Naked in a Cactus Garden by Jesse L. Lasky, Jr., Bobbs-Merrill, 1961, Popular Library, 1962

Portrait of a "big man" on his way out as seen by his family, current friends, enemies (both current and former) and his son. The son hates him with good reason. The boy is a homosexual and sensitive. This is not an adjective one could apply to the father, a ham-headed sort of fellow. He blindly buys the boy a night with a prostitute to "make a man of him" and all those stomach-turning cliches. Fortunately, the author includes that other cliche: she has a heart of gold (the prostitute, not the author). Despite some sillyness, the book will hold your attention.

Love and Friendship by Alison Lurie, Macmillan, 1962

Another in the endless parade of college novels, this one all about the faculty, and what a faculty! Actually, most of the hi-jinks are heterosexual, but a great deal of the plot and most of the wit in the book is told to us through a homosexual "analyzing" the events for a friend. The homosexual is entirely off-stage, and we get his opinions, etc., in the form of lengthy letters at the ends of the chapters. The letters are toan equally gay boy in New York City. Recommended for its humor.

Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers, Houghton-Mifflin, 1961, Bantam, 1963

The too, too decadent South and all that steamy, sultry symbolism well presented in this quite major novel. Miss McCullers is, in a quiet way, a more important contributor to the total picture of homosexuality than many of the writers lauded for this sort of contribution. Those of you who read Leslie Fiedler's Love and Death in the American Novel will particularly enjoy this novel, since she has (almost ironically) included every possible symbol he cited for resentment in his book.

The Big Smear by William R. Reàrdon, Crown, 1960, Avon, 1961

The title tells the tale, in a sense. However, unlike Advise and Consent, it is not a true accusation.

We Are the Makers of Dreams by William J. Blake, Simon & Schuster, 1959, 1960

A panoramic novel of modern European history. As would be true in any realistic social, moral and political presentation of any era at any locale, homosexuality is part of the picture. It is, of course, taken for granted and handled with a natural touch.

Like a River of Lions by Tana De Gamez, Graphic Society, 1962, Paperback Library, 1963

This is also a panoramic novel, but it is much more major in its emphasis on homosexuality. This covers Europe and America from 1939 through

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the late 1950s. Almost every possible type of male homosexual is included in the book, from minor to very major roles. There is also a substantial lesbian character. The book is very well written, and belongs on the shelf

of every semi-complete homosexual library.

For those of you who have somehow missed Donald Webster Cory's The Homosexual in America, there is a paperback reprint out, published by Paperback Library for 75¢. However, this one deletes the wonderful appendices and this really reduces the value of the book.

Spare Her Heaven by Morgan Ives, Monarch, 1963

Despite that misleading title, this has a substantial and sympathetic male homosexual in an important role. Loyal readers of Mattachine Review will recall having read an excellent excerpt from another novel by Morgan Ives in the Review some months ago.

All of the above are well worth reading, but when you really want to be lazy in that hammook for the afternoon, pick up one of these homosexual mysteries. There are more than a hundred mysteries that feature male homosexuals and half that many featuring lesbians. Many of these use these characters as whipping posts or red herrings or scapegoats; far too many to bother listing here. The ones listed below are substantial in quantity or quality or both.

Shelley Smith included as an absolutely necessary part of her plot a very successful lesbian menage in The Lord Have Mercy, Harper, 1956 (reprinted as The Shrew is Dead, Dell, 1959.)

The macabre Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis, Harper, 1946 (Pocket Books also) is far from sympathetic, but it's a chair edge thriller with homosexuality an important part of the plot.

Gore Vidal's Death in the Fifth Position (by Edgar Box, pseud.), Dutton, 1952 (Signet also) lampoons all mysteries and covers all possible sexual deviations. It could be called a sort of mysterious "lace doily" suds opera.

The justifiably famous Elizabeth McIntosh (Josephine Tey, pseud.) gave us two excellent variant novels in To Love and Be Wise, Macmillan, 1950, 51 (Berkley, 1960, 62) and Miss Pym Disposes, Macmillan, 1947, 48 (Berkley, 1960, 62). Both have touches of mystery combined with clever homosexual devices.

Whit Masterson used a clever device of a lesbian couple which appears to be something unlike this in A Hammer in His Hand, Dodd,. Mead, 1960: Bantam, 1963. One of the kinds of mystery where you won't guess what's happening until it is happening and I defy you to find the lesbian couple before the author, explains their existence. Unusually good.

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