Customer Reviews

Midlife Queer: Autobiography of a Decade (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiog)

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I have tremendous respect for Martin Duberman as a writer and as a gay rights activist. CURES is a seminal account of one gay man's attempt during the 50s and 60s to use therapy to "cure" himself of his homosexuality. It's a telling account of the times, offering younger readers like myself the opportunity to see just how intolerant and oppressive our society was of homosexuality. It's insightful memoir at its best. Instead, this book is self-involved and tedious, a whiney account of various squabbles between academics during the 70s on how best to achieve gay liberation and acceptance. It fails to offer insightful commentary on larger issues, and is therefore meaningless for most readers. Martin Duberman has done gay history and all of us a great service by writing such brilliant works as CURES and STONEWALL. I only wish he would return to chronicling the larger history of gay people so eloquently.

I completely disagree with the Kirkus review. This is an extremely honest, enjoyable and absorbing memoir. It's for anyone interested in the author himself; psychological development; the search for self-realization; or gay rights. Some of the chapters are both moving and funny--not a small accomplishment. The final chapter, about the author's heart attack and recovery, is particularly excellent. Forget the nasty reviews and read a memoir by someone searching for himself and fighting tirelessly for what he believes in.

I'm afraid that Martin Duberman has a few problems with himself, in spite of being 'good looking'and busy with a therapist. Mr. Duberman has demonstrated that he is both a challenge to heterosexist white male ideology and yet a servant to it. There has been a curious lack of radicalism in his writing for the Nation, and I suspect he has simply become another academic worshipper at the Western Civ. fount of double-talk. While some of us continue to challenge these offensive paradigms, Duberman is more interested in retailing startlingly dull stories about academics who are not on the cutting edge of radicalism. As a feminist and lesbian activist, I expect more courage (and more interest!) in a book by Duberman, who has written well in the past. Not this time; perhaps he will finally move aside, and allow those of us who challenge the white male agenda of hatred on all fronts to come to the fore. I certainly hope so.