Adams, Stephen. The Homosexual as Hero in Contemporary Fiction. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1980.*

"Contemporary fiction" here means 1950 to, oh, 1975, maybe. A small window, and it's a shame that Adams didn't do his study ten years later, once Stonewall's effects had filtered into the literature and certainly once AIDS changed the whole idea of homosexual heroism. The biggest shame about this book, though, is in its approach—Adams doesn't try to say anything about the homosexual as hero, as his title promises. No theories are put forth; the words "hero" and "heroism" are strangely absent from much of the commentary. Instead he looks at a dozen or so homosexual heroes in specific: Forster's Maurice, Genet's prisoners, Baldwin's David, Ackerley's Frank, Rechy's dull hustler.

The whole book amounts to a lot of very good close-reads of novels. This is not to criticize the book; such is its aim. But in the end its this limited aim that prevents the book from being relevant today, not merely in regard to its pre-AIDS-era publication. Why can't someone write a study, given everything I've picked up from the laziest of readings of Mann and Huysmans, that works out a theory of gay heroism (N.B.: not "gay heroics") that runs alongside, if not counter to, a heterosexual one? Surely someone has. Let me know if you know it.