While I am not a huge fan of antiquarian stores, there are two in Ptown that I really like. One benefit of living here is that one gets to browse these two stores often to find the more interesting items before they are purchased. Today was a gold star day for finds–I found two Ptown books that I could not resist buying and cannot wait to read.

Provincetown Playboy by Curry Case is an interesting find from the latter days of gay pulp publishing. This book was published by Eros Publishing in 1971. The first page had me hooked, and I am looking forward to reading about Mike Bara as he makes his way through the Ptown of the early 1970s. This read should make for a fascinating peek at the culture, history, and town of the early seventies. It will be particularly interesting to read the sexual mores and the narration of such in this post-Stonewall yet pre-AIDS narrative.

This book is titled Provincetown or, Odds and Ends from the Cape Tip. It was published in 1890 by Herman Jennings, and it is an early modern day history of the town. With chapters ranging from “Landing of the Pilgrims” to “Long Point,” I cannot wait until I get the bandwidth for reading this book. I miss the days of my oral examination prep where I actually had time to read and could be reading five to six books at once.

Both books will have to be read very carefully as they are in very good yet delicate condition.

I bought both books from Yesterday’s Treasures, which I recommend checking out.

When gay goes gray, an unspectacular homosexual: Holleran’s The Beauty of Men is a stark, powerful, tour de force of a novel—that is not for the faint of heart or for those who prefer not to look life squarely in the eye. Having read this novel several times many years ago, it remains a touchstone for my own writing.

Holleran’s novel offers a rather early challenge to the mainstream perception of the gay male by offering an unflinching consideration of a middle-aged man, who finds himself living amidst the realities and not merely the idealities of a “gay” life. Along the way, the novel explores themes of interest to us all–loss, loneliness, aging, invisibility, isolation, and the question of dreams as directional or delusional. There are also themes ranging from the AIDS era haunting to the question of gay separatism that speak more specifically to a generational gay male experience.

Apparently, the novel is out of print, but there seem to be a handful of used copies available–grab yours today. 

Walking out to dinner, we encountered a very photo ready fox. Here s/he is giving some foxy realness. #Ptown