Customer Reviews

Front Runner

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The idea that THE FRONT RUNNER was the first novel to address gay men and their romantic and sexual relationships is myth. A host of novels predate it, including Gore Vidal's 1948 THE CITY AND THE PILLAR and Mary Renault's brilliant 1959 THE CHARIOTEER. By the 1960s gay characters began to crack the bestseller lists with considerable regularity, with Gavin Lambert's INSIDE DAISY CLOVER a case in point. But THE FRONT RUNNER was very much the right book at the right time by the right author--and it would become legendary as the voice of a new generation.

The Stonewall Riots, which marked a turning point in the struggle for equal rights, was barely five years old when THE FRONT RUNNER was published, and few people--including many in the gay community--had any serious context for the story Warren offered. Consequently, Warren took nothing for granted: she created that context through a series of meticulously described backgrounds, something that made the book widely accessible to mainstream readers. And when THE FRONT RUNNER hit the bookstore it proved a revelation for both homosexual and heterosexuals alike: it flew off the shelves, becoming one of the most critically lauded and widely read novels of its decade.

The story concerns Harlan, a college track coach who is rocked out of the closet when three world class athletes land on his doorstep after being expelled for homosexuality from a major university. One of the three is Billy--and Billy is everything that Harlan has both hungered for and feared: a man with whom Harlan could fall in love. Although many regard it as love story pure and simple, THE FRONT RUNNER is really a sociopolitical novel. At the time, there was little balance in public discourse on homosexuality--and as Harlan and his runners attain increasing fame they must also deal with public reaction to their increasingly open sexuality. Then as now, the price for such openness could be extremely high, and in the spotlight of the track field the price for Harlan and Billy will be beyond reckoning.

Some may feel the book is dated. The 1970s slang is so quaint! And is it really necessary to point out that gay men actually fall in love, that their relationships involve much more than sex? Is it really necessary to detail Stonewall? Do we have to go over the whole ground of being in the closet again? Surely we can take all that for granted now! Yes, we can. But one reason we can is that Patricia Nell Warren put it all on the table in the first place. The world has changed a great deal since the early 1970s, but even with the advent of AIDS, civil unions, and the controversy over same-sex marriage THE FRONT RUNNER still exerts a powerful influence. It was and is a remarkable novel, and it will doubtlessly remain so for as long as love and sexuality remain twin victims of reactionary hysteria.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Harlan Brown is an ex-Marine and a track coach. In 1974, after he is dismissed from Penn State due to rumors of an alleged homosexual romance with one of his athletes, Harlan finds himself as the track coach at Prescott, a smaller university which he discovers is a more diverse than any other school in the country. Harlan's coaching life is thrown into turmoil when three young track athletes, kicked out of another university for their openness about their sexuality, want to join his team.

One of the athletes, Billy Sive who looks to be a contender for the Montréal Olympics, piques his interest, and Harlan soon finds himself falling for the young man. Billy begins to have the same feelings for Harlan. Once they admit their feelings, they form a strong, positive relationghip face together the fear and hatred of the athletic world and society, determined to give Billy his shot at a gold medal.

First published in 1974, this became a national bestseller. Patricia Nell Warren's depiction of two gay athletes in the 1970s is filled with so much that's positive about being gay: Harlan and Billy form a strong, monogamous relationship and don't hide it from the rest of the world. (They also don't flaunt it.) They tackle many issues that gay men and women are struggling with today: gay marriage, children, gay rights. The novel also handles the societal negatives regarding homosexuality with much humanity and empathy. You can either run and hide from it, or you can stare it down, be happy with yourself.

I also liked the characters. Harlan has only recently come out and is trying to deal with his feelings and jealousies along with his memories of the past and society. Billy is calm, confident, knows who and what he is and is determined that no one is going to keep him from what makes him happy. The two of them together make a great and very realistic couple.

While it is a gay novel, it's also a sports novel. Warren was a long-distance runner herself and draws from her experiences to give a realistic view of the amateur sports world, especially when it comes to the politics of jsut being able to compete. It's a world that I found very intriguing and want to learn more about.

This is a remarkable book, one that should be read by everyone, gay and straight.

