A young gay man enters to a clanste affair the reprsive polil climate of munist Poland the early 1980s.
Contents:
- BOOK REVIEW: SWIMMG THE DARK BY TOMASZ JęDROWSKI ★★★★1/2
- SWIMMG THE DARK: ‘ONE OF THE MOST ASTONISHG NTEMPORARY GAY NOVELS WE HAVE EVER READ … A MASTERPIECE’ – ATTU PAPERBACK – 11 FEBARY 2021
BOOK REVIEW: SWIMMG THE DARK BY TOMASZ JęDROWSKI ★★★★1/2
* swimming in the dark gay *
Beg gay Poland that era was more or ls unmentnable, a fact that Ludwik rents and Janz accepts. The dranian measur ed by thori to disurage homosexualy Communist Poland are ightful, but not so different om the harsh antigay bias prevalent Ameri jt a few s earlier. I've been readg as many gay centric books as possible this past month and fished this last night.
But when they return to town, the two men mt make their way a homophobic world filled wh opprsn and hypocrisy. Racg briefs are also rigr for swimmers, water polo players and divers, and wily embraced by the gay muny.
He has been cril of a French gay publitn for not treatg gays as ordary people. Ludwik, the stunt narrator, out at a time when gays had no role mols to follow. To be sure, several lerary fés Warsaw and Kraków were open to gay people (Spartac Internatnal Gay Guis listed several), but a sense that they were unr surveillance was palpable.
SWIMMG THE DARK: ‘ONE OF THE MOST ASTONISHG NTEMPORARY GAY NOVELS WE HAVE EVER READ … A MASTERPIECE’ – ATTU PAPERBACK – 11 FEBARY 2021
For Jedrowski, a notor precent for stigmatizg homosexuals People’s Poland was Michel Fouult’s vis to Warsaw 1958. He fished The History of Madns but was ensnared a honey trap wh a gay man and expelled om Poland. The vibrancy of Swimmg the Dark is a love story that laps when homosexualy nnot fd space the 1980s.
A broody tale of gay love and life behd the Iron Curta. While I read many different genr, I tend to return to gay lerature, mystery and spense, and science fictn and fantasy most equently. I know that not everyone enjoyed the first novel, but I loved the story about the bumblg gay thor of dub fame, who brgs along on his wildly spectacular and il midlife crisis.
Apparently, only after Mann’s diari were shared the 1990s (some fifty years after his ath) did the world e to know about his stggl wh his homosexualy or the topic of the book may seem que heavy (and there are some ep them for sure), the book was a pleasure to read, and I enjoyed immensely.