Rating: 
Summary: Joy and Heartache
Review: I first read this book when I was 18 and was incredibly moved. Many years later, it is still one of my favorite novels of all time. Patricia Nell Warren does an amazing job of capturing the emotions of gay men. Before the gay community fractured into backbiting and divisiveness, people were supportive of each other and thrilled to support anyone else who was gay. The Front Runner captures this early spirit excellently. The beauty of this book is in its exciting depiction of emotion and love; and its description of the world and life the way it should be. The tragic ending is shattering yet all too realistic considering the world in which we live.
Rating:
Summary: Great gay coming-of-age book
Review: I found the book touching. You have a track coach who comes to terms with his own sexuality and then uses his knowledge and new found power to be an advocate for others in similiar straits.
I would recommend the book to anyone just coming out, or to anyone who just wants to read a good book. A must for the PFLAG library!
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: I got this book for christmas after hearing that it was very good from a friend and putting it at the top of my christmas list. I had been expecting to get some mild amusment and a good read out of this book, not the emotionaly stirring and powerful story I got!
The Front Runner is such a beautiful book! I have never cried that hard over a book before! I laughed, I smiled, I cried, and I love along with the wonderful people, for I can not call them simply characters they are far more then just fictional beings, that come forth in this absolutly fantastic piece of writting.
I recomend this book to everyone, it is brilliantly done, a true master piece.
Rating:
Summary: Proper Coaching
Review: I had received a lot of criticism for not having read "The Front Runner" from a lot of people. But I have to admit, a love story set against the Olympics in the mid-70's was not appealing to me at first. I've never been entralled with athletics and the main characters are all obsessed with professional track races. Still, I promised myself I would give it 50 pages and see how I felt. And to my surprise, Patricia Nell Warren surpassed all my expectations and I feel this treasure must be preserved for future generations of readers. After all, this is a story by a bisexual woman, writing about two star-crossed male lovers, confronted by discrimination in all senses. Harlan, who was exhiled from coaching in the competitive univerisity track meets because of his homosexuality, has lived a life of shame and indignity. His past took him from high status with an internationally successful track team, to the hustler culture of New York City back to the quiet life of coaching at a young liberal college. As he has adjusted to his quiet life, hiding himself away from his dissaproving family and the society that shunned him, three Olympic-bound track runners come to him from Oregon. All three were expelled because they were gay. Trying to keep his personal life completely seperated from his role as coach and professor, he takes the boys under his tutoridge, only to eventually become involved with his front runner, Billy Sive. Together, they face more discrimination at the hands of the national athletic association and media, while pushing Billy to the Olympics. We get to experience a romance that must defy an entire soceity (the almost Anceint Greek-like man-boy relationship in the early post-Stonewall era) as well as the personal triumphs of a fledging athletic superstar. Simply amazing! I found myself instantly attracted to (and equally repulsed!) to the narrator, the 40-year old Harlan. Patricia Nell Warren wrote him brilliantly. Harlan goes into great detail to recount his history, a series of injustices dealt to him by spiteful people. He never comes across as whining, but he is able to tell his woes in such a way, that the reader cannot help but sympathize with him. After all, he only wants to things in life: to be in a real loving relationship and his rights to compete. Harlan's self-conscious nature and his rash temper make him a hard character to admire at times, but he explains all of his actions well. We pity him for his reluctance to really bond with others and celebrate himself as a gay man and we cheer for him when he is finally able to open himself to Billy and take on more friendly roles than superior ones to his runners.
The story telling constantly circulates between the techincal side of athletic training and Harlan's daily emotional rollercoaster. But there's too much action for us to get bored and social commentary and flashbacks are carried out in brief but complete doses so we don't get lost in abundant side-stories. "The Front Runner" will not dissapoint. It is a classic tale told by a voice that we can identify to, despite what creeds and orientations we follow. If the goal of a writer is take an experience and make it universal, than Patricia Nell Warren has succeeded. Elements of drama and romance blend in well, under carefully assorted scenes and monologues. The romance feels real and not campy and concludes with a shocking twist that will leave an entire audience speechless. This is a must.
