I See Something Beautiful...

lurking on the horizon like the skeins of orange and purple that paint the sky before dawn. On Sunday I planted the seed, fertilized the soil and watered--everything seemed to have fit in place--the climate cooperates, with sunshine galore. I hope with careful and slow pruning this time will lead to a harvest.

Tonight I'm going to the book club at The Center for lively and informative discussion of Andrew Holleran's In September, The Light Changes. My friend has told me about this group, which foxuses on lgbt-themed novels and works of non-fiction in a warm and comfortable setting. Past selections have run from mainstream reads to offbeat prose; newest of the new releases to tried and true classics.

Andrew Holleran's first novel, Dancer from the Dance, which I currently read, is recognized as a classic portrait of gay life in New York in the 1970s. It is deemed one of the most important works of gay literature in its temperamental description of one man's search for true love among the brusque crowd of zombies in bars. His subsequent works, from Nights in Aruba and The Beauty of Men (my vacation pick this year) to the essays in Ground Zero, established Holleran as the preeminent voice in the contemporary gay literary canon. His fiction has earned comparisons to that of Guy de Maupassant, Somerset Maugham, and E Scott Fitzgerald, and now Holleran returns with a collection of sixteen powerful short stories. Exploring the lives and times of those who have lived past the exuberance of youth, these tales make for a moving journey across landscapes of regret and loss, shame and pride, loneliness and love.