farmer. The vain man knew no warmth or tenderness, and took his virgin bride through the threshold of his pigsty and like a male animal devoured his prey.

"He was too crass a man to know love in its true sense, or to understand that sex with love is the full measure and complement of life; that sex alone is less than the mating. of the beasts." Sick and terrified, Linda soon escaped and ran away.

Hilary's father was always threatening him within an inch of his life. if he ever got a little girl into trouble. Consequently at the age of twelve, Hilary was given the key to narcissism by one of his father's business associates.

Half of the book is drawn out and devoted to the detailed descriptions of Hilary's perverted cravings. My own perplexity makes me ask, is a narcissist a homosexual? The author says, "Homosexuality is a form of Narcissism and immaturity."

Hilary is never drawn to the same sex as love and desire draws two people together. He merely uses the same sex for personal gratification. And this gratification was sought anywhere and in all ways.

"A gigantic man-made exchange mart of lust and flesh, unrequited love, unfulfillment . . . And the sated and the sinful and the debauched seek and find and induct recruits from among the young, the innocent, the pure, and the untried . . . What's the solution? There isn't any. It is the impossibility of it that leads us on, tantalizes us, makes us dead to love. We are cold blooded sex robots."

Sometime in our life we might come across a Hilary or a Hilarette, but surely the name is not legion, and yet with the author's vivid description of the various types, the aunties, the queens, the transvestites, the nellics, etc., the impression is seem-

ingly a complete picture. In the author's own words, "Promiscuity is the very structure of the gay life." This is the group that cried out for acceptance?

Hilary never worked. Like all homosexuals, he was a parasite. Linda was not a rich woman, but she was willing to continue working. Her unselfish love for Hilary made her want only what he wanted. She worshipped him. Naturally this made him feel his own importance more And so they were married! This was a blissful state for both of them for awhile. He reveled in being sweetly adored. But soon he began to feel the weight. of Linda's complete devotion. It began to pry at his conscience. Of course he diagnosed the problem as Linda's constant possessiveness. Her goodness was stultifying. He had this is what nothing to give possessed Hilary. "The thing that she had greatly feared had come upon her." . . . The fear of losing him. This fear made her ill. It was during this illness that Hilary fled. He fled from devotion, love, security to seek refuge in his old way of life.

•

The problems of homosexuality can always be compared with the problems of other minority groups, groups, in which some individuals have made strides . . . accepting responsibilities, educating their minds and using their wills to mold themselves into whole human beings. As individuals they don't need to cry out, or demand acceptance. But the group as a whole still drags them down. Because they are "black." regardless of individual achievements, they are publically defiled.

The Flaming Heart describes a paltry picture of the group. The effects of the book will convince society that defilement is justified and will make individuals continue to hide out... For the battle for acceptance is obviously a losing one.

D.F.

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