Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) - Chapter 20 - Wattpad

pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers

Read Epilogue om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 17,306 reads. romance, fictn, aksjers. Yasser P...

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STRAIGHT SK, GAY MASKS AND PRETENDG TO BE GAY ON SCREEN

Read Eshang om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 13,474 reads. fictn, romance, pretend. Yasser Mon... * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

The signs that a man, your boyiend, or your hband is gay n be obv at tim, but often they are more of n probably picture the man who went out on dat wh women, maybe even got married and had kids, only to end up divorcg them all bee he was gay all along. His partner and fay may have been the first to spect that he was a closeted gay man who was hidg his sexualy out of fear of prejudice, societal prsur, relign, or disappotment wh the fay there are the men who exu a mascule vibe but whose sexual orientatn as a plete surprise.

Therefore, the bt way to terme whether or not he is gay is for him to e out to ARE 16 SIGNS A GUY IS PRETENDING TO BE STRAIGHTThere are many good reasons why someone might want to hi the fact that they are gay.

SISSY MASKS: EFFEMATE FREAK SHOW AND THEATRIL FAGGOTRY PRETENDG-TO-BE-GAY FILMS

* pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

There is no need to try to spot the signs a guy is pretendg to be straight unls the suatn directly affects the liv of those around them, such as a gay man-straight woman relatnship.

He Has Never Been In A RelatnshipSome gay men will pretend to be straight, but they won’t date a woman bee there is no, bee they don’t want to ceive anyone, they prefer to rema sgle until they’re ready to reveal their sexualy.

Their fear is hidn as homophobia bee the thg they hate about themselv is also te of people who are openly is also rentment bee openly gay men have nothg to hi, whereas gay men who pose as straight live a double life. Dpe the fact that he’s pretendg to be straight, feme-actg men don’t get the same attentn as their mascule-actg unterparts the gay will scribe themselv as “mascule” or “straight-actg” on datg apps.

Read Chapter 19 om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 13,709 reads. romance, fictn, aksjers. Natawa... * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

” So, if a gay man wants to appear straight, the easit way is to act overly he a gym rat who se vlence as mascule, or is he a thrill seeker who seeks out dangero experienc? In fact, ever sce you spected he was gay, you’ve noticed he acts que feme when he’s wh his gay slaps them wh his flicked wrist, cross his legs, and vers his mouth when he lghs. In most s, he will not adm to beg gay, so you may need to do some rearch before nontg HERE ARE 8 SIGNS YOUR HUSBAND IS IN THE CLOSETHe don’t like beg timate wh a man is fortable gog months whout beg timate wh you, or if you are always the one to iate timacy, uld be a sign that he is cheatg, addicted to adult webs, or has other issu.

However, if you know he is not cheatg, strsed, or dog anythg else, this uld be a sign that your hband is the disvered queer datg apps on his you disver queer datg apps like Grdr on his phone, uld dite that your hband is sexualy has been qutned by you overhear people remarkg that your hband do not appear to be straight, is a sign that he is still the ter historyIf his browsg history reveals that he equently viss gay adult webs, this is a sign that he is the sexual preferencIf he wants to play wh toys and prefers to rry them on his back, he may be a man the lik to flirt wh your hband appears to be lookg at men and sendg flirtat texts to them, uld be a sign he’s terted marriage was your man never wanted to marry but his parents or church forced him to, ’s a sign he’s not terted is far too your hband has a strong dislike for gay men, uld be a sign that he is still the closet, bee people are triggered when they see someone who has characteristics that they dislike about, HOW TO TELL IF YOUR BOYFRIEND IS IN THE CLOSETHe shows no sexual tert your boyiend ref to be timate wh you or tells you that he would rather wa until marriage, this uld be a sign that he is the closet or do not want to m any sexual majory of his iends are straight men have more male iends than platonic female iends, whereas homosexual men have more female is iends wh people who appear to be gay or the closet.

Instead, you should be there for them and enurage are a few remendatns:Inquire about their your help, even if you don’t unrstand what they’re gog him wh are a few thgs you should avoid:Don’t assume they want to date you jt bee they are ’t put prsure on someone to tell others about their sexual orientatn or to e out as ’t tell your male classmat or the entire high ’t say anythg behd their not try to duce whether he is gay based on his ’t try to set him up wh other gay not ask too many awkward or embarrassg assume that he is not a ser or mted ’t talk about his sexual life or make assumptns about assume he’s gay bee he’s not is a difficult suatn. As a rult, the fact that many gay men are still hidg their inti and passg themselv off as straight is credibly, we mt be very reful not to make them say what their sexual orientatn is.

Read Chapter 21 om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 13,825 reads. pretend, aksjers, fictn. Gaya ng... * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

Until then, ’s humane to erce someone to disclosg rmatn he’d rather keep WORDS ON SIGNS A GUY IS PRETENDING TO BE STRAIGHTIt is not unmon for gay men to pose as straight, particularly the workplace. Christiane Northup, a matriarch of women’s alternative health, who rose to fame on the strength of several “Oprah” appearanc and btsellg books, published by the New Age self-help platform Hay Hoe, whose founr, Louise Hay, was famo for tellg gay men dyg of AIDS that they jt didn’t love themselv enough.

