PAGE 32

HIGH GEAR

NOVEMBER 1976

THE GAY LIFE IN MONTANA

THE FANCY DANCER by Patricia Nell Warren. 287 pages.

Father Tom for confession, and the plot of Patricia Nell Warren's latest novel, THE FANCY DANCER, begins. Through each other the two men find their identity, or at least the beginning of it, and in the course of their discoveries the novel says deal great about the homosexual and society.

a

At times the novel might seem to have the tone of a potboiler, consciously written by Warren to try to repeat the success of

tual gay Catholic organization, Dignity, which Father Tom discovers through THE ADVOCATE. Warren is showing that gay people must organize constructively to do something about their problems.

Author Warren draws a convincing picture of Father Tom, the idealist and the romantic, showing how he deals with the revelation of his homosexuality; and the novel is first of all his story. It is the fancy dancer who

William Morrow and Company, her first gay novel, THE FRONT acts as catalyst and changes

Inc. 1976. $7.95.

The Fancy Dancer is Vidal Stump, aged twenty-six, one quarter Blackfoot Indian with one blue eye and one green eye. He is an ex-convict who had started to college to become a school teacher but is now an auto mechanic in Cottonwood, Montana, living unsexually with a mentally deficient woman and her baby whom he passes off as his wife and child. The sexy twofisted six-footer is a selfacknowledged gay although he is only partially out of the closet. Father Tom Meeker, aged twenty-eight, of Anglo-Saxon pioneer stock, is a sexy blond six-footer dedicated to modern priesthood and highly involved in the affairs of Cottonwood, Montana. He is a latent/sublimated gay. One day Vidal (the name comes from the Latin "vita" for life) comes to

but

closer

on

RUNNER, examination indicates that this is not necessarily so. The author writes with an honest social conscience, arguing that the life-styles of gay people should be accepted. She challenges the Catholic Church's view homosexuality, which should make the novel especially interesting to gay Catholics (and it would be fine reading for non-. gay Catholics). However, the scope is by no means limited to the Catholic Church, or even to religion. The reader sees bigoted society's destructive view of the gay person, as the represented by town busybody; and on the other end of the spectrum he sees the sympathetic view as illustrated by Father Tom's parents. Warren is a writer rooted in "the now," and she shows gay religious liberation in action, via the ac-

Father Tom's life, which in turn enables Vidal to change his own life. Vidal is called the fancy dancer because of a Blackfeet dance he learned as a child, a dance which makes him feel free and happy. He doesn't perform the dance much anymore, but in his sleep he dreams that he does it. Warren is not always convincing in her depiction of Vidal, a naturalist with a touch of the poet, and the reader might wonder if among all the bizarre people of the land there could be one with the exact bizarre qualities of Vidal. But then, anyone who has lived long enough to reach voting age probably agrees with the platitude that life can be stranger than fiction strange as fiction can be.

A Book Review By George Brown

novels, never becoming as vital as her gay men. In this novel two elderly lesbians play minor roles, but the reader never gets to know them as well as he does two other minor characters who are gay male ranchers. It might be especially curious to some people that a woman, whatever her sexual orientation, can write well of male homosexuality, but a survey of gay literature shows that various women have done it. Mary Renault has been superb at it, especially in THE LAST OF THE WINE and THE PERSIAN BOY others include Isabelle Holland in THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE, Gillian Freeman in THE ALABASTER EGG and Iris Murdoch in A FAIRLY

HONOURABLE DEFEAT; and Patricia Nell Warren herself previously did well in THE FRONT RUNNER. Gustave Flaubert wrote MADAME BOVARY, Leo Tolstoi, ANNA KARENINA and Christopher Morley, KITTY FOYLE: but these men were writing about the opposite sex, and opposites can attract, even complement. The feat of a about male woman writing homosexuality be might especially impressive because a woman, whatever her sexual orientation, is not writing about her exact opposite; she is writing about the third sex for background of both her gay which she ordinarily has little

It is curious that Warren's Lesbians hover in the

identity. And in comparing all the sexes, perhaps gay females and gay males are farther apart, psychologically, than either is from a male or a female heterosexual. The matter is an interesting one to speculate on, but when worthwhile writing comes along, it is unimportant whether the writer is male or female, straight or gay; the writer is a human writing about other humans.

First of all, before the religious aspect and the aspect of gay liberation, THE FANCY DANCER is a love story of two humans searching for a meaningful place in life. Because of this it is a story of basic human experience and thus qualifies for universality. Author Warren has a concern for people regardless of their sexual nature, as is shown by her vivid descriptions of the socioeconomic conditions of her native Montana. This is a worthwhile bonus and gives her story veracity.

While perhaps not as compelling as THE FRONT RUNNER, or as some other gay novels of the last decade, THE FANCY DANCER should be read. And this reviewer would be interested in promptly reading another novel by Patricia Nell Warren if and when she feels that she has something further to say.

HAPPY

THANKSGIVING

from all of us to all of you.

The Gang at

TWIGGY'S PLACE