Whose Eye Is On Which Sparrow?, published in 2004 by The Haworth Press in Binghamton, New York, was named the “Best Gay Romance of 2004” by the InsightOut book-of-the-month club and won the 2005 Independent Publisher Book Award for the best book of the year with a gay or lesbian theme, including both fiction and nonfiction. Taylor’s most recent book, a novel called A Few Hints and Clews, published in the spring of 2007 by The Haworth Press, was a finalist for a 2008 Lambda Literary Award.
In May 1994, an essay by Taylor on the history of gay rights in America was included in Gay Pride: Photographs from Stonewall to Today, a book of photographs by Fred McDarrah published by A Cappella Books. A short story, “One Last Drink on the Piazza,” was published in the Winter/Spring 1999 issue of The Peninsula Review. Another, “Death Is Our Destination,” was published in the Winter/Spring 2002 issue of Puckerbrush Review. An essay by Taylor called “The Story of an Almost Marriage” was included in an anthology called I Do/I Don’t: Queers on Marriage, published in 2004 by Suspect Thoughts Press in San Francisco, California. This book won the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for best nonfiction anthology.
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July 28, 2011
As an inter-racial romance, I thought this worked and was charming.
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