Gay novel
The gay novel traditionally deals with love between men, but in real life that love is part of ordinary life for millions of men. Kabuki in a G-String brings the gay novel to where writers like David Leavitt, Christopher Bram and others have taken it – to where the struggle for identity is complex and complicated, yet natural. In this gay novel, Chad Newsome, who left West Texas in his youth, must decide whether to stay in Paris with his French Moroccan partner or return to West Texas. To be gay in Paris is not the same as being gay in Lubbock, Texas. As Chad’s cousin Roberta Martin discovers in her quest to bring her wayward cousin home, what she has been taught about gay men and their lifestyles dissolves amid the beauty and sophistication of Paris. A good gay novel changes perceptions, as this one does, but also promotes an understanding of love between men as ordinary – just another way of achieving and maintaining intimacy.
Like other novels in this genre, it captures the reader’s attention. It places its Paris characters in the middle of America’s ongoing culture wars. A gay novel should read like Kabuki in a G-String.
