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A Sand Fortress
Book by Coriolan, John
219 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 25, 2026
From the back cover of the 1984 Gay Sunshine Press paperback edition:
"Handsome Mike Kincade met charming 20-year old Caswell Green on the beach, fell head over heals in love and succeeded in persuading the young man to share his life - a a true refuge from the terrors and fears Caswell suffered. But like all the sand fortresses Caswell constructed, their relationship crumbled and Mike was faced with the raw reality of his own deep needs.
"Acclaimed as 'the most penetrating and perceptive novel of homosexuality ever published', A Sand Fortress is now reissued in a new expanded edition. This best-selling novel will surely be a revelation for many new readers.
"'A gusto and zest in gay literature...never sinks into bathos...Coriolan is [an] acute observer of the gay experience. He doesn't just report experience, he ruminates about it. He spins ideas around, tosses them up and down and bounces them off the wall in passages that are sometimes dazzling to the eye and riveting to the mind.' - Wallace Hamilton [another forgotten one time well known American gay author - see my review of his novel 'Kevin']
"'Topical but universal, timely but almost timeless, compassionate and sympathetic, the plot develops with theatrical attention to both episode and characterization' - Q.Q. [see: https://gcn.ie/1970s-queer-magazines/ to discover what Q.Q. was]"
The following are details about the author which I found on a second hand book listing: Author John Coriolan (real name William Corington) grew up in the Midwest, attended college in the 1930s, and lived in New York City, Key West and San Francisco. In his unpublished memoir, "Lucky that Way," Coriolan discusses erotic activity in World War II, his 13 year relationship starting in 1951, the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
Clearly the author was by the time this, his first novel, was published (1968) middle aged so I hesitate to be as scathing as I might and while making allowances for the difficulties in getting 'gay' works published at this time it is worth remembering that James Purdy had published the following books:
63: Dream Palace (short stories) (1956)
Malcolm (1959)
The Nephew (1960)
Colour of Darkness (short stories) (1961)
Children Is All (short stories & two plays) (1963)
Cabot Wright Begins (1965)
Eustace Chisholm and the Works (1967)
One could also mention Sanford Friedman's 'Totempole' of 1965 while in the UK Francis King had published many novels with blatantly homoerotic themes such as 'The Dividing Stream' (1951) and unapologetically gay/queer themed novels such as 'The Firewalkers' (1956) and 'The Man on the Rock' (1957) and there was also the American author John Cromwell whose UK published 'In a Grain of Sand' was also completely gay. The interesting thing is that the books of Purdy, King, Friedman and Cromwell are not about 'homosexuality' in the way Coriolan's is. Compared to the books of Purdy, King and Cromwell 'The Sand Fortress' is a very old fashioned book - there is plenty of sex - but it is a 'problem' book and the (spoiler alert) death of the main character almost makes it retrogressive.
Having recently read again Andrew Holleran's 'Dancer From the Dance' I couldn't finish 'A Sand Fortress' because it was so poor a book in comparison. Not because of the sex, I've got nothing against sex in books but because everyone was dealing with traume and problems. Again I couldn't help thinking of the works of Genet - I longed for his rough working class heroes for the 'real' situations of novels like 'Funeral Rites' the posturings of Coriolan's East Coast wasps with their uniform prep school backgrounds an etiolated lives of Connecticut suburban ennui seem ridiculous. John Cheever dissected this class with more aplomb - but then so did Jane Austen in terms of their 18th century English antecedents.
This novel is a curiosity, a stepping stone on the way to the literature that was on the verge of being born out of Stonewall and gay liberation. I don't wish to be too harsh on it but it just has nothing to say to me (and I am well on my way to 70). I am sure some people will find amusement in it but there are so many other 'classics' that aren't about being 'gay, queer or homosexual' but about being human and gay, queer, homosexual.
Eustace Chisholm and the Works (1967)
"Handsome Mike Kincade met charming 20-year old Caswell Green on the beach, fell head over heals in love and succeeded in persuading the young man to share his life - a a true refuge from the terrors and fears Caswell suffered. But like all the sand fortresses Caswell constructed, their relationship crumbled and Mike was faced with the raw reality of his own deep needs.
