Better Angel

By Forman Brown and Richard Meeker

Book Overview

A gay classic. A young man's discovery of his sexuality in the years between the World Wars. One of the best coming out stories ever written. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555831168
• ISBN13: 9781555831165
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Alyson Publications
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.

Customer Reviews

BETTER ANGEL: A HISTORICAL GEM

Possibly the first and certainly one of the earliest really affirmative and positive American gay novels, BETTER ANGEL (1933), although not flawlesss with occasional unexplained lapses and lacunae (It was the author's first novel), is a significant and valuable contribution to gay literature. Published in 1933, it was courageously written. Although the main character Kurt is introspective and suffers confusion as he tries to understand his complicated relationships, the book is warm, charming and entertaining, revealing much about the young man's painful spring awakning to gay love in upstate Michigan in the decade before World War II. Young Kurt is attractive, kind, shy, modest, conservative, with a fundamentalist religious upbringing, but musically very talented and ambitious to get out of the small midwestern town he endures. Richard Meeker the author was a pseudonym for Forman Brown who did not admit authorship until he was in his 90's. Historically, we're well aware many creative gay and lesbian authors, actors, artists and performers, scientists, historians, academics, whatever--of necessity kept their sexual identities secret. Brown felt it prudent because of the book's fairly bold handling of homosexual sex and eroticism. After all, we were ILLEGAL! In fact, Derry, one of the characters is entrapped and arrested by the vice squad. In his splendid LOST GAY NOVELS, Anthony Slide tells us that Brown was a young writer for CBS in 1933. Brown was certainly sensible. Later in the 1940's, Brown wrote sketches and lyrics for the famous Turnabout Theatre in Los Angeles where Elsa Lanchester (a lesbian and wife of gay Charles Laughton) sang and performed. Brown's attractiion to the theatre is evident in BETTER ANGEL. Kurt's encouraging mother supports his uniqueness and musical talent but does not directly address his gayness; he goes on to university at Ann Arbor where he meets and falls in love with Derry, a boyish, show-offish, good-looking but thoughtless lover. Two of the male characters are quite theatrical: Tony a good looking, blond, extrovertish, bi-sexual actor, the other, David, handsome and reminiscent of Noel Coward with marcelled hair and faultlessly manicured nails. He is a student architect and at first, Derry's boyfriend. David falls in love with Kurt while keeping Derry, a triangular situation which grows throughout the book. Although not fully developed, such a relatively happy threesome in literature was brave. Derry's sister Chloe, an independent young woman, falls for Kurt. This makes for an interesting and complicated quadrangle--a situation which according to Slide persisted throughout Brown's own life since the characters were based on real life people--perhaps a reason, too, why Forman used a pseudonym! A second edition in the 1950's aptly used the lurid title "Tormented" as was the practice in that period and one can imagine the cover. The contrasts between the flamboyant characters and the unass

A Top-Level Early Novel, Unfaded by Time

BETTER ANGEL takes place in the 1930s, but its themes and its style are timeless. Richard Meeker's semi-autobiographical novel is not just one of those 'interesting' early works, that pale beside later masterpieces. This is a mature, intelligent narrative of a gay man's youthful years. It is told with confidence and a persuasive, occasionally poetic style. Most gratifying about Meeker's novel is its completely positive view of homosexuality. The author gives equal weight to the physical and the emotional aspects of being gay. His protagonist is initially driven by his erotic impulses, but behind the impulses there is always the emotional core. After some questioning and experimentation, Meeker's hero is never in real doubt about the possibility of same-sex love. There is no trace of shame or guilt in the novel's depictions of male-to-male relations: the reader is convinced along with him, that this love,too, is valid.There is plenty of humor in the novel, as well as some interesting non-technical musical discussion. And Meeker is careful to characterize each player with subtle and convincing traits. Neither dated, nor only academically important, BETTER ANGEL is a novel that should be read by everyone.

Unusual Coming Out Story

Excellent book.Unlike many contemporary coming out stories, the gay protagonist here does not get drunk, take drugs, or become suicidal. He just tries to understand his feelings and tries to do the right things. This was set in the Great Depression in 1933, in a religious Mid-Western family setting (initially), with entrapping police, and almost universal hostility. The narrator is able to grow and develop with dignity, while building long-term sexual and other relationships.

Modern fiction written in Classical prose

This heartfelt autobiography is reminiscent of EM Forster's Maurice. More impressive than the plot is the lyrical manner in which it is written.

An early roman-a clef about coming out gay, ends happily.

This is one of the first books with a positive approach to gay people. It was written in 1931 when the author was 30 years old, a true story with the names changed (a roman-a-clef). The author and his friends in the book remained together all their lives; Forman Brown revealing his authorship at the age of 94. The book has a very pleasant atmosphere and is highly thoughtful.