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Patricia Nell Warren The Wild Man
Wildcat Press 1889135054 / 9781889135052 PAPERBACK Very Good
1889135054 Editorial Reviews n nFrom Library Journal nWarren, best known for The Front Runner, the ground-breaking novel about a gay athlete, has created another gay sports figure in her first work in four years. With his overweening machismo, the complex hero, a closeted matador at the end of Franco's rule in Spain, is never entirely sympathetic but always fascinating. He is aware of the political and social changes of the 1960s but must face the conflict between the demands of his aristocratic family and the traditions of his sport, on the one hand, and his growing love for an idealistic young peasant on the other. Warren's overly romantic style sometimes threatens to turn this into a romance novel. The depiction of gay life under a right-wing dictatorship and the start of the ecological movement in Spain are often more absorbing than the love stories. In spite of stylistic flaws, Warren tells an absorbing story, and his characters transcend stereotypes in a setting that will be exotic to most American readers. For gay fiction and larger popular fiction collections. Daniel Starr, Museum of Modern Art, New York nCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. n nFrom Booklist nWhile being introduced to Los Angeles gay nightlife, Warren says in a preface, she encountered a tantalizingly familiar face, that of a Castilian gentleman whose graying curls indicated middle age. The barman said he came in once a week and sometimes bought dinner for one of the young hustlers who hung around the place. He always left alone. Having been a journalist in Spain, she struck up an acquaintance with him and learned he was Antonio Secured, a once-famous bullfighter she had seen in the ring on many occasions. Over time, he told her of his life under Franco and of his secret love affair with Juan, a man whose telepathic relations with animals made him unique. He and Juan had to bear the pain and fear involved in necessary secrecy and also the anguish of watching the dictator destroy their country. Warren has Antonio spin his tales of days past in other places and other worlds as he once spun his cape before the bulls, with grace and elegance. Whitney Scott nCopyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved
Price:
11.51 EUR
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