How is it that a female story teller so adeptly delved into the emotions and mind of gay men? I was 27 when I first read The Front Runner, it was published when I was only 5 years old. Even though it is a story about life set in the 70s, it is a truly remarkable tale about love, destiny, passion and the search for that special love we all seek. Harlan, the track coach at the center of the book, has paid some tough prices for coming out as a gay man. He lost a wife, a family, and yes it would be easy to say he should never have gotten married and cheating on his wife...through Ms. Warren's words, we see the pain and confusion that his sexual identity has caused him. It is not until he is into his 40s that he finds he can be out and lead a life deserving in respect & love. The tragic ending will move any heart I'm sure, gay or staright or questioning. Along with its sequels, each just as brilliant, TFR is a landmark book that is a celebration of the gay & lesbian community.

This is considered by many (myself included) to be the classic gay love story. This book is an exquisitely written piece of literature, tracing track coach Harlan Brown's life, and his love for a young athlete, Billy, all the way the Olympics.
First published in 1973, The Front Runner has been translated into a number of languages, and has sold over ten million copies worldwide. In 1974, TFR was the first gay themed book to hit #1 on the New York Times best seller list. Read it, and you will know why this book has enjoyed such huge popularity over the years. Be warned though, I haven't met a single person who has been able to put this book down once started. It pulls you into the lives of Billy and Harlan, you feel their love, their joy and their pain. And, if you get to the end of the book, and you haven't shed tears, I would be tempted to say that you need to be checked for emotions!

I first read this book when I was in my adolescence in the mid-seventies, after learning that Paul Newman was considering taking the lead role in a film version of the story (which, sadly, never came to fruition). It was the first book I read with gay characters and, being as I was young enough to be largely unaware of hateful or offensive stereotypes, I owe it a fair bit of credit for helping me to grow up with a healthy self-image. For that alone, it's worthy of my five stars.

With thirty years of queer literature under my belt, I decided to re-visit this old friend (I still retain my original dog-eared and yellowed Bantam paperback - eighth printing, circa 1975) and see if it lived up to my fond memories. First off I'd like to say that, like Billy Sive, the openly gay athlete and front runner of the book's title, the author and original publisher displayed enormous courage in putting this book out into the mainstream in the early 1970's, daring anyone to challenge its right to exist. Kudos to both.

In brief, "The Front Runner" is a tale of international athletic competition as well as an extremely moving and romantic, May-September love story that ends in both triumph and tragedy. What distinguishes it from many earlier queer novels and films is that the book's tragedy stems not from the character's self-loathing but from a senseless act of hatred perpetrated by an otherwise anonymous bigot. Perhaps befitting a book about sports, the writing is straightforward, plain and sturdy without any fey poetic flourishes. The depictions of sex are mostly rather coy, certainly by today's standards, but I'll admit upon re-reading the scene in the darkened movie theater in which 40 year old coach Harlan and Billy, his twenty-something star athlete, falteringly admit their love for one another and share their first kiss, I felt as much electricity as when I first read it in 1975.

This book is seminal. Anyone and everyone who enjoys LGBT fiction owes it to themselves to read it. I firmly believe that Colm Toibin would never have been short-listed for the Booker Prize and Alan Hollinghurst never would have taken said prize home in 2004 if it hadn't been for this book, truly a front runner itself, blazing the trail thirty years ahead of them in 1974.

As a gay man, I will never understand how Patrician nell Warren
understands the mind of the gay man better than any gay man that
I've ever know. This is truly the most wonderful book that I have ever read about gay "love". It's unfortunate that Paul Newman and Robert Redford didn't follow through with making it into a movie as had been rumored many years ago.

