Mosaic Press
Looking for Brothers
Own this acclaimed Mosaic Press classic!
Spanning an eleven year period, these essays by award-winning journalist Michael Rowe examine, with a startling blend of objectivity and subjectivity, the places that society has allocated to gay men, and the places gay men have claimed for themselves: physically, emotionally ,sexually, and geographically. They unflinchingly explore "the carved-in-stone truisms cherished by both gay and straight society," in an attempt to dismantle the limiting stereotypes each group holds of themselves and the other, and to find the place where the two cultures meet.
Praise from Library Journal:
In this engaging collection of essays and articles, Canadian writer Rowe (Writing Below the Belt) presents a multifaceted perspective on "the common threads that run through" gay mens' lives. ... To his credit, Rowe's subjects range from those as celebrated as gay Olympian Mark Leduc to the less well known but no less interesting: the closing piece, "Twenty-Five Yards from Shore," is both a striking glimpse of Rowe's own quest for fulfillment and a particularly fine example of his poetic facility with the essay. Academic and public libraries will want this for their gay/lesbian studies collections as well as for collections devoted to social history and to writing.
Praise from Kirkus Reviews:
An appealing collection of essays and articles on issues central to the gay community. Award-winning Canadian journalist and author Rowe provokes and enlightens with his musings on the contemporary gay experience. A major theme is the sometimes blatant, sometimes subtle prejudice gays encounter. Of particular concern is the tormenting isolation and fear of sudden, violent death, especially by gay teens. In the opening essay, "Requiem for Junior," Rowe laments the murder of 18-year-old transvestite Sean Keagan, "a sad reminder that society will always view some people as more expendable than others, and that the streets are carnivorous." In "Justice Deferred," Rowe takes on his country's legal system for allowing Dennis Hurley to be extradited to Mexico to stand trial for his lover's death, contending that it would be impossible for Hurley to receive a fair trial in a country as homophobic as Mexico, whose legal system includes no presupposition of innocence.
Particularly engaging is Rowe's discussion of the controversy within the gay community over same-sex marriage. While Rowe, who has been monogamous for most of his adult life, contends that the prohibition against gay marriage reinforces the "false notion" of heterosexual superiority, others within the gay community fiercely oppose gay marriage as bourgeois, while still others are too enamored of their outsider status to conform to society's institutions. Although most of Rowe's reflections are serious, he does provide some light moments. "In Praise of Straight Men" is a good-humored paean to straight men who, lacking the drama of gay men, are "definitely lower-maintenance than their gay counterparts." A heartfelt collection that should win its author a wide readership.
MICHAEL ROWE was born in Ottawa, and has lived in Beirut, Havana, Geneva, and Paris. An award-winning essayist and former journalist, his first book, Writing Below The Belt: Conversations With Erotic Authors (Richard Kasak Books, 1995) was a study of erotica and popular culture as seen through the eyes of fourteen of America’s best erotica authors, as well as a devastating indictment of censorship in literature and the arts. His essays, articles and reviews have appeared in a variety of periodicals in Canada and the United States, including the National Post, The Globe and Mail, The Boston Globe, The Advocate, The Huffington Post, and CNQ, and in a variety of anthologies including Best Canadian Essays. As the creator and editor of the groundbreaking anthologies Queer Fear (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2000) and Queer Fear 2 (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002), Clive Barker credited him as having “changed forever the shape of horror fiction.” He has won the Lambda Literary Award and been a finalist for the National Magazine Award, the Sunburst Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award. He lives in Toronto.
6x9
196 pages
Pub date: 1999
ISBN PB: 9780889626713