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A review by levitybooks
Falconer by John Cheever
4.0
*Medium Spoilers*
Surprisingly good for random pick at the library. I've never read so detailed an account of male homosexuality before. I've never seen any attempts at communicating the subtle nuances between a man desiring either a man or a woman within a narrative. I think this book mundanely but realistically explains the psychological experience of both homosexuality and prison, which is rare because both are normally made so sensational due to their political sensitivity that it's hard to know what it really is like.
Knowing John Cheever was secretly homosexual adds complexity for biographical critique. I'm unsure of whether he thinks male sexuality is socially conditioned (men becoming 'temporarily bisexual' in prison until they see their wives again) as opposed to something that is mostly established after adolescent development but sometimes covered by denial, or whether he had to write it like this to disguise the fact that he might empathize too closely with homosexuality to make his own homosexuality obvious to the public at a time where it was not that safe to do so.
Surprisingly good for random pick at the library. I've never read so detailed an account of male homosexuality before. I've never seen any attempts at communicating the subtle nuances between a man desiring either a man or a woman within a narrative. I think this book mundanely but realistically explains the psychological experience of both homosexuality and prison, which is rare because both are normally made so sensational due to their political sensitivity that it's hard to know what it really is like.
Knowing John Cheever was secretly homosexual adds complexity for biographical critique. I'm unsure of whether he thinks male sexuality is socially conditioned (men becoming 'temporarily bisexual' in prison until they see their wives again) as opposed to something that is mostly established after adolescent development but sometimes covered by denial, or whether he had to write it like this to disguise the fact that he might empathize too closely with homosexuality to make his own homosexuality obvious to the public at a time where it was not that safe to do so.