This book is a superbly crafted work. I (like so many others) first read this book when I was 18 years old. In my youthful naiveté, I kept wondering how a woman could see things from a gay male perspective with such clarity and reality. How COULD she know and understand so well what I felt? Ms. Warren used her descriptive powers and a truly warm honesty to draw us into this story like few others before or since. Imagine my astonishment when I found "The Front Runner" in a mainstream bookshop in Oklahoma City! I saw the cover art on the first paperback edition (not the current cover art, but certainly not "lurid" either) and I SNATCHED up the book. Standing between the book racks, I read the first page. I skipped forward and read more. I found myself shaking. Until I found this book, all I knew about being gay was a few brief glimpses I'd caught of truly ugly porn, what I'd heard from my father's pulpit, and a boy in my highschool (whom I avoided like the plague) who had pink hair and a sexy (and unfortunately, swishy) walk. I read this book from cover to cover three times that week. I laughed when Harlan set a seven-minute pace on the way to the clearing where they FINALLY made it. I ran 20 or more miles every day and so that little touch of my own world, that instant of wry humor just as they were about to "do it" made the book even MORE real for me.) I could SEE Billy and Harlan, and I could SEE that clearing! Reading this book gave me a much needed change in my worldview. The sudden discovery that I could be like Billy; that if I grew up and become the kind of man Ms. Warren described in Harlan (faults and all) it would be ok, was (to put it mildly) a revelation. Athletic "macho gay" men who weren't caricatures, LOVING each other! It was incredible, and it was DEFINATELY the positive influence that I needed in 1976. I remember the rumors that "The Front Runner" would be made into a major motion picture. "Redford has bought the rights." "Newman wants to do it, and he's gonna play Harlan." Too bad it didn't happen. Meanwhile, if my nephew grows up and discovers that hes gay, This is the first book I'll hand him. Hell, if he's straight, I'll give him a copy anyway, after he turns 18 and his parents can't kill me.

In late 1974, 39-year-old Harlan Brown is living quietly, employed as a track coach at a small college in upstate New York. He's been through a lot in those 39 years, much of which we discover later in the narrative from Harlan himself, who is the first person narrator. But on that winter day, Harlan is in for the shock of his life when the college administrator sends three young transfer athletes to try out for the track team. These are not just any young men; they're all three gay-as is the deeply closeted Harlan-and they've been thrown off a big-time college team because of their sexuality. Billy Sive is one of the three, and it's his spirit and strength that suffuse the book with gradually increasing power and wonder. Billy is a front runner, the man in the footrace who runs hard and fast as he can, attempting to stave off his competitors. He has great talent, which Harlan believes he can bring out if only the young man will listen to his coaching.

And so begins the story of two men as they struggle with the feelings that grow between them. Eventually they become lovers united in partnership and with the goal to go for Olympic gold while trying to find a place of acceptance in a world that is not nearly as accepting as it is today. Graphic and gritty at times, the story of their attraction and relationship is also tender and powerful. Millions of gay men and women, not to mention many straight people, from all over the world have read The Front Runner. Whether you're straight or gay-or anywhere in between-the story is compelling.

Patricia Nell Warren, writing this story in the early 1970's, could not have foreseen the ripple effect it had upon gays and lesbians in America and around the world. Other books had been written about homosexual experience, but when this one was first published in 1974, it had a stunning effect and still packs a punch. The Front Runner took hold of a Gay Hero Archetype and made it real, while at the same time causing the reader to feel deeply about characters who seemed so genuinely appealing and authentic, they could almost walk off the page.

This book is nearing 30 years old, and yet it still rings true. Still feels real. Still packs a wallop. Patricia Nell Warren was very nearly prescient in her treatment of the Gay Heroes in this novel. Since The Front Runner's publication, we have seen the emergence of gay pride and solidarity that had only just begun in 1969 with the Stonewall Riots. Since then, from Harvey Milk's 1977 ascendance to political power in California and subsequent assassination to the bravery of gay rugby player Mark Bingham in helping to avert disaster in the Flight 93 attack on September 11th, our nation has gotten glimpses of the strength, beauty, and contributions of gay people who put their lives on the line for the good of an ideal. And I like to think that above it all, the ghost of Billy Sive hovers: "He had overcome the fury by nonviolence and compassion. He was out front, running free. He was accepted for what he was. He was even valued now, as someone who might speak for a whole universe of human feeling that had been denied. It was so ironic..."