"Acclaimed as 'the most penetrating and perceptive novel of homosexuality ever published', A Sand Fortress is now reissued in a new expanded edition. This best-selling novel will surely be a revelation for many new readers.
"'A gusto and zest in gay literature...never sinks into bathos...Coriolan is [an] acute observer of the gay experience. He doesn't just report experience, he ruminates about it. He spins ideas around, tosses them up and down and bounces them off the wall in passages that are sometimes dazzling to the eye and riveting to the mind.' - Wallace Hamilton [another forgotten one time well known American gay author - see my review of his novel 'Kevin']
"'Topical but universal, timely but almost timeless, compassionate and sympathetic, the plot develops with theatrical attention to both episode and characterization' - Q.Q. [see: https://gcn.ie/1970s-queer-magazines/ to discover what Q.Q. was]"
The following are details about the author which I found on a second hand book listing: Author John Coriolan (real name William Corington) grew up in the Midwest, attended college in the 1930s, and lived in New York City, Key West and San Francisco. In his unpublished memoir, "Lucky that Way," Coriolan discusses erotic activity in World War II, his 13 year relationship starting in 1951, the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
Clearly the author was by the time this, his first novel, was published (1968) middle aged so I hesitate to be as scathing as I might and while making allowances for the difficulties in getting 'gay' works published at this time it is worth remembering that James Purdy had published the following books:
63: Dream Palace (short stories) (1956)
Malcolm (1959)
The Nephew (1960)
Colour of Darkness (short stories) (1961)
Children Is All (short stories & two plays) (1963)
Cabot Wright Begins (1965)
Eustace Chisholm and the Works (1967)
One could also mention Sanford Friedman's 'Totempole' of 1965 while in the UK Francis King had published many novels with blatantly homoerotic themes such as 'The Dividing Stream' (1951) and unapologetically gay/queer themed novels such as 'The Firewalkers' (1956) and 'The Man on the Rock' (1957) and there was also the American author John Cromwell whose UK published 'In a Grain of Sand' was also completely gay. The interesting thing is that the books of Purdy, King, Friedman and Cromwell are not about 'homosexuality' in the way Coriolan's is. Compared to the books of Purdy, King and Cromwell 'The Sand Fortress' is a very old fashioned book - there is plenty of sex - but it is a 'problem' book and the (spoiler alert) death of the main character almost makes it retrogressive.
Having recently read again Andrew Holleran's 'Dancer From the Dance' I couldn't finish 'A Sand Fortress' because it was so poor a book in comparison. Not because of the sex, I've got nothing against sex in books but because everyone was dealing with traume and problems. Again I couldn't help thinking of the works of Genet - I longed for his rough working class heroes for the 'real' situations of novels like 'Funeral Rites' the posturings of Coriolan's East Coast wasps with their uniform prep school backgrounds an etiolated lives of Connecticut suburban ennui seem ridiculous. John Cheever dissected this class with more aplomb - but then so did Jane Austen in terms of their 18th century English antecedents.
This novel is a curiosity, a stepping stone on the way to the literature that was on the verge of being born out of Stonewall and gay liberation. I don't wish to be too harsh on it but it just has nothing to say to me (and I am well on my way to 70). I am sure some people will find amusement in it but there are so many other 'classics' that aren't about being 'gay, queer or homosexual' but about being human and gay, queer, homosexual.
Eustace Chisholm and the Works (1967)
February 16, 2023
This long out print, pre-Stonewall gay novel is a ready to be rediscovered treasure. It is not sleaze, though there are a number of graphic sex scenes with well endowed characters. It is also intelligently and wittily written with strong character development. Although it takes place in and around 1968 NYC and environs, it does not seem dated. I would group it on the same level as "City of Night" by John Rechy and "Faggots" Larry Kramer. It apparently was not well marketed in 1968 although it was reissued by Gay Sunshine Press in 1968. Seek it out. I got my copy on EBAY for $1.95 plus S & H.
January 14, 2025
Seriously vapid - non-stop recounting of sexual exploits in between professing the latest catch is the one true love. Bleh.
January 12, 2026
This book starts strong and then is kind of a dud.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews