Table of Contents

Contents

• Author's Note
• Foreward
• Introduction: Mentoring and Gay Identity
• Chapter 1. A Short Queer History
• Chapter 2. The Common World
• Chapter 3. Family by Blood
• Chapter 4. Recovering Baptists
• Chapter 5. Mind Games
• Chapter 6. Hunters and Gatherers
• Chapter 7. The Importance of Dancing
• Chapter 8. Lovers
• Chapter 9. Family of Choice
• Chapter 10. Tests and Trials
• Chapter 11. Self-Storage
• Chapter 12. Troth
• Afterword
• Suggested Reading

About the Author

Quinn, Jay

Reviews

While the title promises a study of the complex relationship between an older and younger gay man, it is clear after the first few chapters that the book is more about Quinn and his gay identity than his friendship with mentor Joe Riddick. The book could be titled The Mentee. The author draws detailed parallels between himself and Riddick, both "recovering Baptists" with complementary Southern family backgrounds, but there is little mentoring. Instead, Quinn treads the well-worn path of gay autobiography and fiction, featuring life in the hedonistic 1970s and 1980s, as he chronicles his experiences with licit and illicit drugs, his attempts at an artistic career, his manic-depressive episodes, and, above all, his sexual exploits. While Riddick never emerges as a flesh-and-blood personality, Quinn does, and an unappealing one at that. This book feels like a half-baked autobiographical novel puffed up with pop psychological and sociological background to make it relevant as nonfiction. Not recommended.--Richard Violette, Special Libs. Cataloging, Inc., Victoria, BC Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.