Broken Fever: Reflections of Gay Boyhood Book

Insightful and consistently interesting, James Morrison's debut collection of personal essays hinges on his awareness of the countless influences on the young. Teasing out the larger implications of events and choices that must often have seemed slight at the time--such as his decision to play the violin, "in spite of the stigma of sissyhood"--he casts a fond but critical eye on his boyhood self and the gradual development of his gay identity. Although he was reasonably well-liked at school, Morrison's fate was sealed in fourth grade when a forgotten copy of Pinocchio slid out of his desk onto the floor, its binding breaking open and its pages scattering over the classroom floor: "I was as instinctively right, after this inadvertent apocalypse, to foresee doom as I had been, before, to keep the book a secret." A funny, astute observer of social nuances, and a wry commentator on the more obvious hierarchies and abuses of power, Morrison follows in the footsteps of Edmund White's (A Boy's Own Story) and--though with less spite--the master, Gore Vidal.--Regina Marler Read More