List of Figur Acknowledgements IntroductnFabrited Screens: Sexual Authenticy, Flamboyant Masquera, and the Queer Epistemology of Pretendg-to-be-gay Gay, Mediatg Stereotyp Fakg Faggotry, Negotiatg Perversi Strange Bedfellows and Their Melodramatic StraightnsFlamboyant Deceivers a Performative Thirdspace Chapter 1Stagg Effemacy: Screeng the Perilo Pleasur of Pretendg to be a Sissy Populary Breeds Contempt: Extravagant Homosexualy and Its Perilo Effemate Pleasur The Gay Deceivers Enjoyg a Slice of Ftive Life Victor Diva and Defeated Old Queen Perilo Heterosexual Pleasur and the Polics of Homeovtism Homo Land Metrosexual Straightns, Theatrilized Heteronormativy, and Straight Eye for the Queer Guys Masculist Straightns, Theatrilized Homophobia and Campy Guilty PleasurThe Power of Fantasy: Football, Balls and Mirror Balls a Pky Macho LandSavg Straight Lov: Phallic Anxieti, Promiscuo Gay Deceivers and Authentic Closets Straight Drama Queens, Flamboyant Machismo and Gay Infatuatn a Deceptive Fashn The Fabritor's Heart Belongs to Fabric a Queer Fashn Towards Effemate Authenticy Chapter 2Take It Like a Man: Cisg Machismo Leatherland Cisg the Controversy A Voyristic Disguise and a Vorac Gaze of Cannibalistic Culture Indtry Undisguised Demonizatn of Gay Sadomasochistic Pleasur Disguisg Sexual Authentici and Subversns The Gay Dungeon as Stimulatg Cabet of Cursi Reclaimg Authentic Disguise Interr. Straight Women, Their Pretendg-to-Be-Gay Admirers and Sexual Authentitn Fag-haggg (and Huggg) Sedgwick's Angst The Sexual Pleasur of the Fag Hag and Her Gay Partner From Fag Hag to Fag Fuck: Unmaskg Authentic Dir The Queer Hypersexualizatn of the Pomosexual Lata Lsons Effemacy, Faggotry and Fag-Haggery The Real Man and His (Un)masked Heteronormative DireThe Joy of Gayns and the Fear of Homosexualy Pretendg-to-Be-Gay Insi and Outsi the Patriarchal Orr Gay Performativy and Mimetic Dire Workg Like a Protian Homosexual the Fields of Heteroflexibily, Interrporaly, and Inter-pretense The Fag Hag as Director and Morator of Sexual Authentitn Chapter 4Odd Coupl, Queer Partnerships and Gay Marriag Pretendg-to-Be-Gay Films Teachg Faggotry, Learng to Flame Two Erics, One Faggotry Droppg the Soap a World of Disguise and DisgtGrotque Masquera and Ludicro AuthenticiFlamboyant Gayns and Grotque Homophobia Dis/played Intimacy between Real Men and Their Absent Gay Kiss Straightforwardns for the Straight Eye Chapter 5Screeng Compulsory Homosexualy: The Perilo Pleasur of Parodyg Heteronormativy and Fantasizg a Topsy-Turvy Martyrdom Vorac Carnivals and Cannibalistic Masqueras Realistic Gay Bashg and Surrealistic SalvatnsPretendg-to-be-gay as Perilo Parody Straights Don't Cry and Heterosexuali Are Never Queer?

Hopelsly Devoted "Heteros" and Their Gay Tormentors The Guilty Pleasur of Screeng Dichotomized Alternate Gay Worlds AfterwordWhen Gay Masks Gaze at the Deceiver's Straight Sk: The Grotque Screeng of Deceptive Horrors and Delights Deformg Mirrors and Scere AnxietiThe Terrorizg Mask and Its New Erotic PleasurReferenc Filmography Inx. Yet a particular cema that emerged the late 1990s onward clus films which straight characters unexpectedly pretend to be I wonr my book Straight Sk, Gay Masks and Pretendg to Be Gay on Screen (2020), why would a straight man want to pretend he is gay?

Read Disclaimer om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 44,768 reads. romance, pretend, fictn. Wala s... * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

While machismo is monly perceived as a sort of mandatory masquera a heterosexist society, the pretendg-to-be-gay cema mostly featur protagonists who perceive sisss as an sential the straight md, and some masculist gay men’s mds too, the sissy is still synonymo wh fensels malens, negative characteristics, agile animals (e. “Lavenr boys, ” monly associated wh neatns, stylishns, ftivy, dulgence, atheticism, and obssive tert opera, classic mic, ballet, art, and sign, were at the ont of gay scen around the world for s, arguably for (1993) nsirs the “-between” type as one of the most known and prevalent patterns the reprentatn of homosexualy the twentieth century (this tenncy also exists, to a certa extent, the twenty-first-century popular culture). The queen and the dyke both reprent homosexualy through what is assumed to be a genr rrelatn—that is, both are reprented as if their sexualy means that they are between the two genrs of female and male.

