Longing

by Paul Reed

Book Overview

A young homosexual moves to San Francisco in the early 1980s in search of a meaningful relationship. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0890875979
• ISBN13: 9780890875971
• Release Date: March 1990
• Publisher: Celestial Arts
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Reflective Novel

The story line in Longing is pretty weak - Man moves from rural college town to big city, immerses himself in its gay community, finds love, loses love. Nothing extraordinary here. What makes this novel special though is its delving into the role of longing in our lives. Reed's viewpoint seems to be that longing is what makes our world happen, in both positive and negative ways. Attaining the object of longing is temporary and fades with time, but the longing remains. I am not too sure of the veracity of this theory, but it is interesting and well worth exploring. The book is a quick read at 175 pages. The prose flows smoothly, although it sometimes gets a bit flowery. It also captures the world in gay San Francisco at the time when AIDS was just starting to be a factor - a time between the golden age and the time of grief. I do recommend this book because it raises issues that we are not often confronted by. It is a quick read and well worth your time.

Life is relative

A young gay man's dream to find the life and love he wants takes him to gay paradise: San Francisco. Back in his small hometown, men were few and far between, but in SF, gay men are everywhere. Instead of finding the ultimate happiness, the young man finds that city life is so complicated. He finds that his large circle of new friends interfere more than they help. He learns that SF isn't really a better place for gay men, though it is a popular place.