What do you think?
Rate this book
Cracks in the Image: Stories by Gay Men. Ed by Richard Dipple
"Candid, witty, sober, perceptive and in these pages gay men explore their desires, dreams and expectations, and examine their positions in a hostile society. 16 stories which depict gays and the world as revealed by their own lived experience, rather than as presented by popular image."
Paperback
15 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 10, 2021
A collection of short stories that vary widely in topic and presentation. Some of them offer personal insight into a blossoming gay Britain in the mid to late 70s. Some are witty, some just meander. This might serve as a good palate cleanser between heavier-hitting and more academic works.
July 19, 2023
Although I have read this anthology numerous times (it is not very long) I had resisted rereading it to review because although I had very positive and fond memories I feared that my response now might be more critical and inevitably part of my past would be tarnished. I am glad that I did reread because if anything my response to this collection is more powerfully admiring then it was.
This anthology was one of the first books published by Gay Men's Press in the UK. It is a wonderful tribute to the talent that was going unrecognised by mainstream publishers at the time and but for GMP in the UK and similar similar publishing efforts in the USA a lot of excellent writing would never have seen the light of day. It is also a reminder that there were plenty of excellent gay/queer writers before Alan Hollinghurst. Writers such as Peter Robins, David Rees, Barry Nonweiler and Ian Everton. Even Adam Mars-Jones is here in one of his first published stories. One of the, for me, painful aspects of reading this, and other early queer anthologies, is the number of excellent stories whose authors produced nothing else and about whom nothing further is known. In this anthology I would highlight in particular Jon Ward and his story 'Dear Mrs Ashe'. It is a really clever dissection of not simply gay attitudes of the time but also class/political/literary ones as well. It is also extremely funny and unfortunately I can discover nothing about Jon Ward - if anyone knows anything I would love to hear it.
This anthology also contains an excerpt from Robert Gluck's 'Elements of a Coffee Service' a classic which is unobtainable (as of January 2023). Over all the scope of the writing is diverse and strong and the fact that writers and writing of this quality was utterly ignored and un-reviewed in mainstream media is shocking. This is a first rate anthology - a real undiscovered gem.
This anthology was one of the first books published by Gay Men's Press in the UK. It is a wonderful tribute to the talent that was going unrecognised by mainstream publishers at the time and but for GMP in the UK and similar similar publishing efforts in the USA a lot of excellent writing would never have seen the light of day. It is also a reminder that there were plenty of excellent gay/queer writers before Alan Hollinghurst. Writers such as Peter Robins, David Rees, Barry Nonweiler and Ian Everton. Even Adam Mars-Jones is here in one of his first published stories. One of the, for me, painful aspects of reading this, and other early queer anthologies, is the number of excellent stories whose authors produced nothing else and about whom nothing further is known. In this anthology I would highlight in particular Jon Ward and his story 'Dear Mrs Ashe'. It is a really clever dissection of not simply gay attitudes of the time but also class/political/literary ones as well. It is also extremely funny and unfortunately I can discover nothing about Jon Ward - if anyone knows anything I would love to hear it.
This anthology also contains an excerpt from Robert Gluck's 'Elements of a Coffee Service' a classic which is unobtainable (as of January 2023). Over all the scope of the writing is diverse and strong and the fact that writers and writing of this quality was utterly ignored and un-reviewed in mainstream media is shocking. This is a first rate anthology - a real undiscovered gem.
October 1, 2013
Collection of short stories that varies
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews