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A review by rd_pires
Bitter Waters by Chaz Brenchley
3.0
This book was marketed as the author's first collection of fiction intended for a gay, male audience. I don't know whether he is gay himself, but Brenchley seems to have a pretty stereotypical view of who gay men are. One or two stories set this way would've been fine, I understand stereotypes, but their persistence over the course of the stories bothered me.
According to this collection, gay men/relationships come in a few forms:
1. A group of men gathered around a dying, bedridden queen (implied that it's AIDS of course)
or
2. In a relationship that can only be defined as pedophilia
There are very few exceptions. Again, I could've looked past a couple instances of these stereotypes, but their consistency in every story was a drawback for me. One which, as a gay man who has had to contend with battling these stereotypes all his life, I couldn't get past.
According to this collection, gay men/relationships come in a few forms:
1. A group of men gathered around a dying, bedridden queen (implied that it's AIDS of course)
or
2. In a relationship that can only be defined as pedophilia
There are very few exceptions. Again, I could've looked past a couple instances of these stereotypes, but their consistency in every story was a drawback for me. One which, as a gay man who has had to contend with battling these stereotypes all his life, I couldn't get past.