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The Inside Reader: Keith Hale
Jul. 2nd, 2010 01:30 pmShow me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir MitchellKeith Hale is another one of those authors that surprised me. When I contacted this English university college professor, I was only sending out a message informing him his Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada was one of the novels my friends in this moment were most talking about; I was not really expecting for him to reply and even less to agree to compile a list of his favorite books... but people can still surprise me, and I'm always in awe to the generosity of them. So please enjoy Keith Hale's Inside Reader List:
Here is my top ten:
1) Although little known in America, Michael Campbell's Lord, Dismiss Us created a sensation when it was published in England. The novel touched a nerve with almost any gay man who had ever had a schoolboy crush--and who hasn't? I fell in love with the characters, was captivated with the plot, and was surprised at how subtly hysterical the book can be. The writing is top-notch (it was published in the U.S. by the University of Chicago Press, which tells you something), and I have never read anything that appealed to me more. Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: University of Chicago Press (T) (April 1984)
ISBN-10: 0226092445
ISBN-13: 978-0226092447
Amazon: Lord, Dismiss Us
Lord Dismiss Us is a 1967 novel by Michael Campbell. Lord Dismiss Us is set in an English boys' public school. The novel deals with the love affair between two boys. Carleton, a bright sixth former loves Allen, a boy two years his junior. Carleton is very open about his feelings when speaking to Allen:
"Oh, I do love you. I love you, my darling. Don't be shy, look at me. Do you love me?"The school is not only a hotbed of passion between other boys too. Ashley, one of the teachers, loves Carleton, and there is also a new headmaster who wants to root out moral corruption. The novel presents the issue of cross-generational sexual attraction and sexual abuse, or more aptly the abuse of power. Its true theme, however, is the nature of same-sex love and sex within the confines of an opposing moral establishment. It explores the conflict between the individual and his sense of right and the sense of right as determined by those in power. Campbell's notion of homosexual love may be over-romanticized and poetic, robbing it of lust, but that love is the focus of the novel. Lord Dismiss Us is a novel about right, not wrong, and virtue, not sin.
"Yes."
"Do you swear?"
"Yes."
2) Generally, a book captures me if there is a depth of feeling to it and I fall in love with one or more of the characters. Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel has more depth to it than any book I've read, as well as characters I wanted to befriend. Too, the book's prose is so beautiful it frequently made me either gasp or cry. It's an uneven book, in need of editing, but when it's good, there's nothing better. The book has no gay theme but doesn't need one to appeal to gay readers. Eugene and his brothers are characterized so well it is impossible not to love them. Paperback: 544 pages
Publisher: Scribner (October 10, 2006)
Publisher Link: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Look-Homeward-Angel/Thomas-Wolfe/9780743297318
ISBN-10: 0743297318
ISBN-13: 978-0743297318
Amazon: Look Homeward, Angel
The stunning, classic coming-of-age novel written by one of America's foremost Southern writers. A legendary author on par with William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor, Thomas Wolfe published Look Homeward, Angel, his first novel, about a young man's burning desire to leave his small town and tumultuous family in search of a better life, in 1929. It gave the world proof of his genius and launched a powerful legacy. The novel follows the trajectory of Eugene Gant, a brilliant and restless young man whose wanderlust and passion shape his adolescent years in rural North Carolina. Wolfe said that Look Homeward, Angel is "a book made out of my life," and his largely autobiographical story about the quest for a greater intellectual life has resonated with and influenced generations of readers, including some of today's most important novelists. Rich with lyrical prose and vivid characterizations, this twentieth-century American classic will capture the hearts and imaginations of every reader.
( books from 3 to 9 )
About Keith Hale: Keith Hale, an English professor at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, has published three other books besides Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada. He succeeded where many had failed when he convinced the Rupert Brooke Trust to allow him to edit a collection of the poet’s letters that had been sealed for eighty years due to their homosexual themes. That edition, Friends & Apostles, was published by Yale University Press. Hale also published a groundbreaking account of gay life in the Balkans--before the walls of Communism crumbled--in his travelogue titled In the Land of Alexander. The third book, Torn Allegiances, dealt with gays in the military. Hale has also published essays on Dickens, Rumi, Sa’di, Hafiz, and gay Philippine literature. He lists his hometowns as Mayflower and Little Rock, Arkansas, and Waco and Austin, Texas. After receiving his Ph.D. from Purdue, Hale taught at the University of Guam before moving to Wisconsin.
Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada by Keith Hale Paperback: 190 pages
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (February 19, 2007)
ISBN-10: 141965991X
ISBN-13: 978-1419659911
Amazon: Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada
By turns funny, romantic, erotic, and sad, this evocative novel brilliantly recreates the landscape of late adolescence, when friendships seem eternal and loves reincarnate. Set in Arkansas but first published in The Netherlands, Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada quickly won praise from reviewers and readers across Europe and North America. The back cover blurb written by the late William S. Burroughs reads: "A haunting vision of young friendship shattered by an outrageously cruel world. Keith Hale's novel aches with adolescent first loves. It is tender, funny, and true." The book was published in the U.S. as Cody and remained on the amazon.com bestseller list for gay titles a year after it went out of print. Now Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada is back in print with its original European front cover and title.
Stefan is a children books author living in Los Angeles an apparently comfortable, and successful life; he is gay, and handsome, and so he has no problem to find a body when he wants, but he is not interested in the heart inside that body. Stefan is a bitter man whose only good feelings are in what he writes, not in his real life. 
Stefan is a children books author living in Los Angeles an apparently comfortable, and successful life; he is gay, and handsome, and so he has no problem to find a body when he wants, but he is not interested in the heart inside that body. Stefan is a bitter man whose only good feelings are in what he writes, not in his real life.