Did Being Gay Matter?
Padlock IconThis article is only a portion of the full article. If you are already a premium subscriber please login. If you are not a premium subscriber, please subscribe for access to all of our content.

0
Published in: March-April 2004 issue.

 

The First Time I Met FrankThe First Time I Met Frank O’Hara:
Reading Gay American Writers

by Rick Whitaker
Four Walls Eight Windows. 231 pages, $20.

 

Rick Whitaker introduces the essays in his new book, The First Time I Met Frank O’Hara: Reading Gay American Writers, by suggesting that a writer’s sexuality may influence not only what he writes, but also how he writes. While this is nothing new in the realm of literary inquiries, it’s a worthy question and will snag the attention of many readers.

Our sexuality undoubtedly does influence how we create our poems and stories, but Whitaker provides few lasting or groundbreaking observations on this score. What he has succeeded in doing, while a less ambitious project, is to set forth one gay man’s smart, easily digestible reactions to the gay American writers he’s come to love. In this sense, it is a fairly engaging “reading journal,” though it rarely rises to the level of “literary criticism.”

To continue reading this article, please LOGIN or SUBSCRIBE

Share