Unlimited Embrace: A Canon of Gay Fiction, 1945-1995

Rating:
Summary: Don't Miss It
Review: One of the more engaging and refreshing studies of its type, though not without its controversial readings of the literature, much of which is not as insightful as this.

Rating:
Summary: literary criticism with a personal touch
Review: The acid test of a book like this is whether or not you can disagree with some of the author's opinions but still want to keep reading, and Woodhouse succeeds just fine at passing this test. The openly personal nature of his readings of the texts he chooses excuses the leaving-out of so much (for instance, a gay "canon" with nothing about Gordon Merrick?), and the author's articulateness makes me hope he'll write a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Flat-out Brilliant
Review: This book not only offers incredible insight into the work of gay fiction writers, it offers brilliant observations about what it's like to live life as a gay man. Woodhouse's ideas are original, compelling, and dead-on. My only reservation is that too few readers will be brave or intelligent enough to take Woodhouse's ideas and observations and apply them to their own lives. That's where they belong.