Customer Reviews

Beneath the Equator: Cultures of Desire, Male Homosexuality, and Emerging Gay Communities in Brazil

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What's best about this book are the data, especially lengthy quotations from gay Brazilian men. (Most seem to be from Jorge and Lino, although he claims to be drawing on 2000 interviews.) There's also unintegrated information about economics (neoliberal development) and "globalisation" that Parker supposes explains changes going on in how Brazilian gay men relate to and regard each other. There are also photos, maps, tables. Readers unfamiliar with the topic should begin with James N. Green's book _Beyond Carnival_ which provides the background to the AIDS era that Parker writes about.

"Brazil" is Rio de Janeiro and the northern port city of Fortaleza. Migration to regional centers and from regional centers to Rio (and on to Rome, Paris, and Lisbon) is sensibly discussed. There's nothing about indigenous peoples, or nonurban gay life. And nothing on lesbians.

This is the only book I've ever seen that has a list of maps, tables, and illustrations that does not indicate what page these are on. Obviously, this is the fault of the publisher rather than the author, gratuitiously making it harder to compare maps.(Parker doesn't do anything with the maps: there is no spatial/geographical analysis, just points of reference on maps.)

Being a Brazilian myself I was very well and deeply impressed with Richard Parker's book.The accuracy,the revealing clarity Mr.Parker uses to describe the homosexual culture in Brazil is going to make this book a classic. More important, besides the impressive scientific accuracy, I felt a text written with love and compassion. Probably that is why my heart was impregnated with kindness and compassion towards my Brazilian gay friends;the ones still living and the ones in Paradise. I am sure God is blessing all of them. Joaquim San Francisco, Wednesday,03/17/99