Panthers in the Skins of Men

by Charles Nelson

Returning from Vietnam, Navy corpsman Kurt Strom embarks on a journey of sexual self-discovery, from a Newport naval base to the USO, where he explores his most risquT fantasies, which lead him into the arms of Nick Esoldi, a married state trooper. Reprint.

Genres: Gay Fiction, Fiction, Gay, LGBT

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Jim Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

P.I.T.S.O.M is an unheralded classic of gay American fiction; nearly a masterwork of the picaresque variety, and one of my favorite novels that emerged from the early, post-Stonewall gay press. Bold, unapologetic, USN Medic Kurt Strom is like every non-PC, "straight-acting" protagonist you ever encountered on the mean streets.

[Garrick Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second time I've read this book after an interval of nearly 25 years. It was not as bland this time around as I remember it, although I still have misgivings. Had Kurt's behaviour been explained by PTSD I could have accepted his rampant sexual encounters as a result, but somehow the whole book was page after page after page of seductions, a man on a seemingly self-destructive path acting out whatever was going on inside him by moving from one man to another.

Oddly enough, for the sheer quantity of sex, there was a paucity of descriptive sex, often encounters described with euphemisms and allusions. Maybe that was because of the time at which it was written and what would be acceptable to the audience this book was aimed at, however at the same time "stick books" were very popular. I'd have liked less quantity and more quality in that area.

Kurt Strom reminded me of a very close friend and most likely, had the character been a real person, would have ended up like my friend did, bitter at the loss of his beauty and frustrated that the men he craved would not give him the time of day. But, perhaps that was the moral Mr. Nelson intended us to discover for ourselves.

[Surreysmum · Rating 1 out of 5]

[These notes were made in 1989:]. I started by enjoying and ended up shuddering with revulsion - and if that wasn't the author's intent, there's cause for more shudders. The book starts out as a sort of episodic sexual romp (the first-person narrator, Kurt, is reading Roderick Random, as if to drive the point home). He's already mildly distasteful, preying on sleeping men. His particular "thing" is that he prefers mass seduction of straight men, and can't abide "sisters." The story is set in the late 60s, and the narrator is a Vietnam vet; the whole thing could be partly defended, I suppose, as an exercise in nostalgia for the good old days of pre-AIDS promiscuity. Those of us without nostalgia for any such thing cannot be expected to sympathize. There's also a misogynist passage or two which make very tough reading. Anyway, Kurt develops an ongoing relationship with Nick, a married state trooper, and together they work out and execute wilder and wilder scenarios for getting straight men of their acquaintance into bed. Nelson has given his narrator a truly astonishing gift of the gab, and an apparent immunity to being found out in his little plots. He lost me when the plots started getting violent; and eventually between them they commit murder (on a pair of murderers, but nonetheless...) What looks like possibly a conventional romance ending -Nick and Kurt finally settling down (although by this point one has ceased to care much) -is turned on its end with a vengeance; Kurt seduces Nick's father in the last chapter. The last sentence is, "It passed the time." Kurt's classy reading list does not save him from being utterly despicable - and in the end, it is not the sex, even the promiscuity, which makes him so, but simply a complete lack of humanity. He seems not to get very much out of his reading! One has heard of wolves in sheep's clothing. Panthers in the skins of men (the quotation is apparently Rimbaud) is an even more eloquent way of putting it (Kurt, of course, has a different explanation for the phrase).

[L.T. Ville · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book a long time ago. I remember being deeply troubled by the story.

[Tom Intiso · Rating 1 out of 5]

Approaching this book with stellar expectations, having been so completely blown out of the water by the book which proceeded it, I was completely unprepared for the utter travesty that this book represents… It feels more like somebody who is tired, but desperately in need of money, trying to cash in on earlier success… this is a poor, very poor example of Nelson‘s work- a disappointment in every respect.

[Amy Vargas · Rating 2 out of 5]

the story concept was good, I enjoyed Kurt's quirks and personality. The story was very jumpy, found myself confused from time to time which sent me to reread sections to make sure i had it right. I found this book at a used bookstore & just picked it up. There is a lot of sex, but it's not descriptive, so if you are looking for something erotic, this really won't cut it. It was different from what i usually read, but it wasn't bad.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The hugely disappointing sequel to The Boy Who Picked The Bullets Up. The first was interesting because of its gay perspective on the Vietnam War. The sequel is worthless as literature, although clearly useful as an erotic prop.