That Awful 'In-Between'

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE TWO by Jay Little, Pageant Press, New York, 255 pages, $4.50-Reviewed by Richard Mayer, Cleveland.

The author of MAYBE TOMORROW (whose hero was subtly named Gay) has now written a novel about a female impersonator (who is just as gay) named Terry Wallace. It is curious how many times the words "maybe tomorrow" appear in the new book, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE TWO. Whether they have some mystical significance for the author -or are used for advertising purposes-is hard to say. At any rate, in the last line of SOMEWHERE Terry meets Gay. What happens after the hero of Book One meets the hero of Book Two is not revealed. That is the only thing in the novel left to the reader's imagination.

Bedroom scenes take place at predictable intervals of fifteen or twenty pages. They are described in explicit, even alarming detail in the oddest combination of unprintable (but printed) four letter words of unmistakable meaning and fancy language, much of which I am convinced has no meaning whatever.

This novel has no literary merit. But it does report fairly accurately 32

the way a great many homosexuals live, including some who have never seen a female impersonator. Here are the mores and the morals of the sexually active homosexual. some recent gay novels relationships are so etherealized that the reader may wonder whether homosexuals ever have sex: in this novel there is no doubt about the predominating role sex plays in the lives of many homosexuals. Casual, liaisons, one night stands, are plentiful. More enduring relationships are established; they last awhile, but not forever.

This way of life is familiar enough. That a working code of moral values is often a part of the pattern is perhaps less well known. Deprived of the ready moral props of family, law, religion and social convention, the churaclers in this novel like other sexually active homosexuals, must work out their own moral code. The values likely to be emphasized are honesty (especially an absence of hypocrisy), loyalty, love and courage in what is often a lonely, sometimes a desperate situation. The demonstra.ion (whether or not intended) that such moral values can be operative even in shabby circumstances is a redeeming feature of this book.

mattachine REVIEW

How Long Have You Been One?

THE TORMENTED. Audrey Erskine Lindop, Popular Library, June, 1956. 35 cents. Reviewed by Jack Parrish, San Francisco.

Audrey Erskine Lindop, the writer of this book formerly published as a hardcover under the title of THE OUTER RING, would appear to have a' remarkably well-thought out and detailed set of views concerning male inversian. One of them is that psychotherapy administered by c competent psychiatris, can be cí great assistance to most homophiles. For most of them it would be an aid in helping them to adjust to themselves. For some, it can clear up the internal situation that prevents them from following an innate, heteros ›xual bent.

The central character, Jimmy A Stretton, embodies this view. clear and detailed picture is given of the social environment and circumstances he was bom into. Then are depicted' the influences brought to bear upon him during his babyhood, childhood and adolesence. His resultant adult sexual pattern is the logically inevitable outcome of all that has gone before.

At the moment, there seem to be several schools of opinion as to the causes and nature of homosexuali.y. Where medical men, psychoanalysts and social scientists fail to agree, laymen can only cower in silence. However, in the case of Jimmy Stretton, the explanation and description

given of the forces that made him into what he became seems to be a logical one. Miss Lindop's views as to how the present legal codes and social attitudes concerning homophiles ought to be changed also seems to be based upon an objec.ive appraisal of the actual facts rather than merely an unthinking echo of religious or social prejudices.

The characters are all believable, and the heterosexual and homosexual groups depicted with an accurate eye. The writing flows smoothly and has a pleasantly literate quality. As a whole, the book is completely convincing, especially in the section. describing the small boy feeling completely alone in the world, sure that his father does not love him because of his mother's having died when he was born, and because of some mysteriously nameless fault he has committed.

The one portion that does not ring true is the section describing his feelings when he is hesitating between assuming a responsibly active heterosexual role in life or a passively dependent homosexual one. Apart from this however, this is an intelligently conceived, well-written story. possessing depth, lucidity and perception. There is also a certain dry hymor, as whon Jimmy's psychiatrist's mother, who has been chatting about her cooking prowess in Vienna in the twenties and thirties, cheerfully asks out of a clear sky, "Have you been a homosexual long, Mr. Stretton?"