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Review

Best Gay Erotica 2004 is a fascinating collection. It is, in the words of Kirk Read’s introduction, “a testament to the creativity and endurance of queer people... grant[ing] one another access to honest, explicit depictions of the erotic impulses that drive us.”

Therein, perhaps, are our criteria. That erotic stories should be so: honest and explicit, mirroring and expanding our own erotic desires.

The twenty-one stories included in this collection range wide on the erotic landscape and are provided by some authors we know and love and by some we may be meeting for the first time.

For example, I’d never read anything by Dominic Santi before. His very well-constructed contribution “Corncobs,” narrated by an unnamed young man who has a thing for anal play and older men, was straightforward, and often hot, writing which made me laugh, made me think of some guys I knew when I lived in a farming community, and changed forever my view of agricultural products. And just when I thought the old hired hand, Tuck, was about to replace corn on the menu, the narrator quickly corrected me: “No matter how much I like other toys [including Tuck], though, I’m farmer enough that corncobs will always be my favorites.” He and Tuck are going to try growing some hybrids next season.

Quite possibly the most moving piece in Best Gay Erotica 04 is “Wounded,” by Bill Brent. This is definitely a literary effort before anything else, and a successful one at that. Strong passages of inner thought are interspersed with erotic encounters that serve to illustrate the “woundedness” of either the participants or the world in general. Whether the ruminations and sexual encounters are in fact biographical or simply the creations of a powerful mind is really not important. What is important is that the story is moving, disturbing, and seductive — and that’s a good thing.

Trebor Healey’s piece, “Fishers of Men,” and that of Jameson Currier, “What You Learn,” are both — and no slight is intended toward any other author collected here — simply put, great writing.

Healey’s economy in presenting a part-theological, part-sociological, part-philosophical discussion that takes place in “the holy triangle of desire: sauna, steam room, shower” is, while by no means the “hottest” of the stories, a thrill just to read.

It’s regrettable that Labonte initiated this rich, varied, and pretty damned hot collection with what seems to be the weakest piece, “Straight Boy,” by James Williams. The second work, “Genuflection,” by Lana Gail Taylor would have made for a much stronger opening.

 -- Richard Labonte, Books to Watch Out For