A stirringly combative and prescient collection from earlier days of gay journalism.
Benton (Extraordinary Hearts, 2013) collects his writings from the post-Stonewall, pre–Harvey Milk era of the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
As a young gay man in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s, Benton became a passionate activist and writer in the gay rights movement. He published prolifically in such alternative outlets as the Berkeley Barb, the Berkeley Tribe, Gay Sunshine, and his own paper, the Effeminist. In this collection, he reveals how, by 1969, the gay movement had already split into two factions: “one which saw our liberation in the context of wider social currents and causes, and the other which insisted that activism be limited to striving to advance ‘our’ issues, solely.” Benton identified with the former, and the Effeminist sought to bring together the goals of the gay rights and feminist movements. His topics include the Stonewall riots, Vietnam, racism, sexism, and politics, and there are firsthand accounts of protests, demonstrations, incidents of harassment, and cultural trends and happenings. These pieces provide a record of a specific era in the counterculture and offer valuable perspective for activists in today’s LGBTQ+ and feminist struggles. Benton’s prose is analytical and hard-hitting even when writing about film: “It’s about a male supremacist society where sex is a power trip,” he writes in a 1971 review of the prison-set film Fortune and Men’s Eyes. “It’s about cultural homosexuality, turned into simulated heterosexual acts performed by men on each other due to the physical absence of women. It’s real.” The book is primarily composed of writings from the same period, but more recent pieces that look back on that time are included as well. Benton asserts that he’s been written out of some versions of the era’s history, and there’s a self-promotional quality to the book that isn’t always subtle; one essay, for instance, is titled “4 Things I Am Credited With Helping To Accomplish in That Era.” As a set of primary source documents, however, these essays will give readers a wonderful, provocative look into the Stonewall generation’s political coming-of-age.
A stirringly combative and prescient collection from earlier days of gay journalism.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64633-310-3
Page Count: 200
Publisher: BCI Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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