Rating:
Summary: Proper Coaching
Review: I had received a lot of criticism for not having read "The Front Runner" from a lot of people. But I have to admit, a love story set against the Olympics in the mid-70's was not appealing to me at first. I've never been entralled with athletics and the main characters are all obsessed with professional track races. Still, I promised myself I would give it 50 pages and see how I felt. And to my surprise, Patricia Nell Warren surpassed all my expectations and I feel this treasure must be preserved for future generations of readers. After all, this is a story by a bisexual woman, writing about two star-crossed male lovers, confronted by discrimination in all senses. Harlan, who was exhiled from coaching in the competitive univerisity track meets because of his homosexuality, has lived a life of shame and indignity. His past took him from high status with an internationally successful track team, to the hustler culture of New York City back to the quiet life of coaching at a young liberal college. As he has adjusted to his quiet life, hiding himself away from his dissaproving family and the society that shunned him, three Olympic-bound track runners come to him from Oregon. All three were expelled because they were gay. Trying to keep his personal life completely seperated from his role as coach and professor, he takes the boys under his tutoridge, only to eventually become involved with his front runner, Billy Sive. Together, they face more discrimination at the hands of the national athletic association and media, while pushing Billy to the Olympics. We get to experience a romance that must defy an entire soceity (the almost Anceint Greek-like man-boy relationship in the early post-Stonewall era) as well as the personal triumphs of a fledging athletic superstar. Simply amazing! I found myself instantly attracted to (and equally repulsed!) to the narrator, the 40-year old Harlan. Patricia Nell Warren wrote him brilliantly. Harlan goes into great detail to recount his history, a series of injustices dealt to him by spiteful people. He never comes across as whining, but he is able to tell his woes in such a way, that the reader cannot help but sympathize with him. After all, he only wants to things in life: to be in a real loving relationship and his rights to compete. Harlan's self-conscious nature and his rash temper make him a hard character to admire at times, but he explains all of his actions well. We pity him for his reluctance to really bond with others and celebrate himself as a gay man and we cheer for him when he is finally able to open himself to Billy and take on more friendly roles than superior ones to his runners.
The story telling constantly circulates between the techincal side of athletic training and Harlan's daily emotional rollercoaster. But there's too much action for us to get bored and social commentary and flashbacks are carried out in brief but complete doses so we don't get lost in abundant side-stories. "The Front Runner" will not dissapoint. It is a classic tale told by a voice that we can identify to, despite what creeds and orientations we follow. If the goal of a writer is take an experience and make it universal, than Patricia Nell Warren has succeeded. Elements of drama and romance blend in well, under carefully assorted scenes and monologues. The romance feels real and not campy and concludes with a shocking twist that will leave an entire audience speechless. This is a must.
Rating:
Summary: I'm still not over Billy!
Review: I read this novel from cover to cover one quiet afternoon. The last couple of chapters took me awhile (not to mention an entire box of kleenex) as the tears blurred my vision. I still haven't really recovered, in fact, I don't think I ever will. During a discussion of censorship in a library science class a few days ago, a classmate and I debated the wisdom of sheltering youth. She said, "So you don't think that books can hurt kids?" And I thought about Billy Sive and said, "Pain is good. It's growing pain." Although THE FRONT RUNNER is written mainly for adults, I also think it is appropriate for YA and high school libraries. I've read rumours that THE FRONT RUNNER is slated to be made into a movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: I think The Front Runner must be for the young gay
man what The Well of Loneliness has been for lesbians. I found the dialogue sometimes contrived,
the characters sometimes a bit unbelievable, but that may be as much about my ignorance of male
sexuality as anything else. I can definitely
understand why this book has been and is important to
gay men. It is a wonderful story combining
sex, sports, and love. It is a tragic story of
hate and homophobia. We can all learn from it.
Rating:
Summary: The Front Runner--Gold Medal Shining
Review: I too thought of Billy, a central character, as I watched the track & field events of this summer's Olympics. And once again I travelled through well worn pages of a classic book in which Ms. Warren draws us in to care for a myriad of characters & plots. This is not just a gay mans book by any means. Through the story of college runners and an older coach with lingering ghosts--we vividly feel everything from friendship, lust, sports adrenalin, homophobic tragedies to a sense of victory of the human spirit. A superb novel which will remain timeless.
Rating:
Summary: I hate novels and I LOVED this story
Review: I usually have little interest in "storybooks" as I call them, but the characters were so real so quickly, I got hooked fast. It's amazing how a woman can write about a man's erotic admiration for another man so genuinely--and to weave so many issues of the gay experience into the fabric of the story, it's genius! I am not sure if I appreciate or resent being put through so many emotions throughout the course of this book. I am glad, however, that I read it. You will be too.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfull book
Review: I'll keep this short, but I had to write about this book. The book was recomended to me by a dear friend who said that I'd love it. How right she was. I started it on a wensday afternoon and finished it three hous later. Couldn't put it down. I don't know how socaly correct it is, but I do know that it helped me understand better. It is a love story, and a good one. But it's also well written, and very moving. I'd recomed this book to anyone.
| 