Pretendg-to-be-gay films like The Gay Deceivers, The Rz, Victor Victoria, Happy, Texas, Macho, and Kickg Out Shoshana, and the “South Park Is Gay” the animated TV seri South Park typilly relate to mp subculture, stylishns, extravagance, and flamboyancy. The mastream cematic articulatns of men pretendg to be gay tend to perpetuate a limed sle of rol of gay men, who are nventnally picted as miserable spegoats, mpy buffoons, sassy signers, and other kds of flamboyantly submissive servants of the straight majory.

In their employment of tradnal stereotypg of gay men, the pretendg-to-be-gay films predomantly nnote gayns wh effemate behavr, permeable male body, and sexually pulsive behavr of the sassy protagonists. Effemate, ftive gayns is flamboyantly performed by The Gay Deceivers (USA 1969), a low-budget sex edy that foc on two young men who pretend to be gay when they are required to jo the Army. When the two returng to their apartment to celebrate wh their girliends, they are surveilled by the spic army and Ellt move to an all-gay apartment plex, posed of ornate ttag rated lavenr, red and all shas of pk and plete wh huge rotund beds, mirrored ceilgs, and plaster Greek statu of naked male athlet.

Read Chapter 20 om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 14,236 reads. fictn, romance, pretend. Hurt. '... * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

The Army vtigators who shadow them are revealed as gay men themselv who prefer to keep straight people, like the gay ceivers, out of the the begng of this film, when the ceivers are terviewed by the officer at the recment office, Danny and Ellt’s pretend homosexualy is synonymo wh theatril effemacy. They both have stylish men’s haircuts and they speak a yly, childish tone that match their effemate, when they are terviewed by a psychiatrist, they exprs their flamboyant mps wh Osr Wil-que statements like “Am I homosexual?

Read Chapter 9 om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 20,232 reads. pretend, fictn, romance. Warng:... * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

Whereas the blond lifeguard Ellt, his tight red tnks that pliments his mcular and sparsely haired physique, am his female admirers by sassy gtur and effemate speakg, Danny is aaid that their effemate gay masquera will be mistakenly perceived as their thentic gay inty.

His nfince pretendg to be gay riv, however, om his rilient and celebrated heteronormative masculy, handsomens, and sex appeal that attract his voted female, who is more sexually attractive than Danny, is ls aaid that his gay ceptn might stigmatize ame him as homosexual.

Read Chapter 31 om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 12,516 reads. aksjers, fictn, romance. "I'm so... * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

His flamg behavr, alibied as thentic and manipulative, allows him to pe the burn of hetero-masculy, for a while, and eely disver the lure of effemacy whout been ridiculed, sanctned, persecuted or bashed by the straight world for his their g to terms wh their effemately gay masquera and s requirements and challeng is highly dynamic.

Moreover, near the end of the film, Ellt is ved to a sassy gay party which the queer participants are drsed lorful outfs, androgyno clothg, kschy accsori and garments, clownish masqueras and erotic unrpants, and some of them are wearg heavy make-up. He approach her and they are movg to Mal’s bedroom, where Ellt shockgly fds out that the lady is a handsome drag (1987 [1981]) criciz The Gay Deceivers’ superficialy and shallowns, nsirg this film as “an ‘animated’ live-actn rtoon versn of California gay life” that “offend almost everyone, cludg homophobic crics who wrote that the film vicly anti-gay” (p. The publicy material for the film, acrdg to Rso, prepared by Harold Rand & Company, ed the words fag, queer, and viate to scribe the gay characters the film and advertised the edy as a “slice of gay life” (p.

Read Chapter 14 om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 18,571 reads. pretend, aksjers, romance. "Are yo... * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

Intertgly, Michael Greer, who performed as Mallm the flamboyant landlord, not only wrote his own role as a sassy drama queen but also apparently rewrote the screenplay plac, makg “funnier and ls homophobic than was tend” wherever he, Rso terprets this flamboyant screen as a good example of gay humor ed an opprsive suatn, a stereotype wh a sense of pri that uld not unteract an sentially homophobic film (p. A closer look at the screeng of Mallm’s ceivgly gay tenants, however, unvers iologil trici, ntradictns, ngi and ambivalenc this film’s polics of mockg protagonists cly mediate the often surprisgly ambivalent, multifaceted and multilayered attu of the late 1960s straight majory toward gay men, sexual thenticy, and the perilo yet pleasurable potentiali of wearg gay masks. The adventur of Danny and Ellt, the two Alic Wonrland (or a “Fairyland” as this film suggts) embody fear, repulsn and nfn terwoven wh cursy and great tert of straight people the gay muny Los Angel the late 1960s and the emergent gay neighborhoods, venu, athetics, stylishns, lgo and notor exotic promiscuy and mythic hedonism.

Read Disclaimer om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 48,725 reads. fictn, romance, pretend. Wala s... * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

Whereas The Gay Deceivers centers on two straight guys who pretend to be gay, the Israeli film The Ladi’ Hairdrser (1984) als wh male tws, one of them is “thentilly” gay, whereas his brother is a straight man who merely pretends to be gay.

