The Velvet Rage by Alan Downs (Paperback)
www.queerlit.co.uk
Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man's World. Today's gay man enjoys unprecedented, hard-won social acceptance. Despite this victory, however, serious problems still exist. Substance abuse, depression, suicide, and sex addiction among gay men are at an all-time high, causing many to ask, "Are we real

I read this book years ago when it was the first edition. It really spoke to me about some feelings I thought were really personal but turned out to be fairly common.

I read it again years later and it was a good read again. It has some really useful lessons and ideas I think.

I’m really curious if anyone else has read it, particularly someone younger than 40, and what they thought about it. If you haven’t read it I would recommend giving it a go if you can find it, I’m going to give it another read now it’s popped into my head.

  • wit@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Thank you for the reccomendation. I have not read it yet but I have now added it to my ever growing wishlist!

    I really should start reading more lgbt books. I think my next book will be “Giovanni’s room”, by James Baldwin.

      • wit@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I haven’t read it yet, but from some reviews I have read, it is a must read. This is copied from amazon:

        From one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the past century comes a groundbreaking novel set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris, about love and the fear of love—“a book that belongs in the top rank of fiction” (The Atlantic). In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy. David struggles for self-knowledge during one long, dark night—“the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.” With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin’s now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a deeply moving story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.