The Gay Canon : Great Books Every Gay Man Should Read

Rating:
Summary: More irritating than useful
Review: I have to give Drake credit here for a couple of good ideas: the formation of an actual canon of gay/gay-themed works and the suggested ways of building a reading group around those works. However, his approach borders on the erratic (some texts get huge write-ups, others barely get a page with little or no mention as to why they should be included in this survey) and his writing style aims for cleverness but usually only makes it to melodramatic, twee, or even flat-out vulgar. In my quest to find recommendations of "gay lit," I have been better served by collections such as _Pages Passed from Hand to Hand_ and especially _The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature_, both of which provide not only spot-on analysis but also sizeable and helpful excerpts of the works themselves. (And not to quibble--after all, it's Drake's list, not mine--but was _Dancer from the Dance_ really as awful as he would like us to believe, and where is Leavitt's _The Lost Language of Cranes_?)

Rating:
Summary: Time is running short
Review: O.K. here is the choice-accept the gift of salvation in Christ Jesus ( If he did not intercede for mankind, human beings would no longer exist ) or indulge yourself. What utter despair one would feel if one rejected the former!! One's can easily understand that the Pearl Of Great Price is The Bible. How then can those other "books" be called "great"??

Rating:
Summary: A Good Guide
Review: OK. No book attempting to establish any kind of a canon, let alone a gay canon is going to satisfy anyone. I picked this book up a couple of years ago, and used it as the basis for an online book group that read through Drake's recommended book group selections. Since then, the book group has dissolved, but I've kept the book on hand as a handy guide when I'm looking for something to read and don't have any immediate ideas. Drake's list is by no means exhaustive or all-inclusive, but it's a good place for the curious, or anyone who just wants to broaden their literary horizons, to start.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Guide
Review: OK. No book attempting to establish any kind of a canon, let alone a gay canon is going to satisfy anyone. I picked this book up a couple of years ago, and used it as the basis for an online book group that read through Drake's recommended book group selections. Since then, the book group has dissolved, but I've kept the book on hand as a handy guide when I'm looking for something to read and don't have any immediate ideas. Drake's list is by no means exhaustive or all-inclusive, but it's a good place for the curious, or anyone who just wants to broaden their literary horizons, to start.