Read Chapter 35 om the story Pretendg to be a Gay (Sollano Brothers #1) by ShadoncrisAksjers (Eshang) wh 14,840 reads. pretend, romance, aksjers. "Nait... * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

Michel is a flamboyant gay hairstylist wh a heavy French accent, melodramatic mannerisms, glzy blo, tight troers, and effemately bleached hairstyle, who owns a luxur hairdrsg salon for rich Wtern Jewish women at the prtig Dizengoff Center Mall central Tel Aviv. 20) ntrast to the agonized gay man who pretends to be straight, the gay ceiver Victor—drsed as his flamg tw Michel—is easily adjted to the luxuri of the latter’s hoe, cludg the pleasurable whirlpool bath tub, which he has sex wh one of Michel’s voted clients, the betiful fashn mol Eve, who is aroed by their unexpected sex enunter. His tw, the gay ceiver, however, is endorsed his film as a lowlife yet streetwise and loveable man who succsfully his gay masquera as means of tensifyg and diversifyg his straight sex life.

The film strs that Victor is a “real man” whose gayns is merely a masquera wh s own heteronormative sexual sissy mask The Ladi’ Hairdrser’s heterocentric world means a merely temporary surrenrg of a straight, hegemonic inty through performative flamboyant ruals.

What are the signs a guy is pretendg to be straight? The signs that a guy is gay n be obv at tim, but often they are more subtle. * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

The pretendg-to-be-sissy scenar here is erned by strictly d formulae pertag to social norms wh an almost didactic tent to liver to s straight dience that gayns is synonymo wh viant effemacy.

Straight  Sk,  Gay  Masks  and  Pretendg  to  Be  Gay  on  Screen  exam cematic pictns * pretending to be a gay shadoncrisaksjers *

Whereas The Ladi’ Hairdrser’s ma ic vice is pretendg to be gay the heart of lowlife machismo, the Mexin romantic edy Macho (Mexi 2016) featur a straight macho fashn signer who pretends to be gay orr to mata his “gay reputatn” the lorful, ftive, and (stereo)typilly gay fashn world. If The Ladi’ Hairdrser gayns is unacceptable bee of the notor machismo of the unprivileged workg class, Macho the straightns is unacceptable bee of the notor flamboyancy and notor gay mps of the fashn sign centers on Evaristo Jiménez (Miguel Rodarte), a renowned fashn signer whose dream is to take his clothg brand to ternatnal fame but he fears that his empire will be threatened if the world will disver his addictn for women, somethg that lns of his gay fans would never five. In orr to mata his image as a flamboyant yet straight fashn signer, Evaristo reluctantly agre to date his attractive gay office boy Sandro (nicknamed “Sdy”) who is played by the angelic-faced, blue-eyed actor Renato López, who was murred at the age 33.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* PRETENDING TO BE A GAY SHADONCRISAKSJERS

