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Autobiography of a Tattoo (New Star $19)
"It's a cult love story," Stan Persky jokes, describing his latest compilation of memoirs and investigations of desire, Autobiography of a Tattoo (New Star $19).
"It represents the other side of Bill Richardson's Bachelor Brothers Bed & Breakfast Pillow Book. It's Danielle Steel for the post-modern era."
Written in Berlin, Persky's new amalgam of fiction and sociology frankly portrays the world of boy bars in the spirit of his Vancouver-based reflections, Buddy's, and also recalls Persky's formative years in the US Navy.
"I write about homosexuality," he says. "In a sense I talk about the classic centre of homosexual desire which has to do with man's desire for young men. That in itself is almost a forbidden subject, even in the world of domesticated homosexuality."
Persky believes gay writing is largely at an impasse, particularly in North America, because it has become predictable. Within his field of belles lettres, he says he is chiefly concerned with experimenting with literary forms rather than writing explicity about sex.
"I'm perfectly willing to cooperate with the censors," he says, "if only I know what the censors want! Meanwhile I keep writing what I want to say and so far there are people who are willing to publish it."
Stan Persky lives four months of each year in Berlin. He has written ten previous books, teaches philosophy at Capilano College and currently reviews books on Fridays for The Vancouver Sun.
0-921586-62-0
[BCBW 1997]
"It represents the other side of Bill Richardson's Bachelor Brothers Bed & Breakfast Pillow Book. It's Danielle Steel for the post-modern era."
Written in Berlin, Persky's new amalgam of fiction and sociology frankly portrays the world of boy bars in the spirit of his Vancouver-based reflections, Buddy's, and also recalls Persky's formative years in the US Navy.
"I write about homosexuality," he says. "In a sense I talk about the classic centre of homosexual desire which has to do with man's desire for young men. That in itself is almost a forbidden subject, even in the world of domesticated homosexuality."
Persky believes gay writing is largely at an impasse, particularly in North America, because it has become predictable. Within his field of belles lettres, he says he is chiefly concerned with experimenting with literary forms rather than writing explicity about sex.
"I'm perfectly willing to cooperate with the censors," he says, "if only I know what the censors want! Meanwhile I keep writing what I want to say and so far there are people who are willing to publish it."
Stan Persky lives four months of each year in Berlin. He has written ten previous books, teaches philosophy at Capilano College and currently reviews books on Fridays for The Vancouver Sun.
0-921586-62-0
[BCBW 1997]
Submitted on August 12, 2003 in By David.
