Quatrefoil
Book description
Book by Barr, James
Why read it?
1 author picked Quatrefoil as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Important novels do not have to be very good novels. Quatrefoil, published in 1950, is billed as the first modern book to portray homosexuality in a positive way. Positive? The snobbish young hero (echoing the “expert” opinion of the time) describes himself as “beset with melancholia. emotional frigidity, or the homosexual symbolism he found in himself.” The novel is rife with unconscious class prejudice and ugly hostility towards women. But this story of a young naval officer and his older gay mentor is the sincere attempt of a gay author to imagine how a love relationship between two men…
From Kenneth's list on important stories for saving gay men’s lives.
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