Comment on this story</tle><path d="M14 14V2H2v9.47h8.18L12.43 13ZM3 10.52V3h10v9.23l-2.5-1.66Z"></path></svg></button><span aria-hidn="te" class="wpds-c-fBEbFG">Comment</span><span class="wpds-c-fOvfhP wpds-c-fOvfhP-kshkDy-isCommentType-te none" aria-hidn="te"><span class="ment-unt font-xxxxs sc-ral-unt"><span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="teaser-ntent grid-center"><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><i>In Staff Picks, Book World edors and wrers share what they’ve been readg off the clock. We hope you’ll be spurred to read some of the books, and turn, we’d love to know what you’ve enjoyed lately so we n add to our pil.</i></p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div class="db dn-ns mr-neg-gutter ml-neg-gutter mb-md hi-for-prt" data-qa="subscribe-promo"><div data-orientatn="horizontal" role="separator" class="wpds-c-dbVHzF wpds-c-dbVHzF-hDkAcj-variant-flt"></div><a class="pt-sm pb-sm flex ems-center bold font-xxxs font-xxs-ns jtify-center" href=" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="lor:#166dfc;borr:none"><svg class="ntent-box" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns=" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img"><tle>Wp</tle><path d="M11.055 8.728l-1.018-1.019-.782.782v6.292l1.782 1.564.018-.019v-7.6zm-4.11.236L5.674 7.71l-.836.855v6.237l1.545 1.327.564-.636V8.964zm2.656 9.074l-2.528-2.182-1.927 2.182-2.619-2.255v-3.564h-.509c-.454 0-.672.273-.745.636H1.09a2.89 2.89 0 0 1-.091-.69c0-.473.2-1.71 1.527-1.71V7.691c0-1.073-.709-1.127-.709-2.054 0-1.037.982-2 2.782-2.637l.164.145c-.6.291-1.09.655-1.09 1.437 0 1.2 1.163.89 1.163 2.782v.727l2.127-2.236 2.237 2.2 2.109-2.2 2.036 2v6.728l-3.745 3.455zm11.108-9.625l-1.073-.982-.964 1.018v6.6c.855.11 1.491.4 2.019.964l.018-.018V8.413zm-2.382.418l-.528.545v10.237l.528.492V8.83zm1.49 9.055c-.308-.382-.69-.709-1.145-.836v3.782l-.036.018-1-.927-2.11 1.945-.036-.018V16.96c-.636.145-1.327.545-1.854 1.2l-.146-.091c.127-1.4.818-2.436 2-2.837v-3.545h-.382c-.527 0-.89.363-.963.763h-.219c-.054-.145-.127-.381-.127-.836 0-.891.6-1.564 1.582-1.564h.11V8.085l-.655-.582-.51.51-.254-.237 2.018-2.073 1.71 1.564V9.05l.527-.564v-2.09h.345v1.727l2.273-2.419L23 7.576v7.91l-3.182 2.4z" fill-le="evenodd"></path></svg><span class="mr-xs ml-xs gray-darkt flex ems-center">Get the full experience.<span class="ml-xs subs-theme blue">Choose your plan</span></span><svg class="ntent-box" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 16 16" xmlns=" style="fill:#166dfc" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img"><tle>ArrowRight</tle><path d="M7.664 1.25l6 6a1 1 0 010 1.414l-6 6L6.25 13.25 10.499 9H2V7h8.585L6.25 2.664 7.664 1.25z" fill-le="nonzero"></path></svg></a><div data-orientatn="horizontal" role="separator" class="wpds-c-dbVHzF wpds-c-dbVHzF-hDkAcj-variant-flt"></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-CPHZMVIDWVAP5N56XDBYXDNLXU-0"><div id="list-headle-CPHZMVIDWVAP5N56XDBYXDNLXU-0" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Properti of Thirst,’ by Marianne Wiggs (2022)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Nora Kg, </b>edor</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">I was lucky enough this summer to have a longtime librarian as a hoe gut. Who better to offer a book remendatn (other than the ntributors to this lumn)? So, I asked my iend: What’s the bt book you have read this year? Whout skippg a beat, he answered: “<a href=" target=_blank>Properti of Thirst</a>,” by Marianne Wiggs, which me out paperback May. Conveniently, this book was already on my TBR pile. In fact, I had wanted to wre a feature about bee of s amazg backstory. Wiggs was nearly fished wrg the book when, 2016, she had a massive stroke. The Pulzer falist (and ex-wife of Salman Rhdie), now 75, not only lost the abily to wre but fot what she had already wrten. She enlisted the help of her dghter, Lara Porzak, to help her plete the 517-page novel. In the afterword, Lara scrib the experience poignant tail: Over the urse of several years, she read the book aloud to her mother multiple tim, until the characters me to feel like Lara and Marianne’s fay. Mother and dghter chatted “about their daily shenanigans and potential adventur, anythg to brg them back to the fabric of Mom’s memory.” Through this “powerful alchemy,” Lara wr, “art happened: the procs of fishg the novel shifted om beg an impossible burn to the very life-affirmg thg that helped to heal.” I am only about 50 pag to this sweepg, poetic novel — about a California rancher and his fay fightg, among other enemi, Los Angel over water rights — and I am already hooked.