Though it's been 20 years since I first read this book, time has been good to it, infusing it with both a prophetic voice and a elegiac tone that would not be so powerful if prejudice and hate were not still so prevalent. The world has come a long way in the last three decades, but not far enough. There are still far too many Matthew Shepards and Jamie Naboznys. Until the world is tolerant and accepting, The Front Runner will continue to speak to all of us. I recommend this book highly. All of straight America should be required to read it. ~Lori L. Lake, author of lesbian fiction and freelance reviewer for Midwest Book Review, Golden Crown Literary Society's The Crown, The Independent Gay Writer, and Just About Write.

I am always amazed that this book "The Front Runner" was not written by a gay man. I'm sure that Patricia Nell Warren must have been one in a previous life or something to write so well and true to the kind of experiences that men have. The key character in the novel is Harlan (the subject of the sequel that came out many years later). "The Front Runner" is a metaphor in different respects, not only of Harlan's lover, the young track star Billy, but also of the novel, which was years ahead of its time in subject matter.

Harlan is a track coach who falls unexpectedly for his young student athlete Billy. Billy comes to the college where Harlan is teaching after he and two friends, who also feature in the novel prominently, are kicked off the team at the other school for being gay. This four-some have a strong bond of identity and experience, and end up supporting each other not only in the races of the track meets, but also the race of life. The climax of the novel comes when Billy makes the Olympic team, and again in "front runner" fashion is selected to be the flag-carrier in the parade.

The way Warren crafts the characters and the situations is incredible. I re-read this book every few years or so, and recommend it highly to anyone coming out, anyone not yet out, and anyone who wants to understand some of the emotions of the gay community. While this is not representative of all gay men, it touches a lot of points that are true.

I had received a lot of criticism for not having read "The Front Runner" from a lot of people. But I have to admit, a love story set against the Olympics in the mid-70's was not appealing to me at first. I've never been entralled with athletics and the main characters are all obsessed with professional track races. Still, I promised myself I would give it 50 pages and see how I felt. And to my surprise, Patricia Nell Warren surpassed all my expectations and I feel this treasure must be preserved for future generations of readers.

After all, this is a story by a bisexual woman, writing about two star-crossed male lovers, confronted by discrimination in all senses. Harlan, who was exhiled from coaching in the competitive univerisity track meets because of his homosexuality, has lived a life of shame and indignity. His past took him from high status with an internationally successful track team, to the hustler culture of New York City back to the quiet life of coaching at a young liberal college. As he has adjusted to his quiet life, hiding himself away from his dissaproving family and the society that shunned him, three Olympic-bound track runners come to him from Oregon. All three were expelled because they were gay. Trying to keep his personal life completely seperated from his role as coach and professor, he takes the boys under his tutoridge, only to eventually become involved with his front runner, Billy Sive. Together, they face more discrimination at the hands of the national athletic association and media, while pushing Billy to the Olympics. We get to experience a romance that must defy an entire soceity (the almost Anceint Greek-like man-boy relationship in the early post-Stonewall era) as well as the personal triumphs of a fledging athletic superstar. Simply amazing!

I found myself instantly attracted to (and equally repulsed!) to the narrator, the 40-year old Harlan. Patricia Nell Warren wrote him brilliantly. Harlan goes into great detail to recount his history, a series of injustices dealt to him by spiteful people. He never comes across as whining, but he is able to tell his woes in such a way, that the reader cannot help but sympathize with him. After all, he only wants to things in life: to be in a real loving relationship and his rights to compete. Harlan's self-conscious nature and his rash temper make him a hard character to admire at times, but he explains all of his actions well. We pity him for his reluctance to really bond with others and celebrate himself as a gay man and we cheer for him when he is finally able to open himself to Billy and take on more friendly roles than superior ones to his runners.
The story telling constantly circulates between the techincal side of athletic training and Harlan's daily emotional rollercoaster. But there's too much action for us to get bored and social commentary and flashbacks are carried out in brief but complete doses so we don't get lost in abundant side-stories.

"The Front Runner" will not dissapoint. It is a classic tale told by a voice that we can identify to, despite what creeds and orientations we follow. If the goal of a writer is take an experience and make it universal, than Patricia Nell Warren has succeeded. Elements of drama and romance blend in well, under carefully assorted scenes and monologues. The romance feels real and not campy and concludes with a shocking twist that will leave an entire audience speechless. This is a must.