The Wadsworth Themes American Literature Series, 1800-1865 Theme 6: Confronting Race Book

This is really a strange anthology and not a romance at all; some of the characters are gay men, both modern or myth or figures from the past, but it's not them being gay that linked all the story, it's more the unexpected and the legend, the faith and the myth mixed together.

The Safety of Thorns: Israel is a slave boy who lives in a plantation; he is very young (don't know exactly the age but he is still working little jobs around, so I believe he is nothing more than a child). One day, near the briar patch he sees a strange man. Israel believes him to be the Devil, even if the man reassures him that it's not true. But from that moment on, Israel's life is no more the same and terrible things happen around him. Maybe the man was not the devil, but probably he opens Israel's eyes to who he is and where he stays, and that was worst than a damnation.

Etiolate: Oliver is an African American artist; as an artist, with an artist's eyes, he likes the pretty thing, above all the pretty boys. But Oliver is not an handsome man and he is not even wealthy and famous, and so the pretty boys don't like him. One more night he sees the reject in the eyes of one of that boys, and probably his desire is so strong that he unveal something terrible, a curse or similar... or maybe he only frees his true self, one who sees the beauty also in the horror of death.

Her Spirit Hovering: Howard was a young man with big dreams of becoming a famous and adored artist. He had the skills, he was good, but he had also a overbearing mother who always crushed his dreams. Not only that she also managed to ruin every important relationship Howard had, first with Kamela, a young Indian girl he met at school (and being of a different culture was not good for his mother) and then with Ned, a talented man he lived with (and obviously being a man was not good for his mother). Now his mother is passed away, and Ned is probably thinking that he know can start living, but grudge and regret are bigger than the wish to start, and the weight of his presence is almost as present as when she was alive. But it's true that it's all his mother's fault, or maybe it's Howard that doesn't have the courage to take his life in his hands?

Come Join Me: Aime is a young boy with a gift, he can see the spirits of his dead relatives. But only his grandmother thinks at that like a gift, all the others, his mother first, want to cure him. Will Aime learn to live with his spirit friends, or will he join them?

Sea, Swallow Me: Jed has always searched for something, someone bigger than life. And maybe he finally meets him in a seaside village, in the deep of the sea.

Circus Boy Without a Safety Net: C.B. is a boy with a wonderful voice and a love for the old stars, in particular Lena Horne. When he was young his parents supported his dream allowing him to dream day and night about his favorite star, but when he became a young man, a teen, and this passion still was wih him, they feared him being gay and try to repress his dreams. He was a good singer, but he couldn't be himself in the choir of the church. When C.B. finally will leave home and enter the unknown world of New York, so far and strange in comparison to his little town, will he be finally free?

Strange Alphabets: in this short story the author romances a moment in the life of Arthur Rimbaud, when he first left his family home and his mother to find his true self in the big and alluring Paris. Arthur will learn that being free it is not always so good, and great pain will wait him, but the lure of poetry and the extasy of flesh is too strong to resist.

Magpie Sisters: a little scene on a little thief girl who is drawn by shiny little thing.

A Bird of Ice: Ryuichi is a Japanese monk; he lives in a peaceful monastery along a lake and one day he "saves" a swan which is drowning. Despite the warning of his brother, he takes care of the animal, and he is strangely attracted but it. And when the animal leaves, it marks Ryuichi with a kiss / bite. From that moment on Ryuichi is no more the same and he will have to see deeply inside himself to understand what he wants and who he is.

Catch Him by the Toe: Sambo is an African tamer and Simba is his beautiful Asian tiger; Sambo and Simba, Africa and Asia, man and animal, they are both strange and beautiful. Maybe too strange and beautiful for the little American town of Azalea, which can't see beyond its own fear of what is unknown and extraordinaire.

As I said, the anthology is not simple, but it's mesmerizing. It's full of color and flavor, an intoxicating mix that catches you while reading and lingers afterward. All the tales are mostly sad, but not without hope; the romance is not the target of the characters and so it's not even the final point of the stories; they are almost all self discovery journey, and the ending point of the journey not always is a light and beautiful paradise.