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-3GBE2C6DWJFAFKY4MALQQL5STI-1"><div id="list-headle-3GBE2C6DWJFAFKY4MALQQL5STI-1" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equaly,’ by Sarah McBri (2018)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Becky Meloan,</b> edorial ai</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Readg The Post’s <a href=" target="_blank">recent survey of trans Amerins</a> got me thkg about a powerful book — “<a href=" target="_blank">Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equaly</a>,” by Sarah McBri. Now a Delaware state senator and recently announced <a href=" target="_blank">ndidate for the U.S. Hoe</a>, McBri wrote her life story before she was elected to office. Interted polics om a young age, and also eply certa she would someday need to tell her parents that she wasn’t a boy like they thought she was, she grew up believg that eventually g out as a trans woman would make impossible to pursue her polil ambns. Beg unable to live the world the way she saw herself fally beme unbearable durg her senr year of llege. Takg baby steps, she me out to iends, fay, classmat and mentors, and fortunately found the rpons varied but affirmg. As she me to terms wh her inty, she ntued down the polil path she had always dreamed of — mpaigng for Be Bin Delaware, and workg to pass LGBTQ legislatn Delaware and later the Obama Whe Hoe. Her <a href=" target="_blank">ndid, down-to-earth memoir</a> is a gift to those who seek to unrstand more about the personal and public journeys trans people face today’s world.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-UDAI7GXWTVGMTMYRKENRAIN7MY-2"><div id="list-headle-UDAI7GXWTVGMTMYRKENRAIN7MY-2" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘The Lonelit Amerins,’ by Jay Caspian Kang (2021)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Sophia Nguyen, </b>news and featur wrer</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">A ltle after 10 a.m. on June 29, I download the PDF of the Supreme Court’s opn on affirmative actn — was long, and a lot of people were dog exactly the same thg, so took awhile — and then CTRL-F’ed for “Asian.” Is strange to say that I got more hs than I’d expected? The se, and the nversatn surroundg , theoretilly ncerned Asian Amerins; yet they (I suppose “we”) felt peculiarly cintal. Readg the ter that day felt like beg stuck traffic on the eeway: loud, tense, unmovg but somehow ducg motn sickns.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">In other words, felt like the right time to revis Jay Caspian Kang’s bracg 2021 book, “<a href=" target=_blank>The Lonelit Amerins</a>.” Lacg reportg wh polemic, ’s almost the oppose of a racial explaer: It’s rtls, cranky, a rare batn of nceptually rigoro and journalistilly cur. It’s the kd of book you thk wh and argue about, and that mak you feel — maybe foolishly — fally, we’re gettg somewhere.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-24T42633PVADXBAF4ZLVBEJBKA-3"><div id="list-headle-24T42633PVADXBAF4ZLVBEJBKA-3" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Juno Lov Legs,’ by Karl Geary (2023)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Ron Charl, </b>fictn cric</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">A few weeks ago <a href=" target=_blank>our ee Book Club newsletter</a>, I asked for exampl of cur differenc between U.S. and Brish book jackets. When a rear directed me to Karl Geary’s new novel, “<a href=" target=_blank>Juno Lov Legs</a>,” I uldn’t rist lvg beneath s ver(s). This is the story of Juno, a sharp-wted Irish girl the 1980s who’s too fiant to fd peace her dysfunctnal home or her btal Catholic school. “I was a lot,” she adms. “I was too much.” But her alholic father and toxic neighborhood would be too much for anyone. Deprsed by poverty and social isolatn, Juno experienc moments of peace by buryg herself the woods wh flowers and pretendg to be ad. She fds refuge only her iendship wh another young misf, a gay classmate she nicknam Legs. “We uldn’t be hurt,” she says, “not when the other was there.” Alas, that’s not entirely te. The trop of Irish tragedy arrive wh predictable regulary the pag, but the raw, liltg poetry of Juno’s voice provis a seri of heartbreakg revelatns.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-HZHP4E4E4BHULK57DQSQK5RI3Q-4"><div id="list-headle-HZHP4E4E4BHULK57DQSQK5RI3Q-4" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘The Rabow,’ by D.H. Lawrence (1915) and ‘Dpair,’ by Vladimir Nabokov (1937)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Bec Rothfeld, </b>nonfictn cric</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">In high school, I loved the novels of D.H. Lawrence. I am generally not much of a re-rear — I am too plagued by anxiety that, on my ath bed, I will regret havg read “<a href=" target=_blank>Lola</a>” four tim when I have yet to read “<a href=" target=_blank>Middlemarch</a>” even once — but I do make a pot of returng to books I was too young to appreciate when I first happened upon them. For no reason other than hunger for an Unrtakg and the vague spicn that his unabashed sensualy mak him summery, I set out to read all of Lawrence’s novels, begng wh “<a href=" target=_blank>The Rabow</a>.” Do the prose hold up? In a way, holds up all too well. It is exactly the sort of thg I loved when I was a teenager, full of unmigated sex, ath and profundy. The wrg is betiful, but is also surgg, and I am no longer an appropriately ecstatic mood.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">So I fected to an thor for whom I am always the mood. My personal email addrs volv Nabokov’s name, and I cid to read all his novels. I started wh “<a href=" target=_blank>Mary</a>,” his but, which is about a Rsian exile pg for his first love and his homeland as he languish Berl; is not Nabokov’s bt, but is already lovely, nse wh lhly redolent scriptn. Next I turned to “<a href=" target=_blank>Dpair</a>,” his seventh novel, which is unmistakably the work of the master. The narrator is a classilly Nabokovian trickster, a supercil and schemg athete prone to dark sexual fantasy and meta-textual forays. It is well worth readg, but I know that the bt is yet to e. Let hot Nabokov summer mence!