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Queeries: An Anthology of Gay Male Prose
An incendiary collection of gay male fiction, born from rage and defiance over such issues as AIDS and homophobia. [gay men][fiction]
205 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 28, 2012
A ground-breaking anthology, the first of its kind in Canada. Features a diverse range of voices, from strong narratives to experimental text.
A sentimental favourite of mine, I must admit, because this anthology includes my first published story.
A sentimental favourite of mine, I must admit, because this anthology includes my first published story.
March 24, 2018
When most people think of "gay male literature", they usually think of one of three things--
1. a coming out story, which either ends in universal acceptance and happily ever after (yay!) or overwhelming opprobrium that leads to an outcast protagonist who has to rebuild himself and win over the people who rejected him
2. a tragic story about AIDS that could just as well have been about cancer
3. a cheesy gay romance, which is exactly the same as a heterosexual romance except involving same-sex protagonists with lots of unacknowledged privilege, in a society where they have stable jobs, and reasonably stable inter-personal relationships, and are universally accepted to the extent that they may forget that they are gay (the worst versions of these play on stereotypical representations of "sassy gay BFFs" with lots of bitchy one-liners over brunches)
It is only when you see gay male lives refracted through a gay male prism that you truly appreciate in three dimensions all the different colours in the rainbow of lived experiences in this community. Given this, an anthology like "Queeries" is remarkable specifically because it provides a broad-ish perspective on queer (gay male) lives, and its various intersections with race, culture, ethnic background, and all the different multitudes that result out of the interaction between an individual and his society.
So you do not just have a coming out story-- you get a story about a husband coming out to his wife and young daughter and how they choose to make a home despite that ("Home").
You do not get an AIDS story that is all about the experience of living with a terminal disease-- you get to see how, unlike cancer or heart disease, the AIDS experience is dominated by the fact that it was a single reckless act (and you don't know which one!) that changes the course of your life, and how the primary preoccupation is not self-pity but guilt-- trying to pinpoint which one of your encounters led to this, and how many people you might have infected before getting tested and getting your test results back-- and when you finally re-encounter the person who you suspect infected you, what do you do? ("Summer-Weight")
You do not get a typical cheesy romance ending in wedding bells-- you get a romance between a movie-goer and the straight male lead in the film he is watching, and his struggle to invent and extract as much hidden context as possible out of every single situation that ambiguates the lead character's sexuality, so that the movie-goer may continue his fantasy romance, at least until the credits roll. ("Cold Front")
And then you get all the "intersections"-- a Chinese Canadian man detailing the racism in the gay community through an ingenious allegory with the recipe for cooking rice the Chinese way, a young Jewish gay man arguing with his father about how the Holocaust's gay victims deserved as much attention as the Holocaust's Jewish victims and were denied it, and so on.
And you get the microfiction ("Red Bread", "Awkward Age"), which are probably the most brilliant pieces in the anthology.
And, of course, you get Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite doing what Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite does (this one was too intense for me so I had to skip it).
That's not to say that every single piece in this book is equally enjoyable-- like any anthology, a few are meh, most are at least above average, and some are dazzlingly spectacular. But the best part of the book, by far, is actually not the (semi)fiction pieces in the main text, but the appendix which contains author's personal notes, where the writers talk about what makes them tick, and how their queerness and lived experiences make their way into their work.
A few quotes:
>>"I can always pass as straight while writing (but not in life)"
>>"'Outside' is a great place to be if you can speak from where you live and occupy the space proudly, Outside you write the 'not-straight', you are the Other-- why always self-definition in negatives?"
>>"Within the homosexual arena, the subjugation of sexuality and gender is imposed through youth, race, ethnicity and the misogyny inherent in drag, a replacement for the heterosexual male subjugation of the same... gay/Queer culture and sexuality as a form of colonisation, esepcially when it involves interracial relationships"
They should make a book out of this section and sell it separately.
Overall review: highly recommended.
1. a coming out story, which either ends in universal acceptance and happily ever after (yay!) or overwhelming opprobrium that leads to an outcast protagonist who has to rebuild himself and win over the people who rejected him
2. a tragic story about AIDS that could just as well have been about cancer
3. a cheesy gay romance, which is exactly the same as a heterosexual romance except involving same-sex protagonists with lots of unacknowledged privilege, in a society where they have stable jobs, and reasonably stable inter-personal relationships, and are universally accepted to the extent that they may forget that they are gay (the worst versions of these play on stereotypical representations of "sassy gay BFFs" with lots of bitchy one-liners over brunches)
It is only when you see gay male lives refracted through a gay male prism that you truly appreciate in three dimensions all the different colours in the rainbow of lived experiences in this community. Given this, an anthology like "Queeries" is remarkable specifically because it provides a broad-ish perspective on queer (gay male) lives, and its various intersections with race, culture, ethnic background, and all the different multitudes that result out of the interaction between an individual and his society.
So you do not just have a coming out story-- you get a story about a husband coming out to his wife and young daughter and how they choose to make a home despite that ("Home").
You do not get an AIDS story that is all about the experience of living with a terminal disease-- you get to see how, unlike cancer or heart disease, the AIDS experience is dominated by the fact that it was a single reckless act (and you don't know which one!) that changes the course of your life, and how the primary preoccupation is not self-pity but guilt-- trying to pinpoint which one of your encounters led to this, and how many people you might have infected before getting tested and getting your test results back-- and when you finally re-encounter the person who you suspect infected you, what do you do? ("Summer-Weight")
You do not get a typical cheesy romance ending in wedding bells-- you get a romance between a movie-goer and the straight male lead in the film he is watching, and his struggle to invent and extract as much hidden context as possible out of every single situation that ambiguates the lead character's sexuality, so that the movie-goer may continue his fantasy romance, at least until the credits roll. ("Cold Front")
And then you get all the "intersections"-- a Chinese Canadian man detailing the racism in the gay community through an ingenious allegory with the recipe for cooking rice the Chinese way, a young Jewish gay man arguing with his father about how the Holocaust's gay victims deserved as much attention as the Holocaust's Jewish victims and were denied it, and so on.
And you get the microfiction ("Red Bread", "Awkward Age"), which are probably the most brilliant pieces in the anthology.
And, of course, you get Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite doing what Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite does (this one was too intense for me so I had to skip it).
That's not to say that every single piece in this book is equally enjoyable-- like any anthology, a few are meh, most are at least above average, and some are dazzlingly spectacular. But the best part of the book, by far, is actually not the (semi)fiction pieces in the main text, but the appendix which contains author's personal notes, where the writers talk about what makes them tick, and how their queerness and lived experiences make their way into their work.
A few quotes:
>>"I can always pass as straight while writing (but not in life)"
>>"'Outside' is a great place to be if you can speak from where you live and occupy the space proudly, Outside you write the 'not-straight', you are the Other-- why always self-definition in negatives?"
>>"Within the homosexual arena, the subjugation of sexuality and gender is imposed through youth, race, ethnicity and the misogyny inherent in drag, a replacement for the heterosexual male subjugation of the same... gay/Queer culture and sexuality as a form of colonisation, esepcially when it involves interracial relationships"
They should make a book out of this section and sell it separately.
Overall review: highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews