2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some gay men's attempt to record and understand couplings, June 20, 2005
This review is from: Afterwords: Real Sex from Gay Men's Diaries (Paperback)
A book with 32 chapters by 29 authors would be difficult to review even if there was not considerable variance in quality. That the chapters are comprised of entries in diaries/journals about sex and that the entries vary considerably in length, graphic detail, era, and geography increases the difficulty of making generalizations.
The book is definitely not for anyone (straight or gay) who is squeamish about graphic details of male-male sex or of erotic desperation. Not that all the selections include either of these. The lengthiest chapter involves S&M (mostly dominance/submission, but with some infliction of pain) and others describe bodies and pleasures in detail. Some other writers were desperately seeking a spouse. Perhaps that is the major divide, not just among the authors but among gay men more generally: those who want to marry, settle down, and raise kids and those (some of them in open relationships) who enjoy meeting through meating and are fascinated by novelty rather than the comforts of familiarity. Some of the authors deplore anonymous sex, some revel in it.
There is poignancy. There is wit. And even some wisdom (after David Leddick described disappointment in his natal family, a man told him: "They are not your family, they are only your relatives"). There are reports of encounters that make me embarrassed for the author and/or his sexual partner. Most of the entries/selections do not seem meant to arouse. The exception (the longest chapter in the book) is titled "Something Sensational to Read on the Train" but is more analytic than incantory about what excited David May between 1978 and 1984.
The choice of lines from within the chapters as titles deserve special praise, and the author bios are unusually entertaining. I skipped around and find it hard to imagine reading straight through (I eventually read all of the chapters, but over the course of more than a year.)
The chapters that I thought were a waste of the time I spent reading them were those by Jack Bissell, Joseph Manera, Felice Picano (an essay that doesn't even fit the parameters of being a diary entry about personal sexual experience), and Dan Perdios. Not all the other were great, but had somethings of interest and/or were entertaining.
In sex ad acronyms (another of the sources for my stalled book on desire) the authors are mostly GWM with a few GBM; no GLM or GAM. Baby-boomers and generation X. A few entries are by Americans in Europe, most are set in the USA. To take three themes from the title of a South Asian memoir, I'd say that despite the subtitle's emphasis on sex, AFTERWORDS is more about longings and not (feeling one) belongs than about sex.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Could This Really Be True?, April 24, 2003
This review is from: Afterwords: Real Sex from Gay Men's Diaries (Paperback)
How many of you out there have secretly wanted to read someone else's diary at one time or another? You know it's wrong, but curiosity gets the better of you. This book capitalizes on that theme of curiosity, and the thrill one gets when learning something secret about someone else's private affairs. These 20 stories may or may not be actual diary entries, but that's really not important. It's a thrill just the same. The stories are written in actual journal entries, and are very realistic.
There are many notable contributors like David Leddick, Felice Picano, Jim Buck, and others. A broad sampling of many sexual interests and lifestyles of gay men are presented for our enjoyment. These are explicit stories covering encounters in bath houses, one-night stands, three-ways, S&M and erotic scenarios that are vividly hot. This is an erotic collection of stories to get lost in on those off nights. They may be real diaries entries or just fantasies but who cares, they are exciting to read no matter what.
Joe Hanssen
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More than erotica, a hint of romance and social politics, January 31, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Afterwords: Real Sex from Gay Men's Diaries (Paperback)
Presumably true accounts of gay encounters, "Afterwords ..." offers more than same-sex erotica and is a step or two above carnalism by describing encounters in which love (and not just lust) is a factor. Still other entries smack of socio-politicism and make subtle judgments on the "political correctness" of being a man wanting to make love with another man. Regardless of each story's base - lust, romanticism, politicism - "Afterwords ..." is nonetheless steamy and erotic ...Amazingly, while the entries serve to get the pulse rate going faster, they also impress a sense of beauty of love and make sublimial references to issues that engulf gay sexual issues. The read is well worth it, and "Afterwords ..." makes us believe we're actually reading someone's private diary.
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