</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="gift-share-le" data-ttid="gift-share-le" class="PJLV PJLV-ilotWTr-css hi-for-prt"><button aria-haspopup="dialog" aria-expand="false" aria-ntrols="gift-share-drawer" role="button" tabx="0" aria-label="Share this article" id="gift-share-drawer-ntrol-le" data-ttid="gift-share-drawer-ntrol-le" class="wpds-c-PJLV wpds-c-gsmDXe wpds-c-gsmDXe-goNocI-placement-Inle foc-highlight"><div data-ttid="gift-share-terstial-trigger" class="wpds-c-kPqOkS wpds-c-kPqOkS-jtSXsT-hasSubsText-false"><span class="wpds-c-hBJqc"><span class="wpds-c-dzSncg">Share this article</span></span><span class="wpds-c-eCvK"><span class="wpds-c-enedHQ wpds-c-enedHQ-cCdK-isShown-false">Share</span><svg xmlns=" fill="currentColor" viewBox="0 0 16 16" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img" class="wpds-c-fBqPWp wpds-c-fDHGth"><path fill="currentColor" d="M8 .6v3.8h.1c-4.4 0-7.3 4.5-6.9 8.8.1.8.2 1.2.2 1.2l.2 1 .4-1.3c.8-2 2-4 6.2-3.9H8v4l7-6.9L8 .6Zm1 11.3V9.3h-.9c-3 0-4.8.5-6.2 2.9.5-3.3 2.7-6.8 6.2-6.8H9V3l4.5 4.4L9 11.9Z"></path></svg></span></div></button></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-PHER3JLZK5HLRN6Y5B5RVYH2CA-5"><div id="list-headle-PHER3JLZK5HLRN6Y5B5RVYH2CA-5" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘The Atheist the Attic,’ by Samuel R. Delany (2018)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Jab Brogan, </b>edor</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">As Julian Lus wr a <a href=" target=_blank>magnificent recent New Yorker profile</a>, Samuel R. Delany begs his days wh an “atheist’s prayer, hailg faraway celtial bodi wh a lany spired by the seventeenth-century philosopher Bach Spoza.” It’s an apt nnectn, bee Spoza, our greatt thker of the relatnships between bodi — the way they ph and pull one another, but also the way they rs and spire — has long been a rource for the queer imagatn. And Delany, who is bt known for his often-experimental science fictn novels, has spent his long and very queer reer imagg the many ways that bodi of all kds n e together.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“<a href=" target=_blank>The Atheist the Attic</a>,” a novella that may be his fal work of prose fictn, is a strange but ftg artifact the arc of his reer. It claims to be a seri of diary entri by the mathematician and philosopher Gottied Leibniz documentg his (wholly imaged) vis to the home of Spoza. At s heart is a dizzyg nversatn between two of history’s greatt mds a way that uld have been renred only by one of our most brilliant livg wrers.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">It is a challengg book the way that visg Delany himself — an experience that Lus perfectly ptur his profile — n be. But as is often the se wh Delany’s wrg, s rewards lie stg wh those challeng. (Those new to Delany’s work may want to stead beg wh “<a href=" target=_blank>Nova</a>,” “<a href=" target=_blank>Trouble on Tron</a>” or my favore, “<a href=" target=_blank>Tal of Nevèrÿon</a>.”) As Delany has Leibniz observe, “Well, thkg about what’s not supposed to require thkg, that <i>is </i>philosophy, no?” Havg spent s thkg about topics once emed below nsiratn, Delany has given ample reasons to go on philosophizg, endlsly and expansively.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-EC2T7CG3HNDHPJJFJ35BXZNTNU-6"><div id="list-headle-EC2T7CG3HNDHPJJFJ35BXZNTNU-6" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Blood, Bon & Butter: The Inadvertent Edutn of a Reluctant Chef,’ by Gabrielle Haton (2011)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Jill Pellettieri, </b>edor</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">I ok more the summer, so seemed like the perfect time to turn to <a href=" target=_blank>Haton’s book about her life and reer</a>. I enjoyed a meal at Haton’s now-shuttered rtrant Pne almost a and a half ago, and I n still remember the succulent pork belly I ate, a food that I’d never liked much before and that I’ve never liked much sce. Pl, a good food memoir is almost always my thg. But Haton’s book is not jt for lovers of the genre. The book has the same zy timacy as her rtrant. Haton v rears to her life experienc, scribg the relatnships that shaped her wh the same re and precisn she brgs to her okg. She wr of her mother: “So what is there to make of the simplistic thg I’ve e to utter explanatn, which is so drab, so monochromatic, so water on top of ice even though ’s the most direct, most distilled path om my heart to my mouth: I feel better whout her.” Her scriptns of food are so strikg she n make even the most dited rnivore salivate for a 35-cent t of sard. Pne may have closed, but thankfully rears n still revel Haton’s artistry through her wrg.