Journalist Wright (Soldiers of Freedom
) evokes the passage to gay identity for three young men of color in this impressionistic, often disjointed account. The narrative juxtaposes vignettes from the lives—particularly the sexual lives—of Manny, a 14-year-old Brooklynite of Puerto Rican and Jamaican heritage who “had leadership skills so natural he was all but unable to control them”; Julius, a 22-year-old African-American transplanted from north Florida to New York who is “equally capable of stunning achievement and devastating self-destruction”; and Carlos, a 25-year-old Puerto Rican who is “a caretaker by nature.” These are gracefully written, sympathetic profiles, but they are only loosely tied together by the young men’s overlap at an informal shelter for queer youth in East New York, Brooklyn. Additionally, Wright’s brief historical background— of East New York, Puerto Rico, Greenwich Village and the house ball scene, as well as of theories of homosexuality and reference to diverse statistical studies—reveal that he has done his homework, but this reportage fragments, more than it supports, the already tenuous structure. Wright brings Manny’s, Julius’s and Carlos’s dilemmas, confusion and curiosity to light, but not into sharp focus. (Jan.)