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-4FBGP2ZKBJAKXJCOAX5ZVUZBKI-7"><div id="list-headle-4FBGP2ZKBJAKXJCOAX5ZVUZBKI-7" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Thunr at Twilight: Vienna 1913-1914,’ by Freric Morton (1989) and ‘1913: The Year Before the Storm,’ by Florian Illi (2013)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>John Williams, </b>Book World edor</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">I have a cent-size shelf of acclaimed books about World War I at home, a few of which I’ve even read, and yet the full motivatns and ntours of the epochal nflict — te to s reputatn — still elu my unrstandg. I have my sights set for soon on a uple of other big acunts of the era, cludg Barbara Tuchman’s “<a href=" target=_blank>The Guns of Augt</a>,” but for now I’m readg about one of history’s great unknowg prologu, the year before the war. Freric Morton’s “<a href=" target=_blank>Thunr at Twilight</a>” tak to Vienna the months before the assassatn of Franz Ferdand Sarajevo. We get energetic narrative portras of Ferdand and his polil rivals; of Frd and Jung; and, wh ep forhadowg of the send global taclysm that would e, of Stal and Hler. Florian Illi’s “<a href=" target=_blank>1913</a>” is a more tentnally agmented, imprsnistic diary of sorts, proceedg through the year month by month and focg more on artistic figur (Kafka, Pisso, Klimt, Stravsky …) than polil on. Each book might make history too digtible by (at least) half, but when to a time that sent the world to a sensels spiral of horrors, ’s hard to md.</p></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="listicle-rd-ZMKSNXRUB5HQFDBG6KPX5WYBZI-8"><div id="list-headle-ZMKSNXRUB5HQFDBG6KPX5WYBZI-8" tabx="0" class="wpds-c-jKHtLo"><div></div><h3 class="wpds-c-eKlvKd listicle-headle" data-qa="list-headle">‘Last Post,’ by Freric Raphael (2023)</h3></div><a href="#sendary-nav" class="skip-lk sr-only sr-only-focable black unrle brad-md pa-lg mb-xs borr-box font-sans-serif font-bold">Return to menu</a><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Michael Dirda, </b>lumnist</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Freric Raphael is a Brish novelist, sayist and screenwrer, whose films clu “<a href=" target=_blank>Darlg</a>,” starrg Julie Christie, for which he won an Amy Award. In recent years he’s been wrg var sorts of memoirs. The latt, the curly stctured “<a href=" target=_blank>Last Post</a>,” nsists of say-length letters addrsed to ad iends, mentors and enemi — the clu lerary cric Gee Steer, book edor Tom Maschler, poser and lyricist Llie Bricse, artist Michael Ayrton and many others. The “letters” are all sentially acunts of Raphael’s associatn wh the emenc, upled wh cril appreciatns of their achievements. Each addrs s recipient as though he or she were still alive, as the openg to that for director Stanley Kubrick: “Dear Stanley, Did I ever hear you lgh or see you se?” This send-person approach do take gettg ed to.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Two other thgs make Raphael’s piec remarkable. First, they are packed wh sndalo, sometim vengeful anecdot about Fleet Street, publishg, the London lerary scene and the ternatnal film world. Send, Raphael wr extravagantly pun-filled, alln-rich prose, as if S.J. Perelman had done really, really well classics at Cambridge.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">While the full dazzle of Raphael’s verbal fireworks requir extensive quotatn, he n also be wryly ncise. Of a celebry uple, he not: “If not yet married, you were certaly joed at the hype.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“Last Post” has been my bedsi book for the past week, and I’ve only begun to sample s dub pleasur.</p></div></div></div></div><div></div><div class="wpds-c-dhzjXW wpds-c-dhzjXW-iPJLV-css mt-md grid-center grid-body"><div id="gift-share-end" data-ttid="gift-share-end" class="PJLV PJLV-idiqKOk-css hi-for-prt"><button aria-haspopup="dialog" aria-expand="false" aria-ntrols="gift-share-drawer" role="button" tabx="0" aria-label="Share this article" id="gift-share-drawer-ntrol-end" data-ttid="gift-share-drawer-ntrol-end" class="wpds-c-PJLV wpds-c-gsmDXe wpds-c-gsmDXe-iIVoLq-placement-Shortcut foc-highlight"><div class="wpds-c-UazGY" id="gift-share-shortcut" data-ttid="gift-share-shortcut"><svg xmlns=" fill="var(--wpds-lors-primary)" viewBox="0 0 16 16" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img" class="wpds-c-fVfumU "><path fill="currentColor" d="M8 .6v3.8h.1c-4.4 0-7.3 4.5-6.9 8.8.1.8.2 1.2.2 1.2l.2 1 .4-1.3c.8-2 2-4 6.2-3.9H8v4l7-6.9L8 .6Zm1 11.3V9.3h-.9c-3 0-4.8.5-6.2 2.9.5-3.3 2.7-6.8 6.2-6.8H9V3l4.5 4.4L9 11.9Z"></path></svg><div class="PJLV wpds-c-kwcHlj">Share</div></div></button></div><div class="wpds-c-hcekgi"><div class="mb-lg-mod" data-qa="ments-btn-div"><button aria-label="Scroll to the ments sectn" data-qa="ments-btn" class="wpds-c-kSOqLF wpds-c-kSOqLF-SQjOY-variant-sendary wpds-c-kSOqLF-eHdizY-nsy-flt wpds-c-kSOqLF-ejCoEP-in-left wpds-c-kSOqLF-igqYgPb-css ments hi-for-prt"><svg xmlns=" viewBox="0 0 16 16" fill="currentColor" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img" class="wpds-c-fBqPWp "><path d="M14 14V2H2v9.47h8.18L12.43 13ZM3 10.52V3h10v9.23l-2.5-1.66Z"></path></svg><span></span> Comments</button></div></div></div><div class="grid-center grid-body"><div></div></div></ma></div><div class="grid-center grid-mobile-full-bleed"><div class="hi-for-prt ml-to mr-to mt-md pt-lg recirc" data-qa="recirc"><div class="flex-l jtify-center hi-for-prt"><div class="pr-sm ml-sm ml-0-ns b-l br-l bc-gray-darkt more-om-post"><div></div><div class="dn db-l pb-md pt-md"><div data-qa="newsletter" class="hi-for-prt relative"><div class="dib w-100"><div><div class="flex jtify-center align self-center center transn-all duratn-400 ease--out" data-qa="sc-newsletter-signup" aria-label=""><svg aria-labelledby="react-aria-1-aria" role="img" viewBox="0 0 100 80"><tle id="react-aria-1-aria">Loadg... .

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