Who Will Cliff Date?
A Novel
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Funny, thought-provoking, historical novelette (short novel) about one Clifford Ryan, his older brother (Howard), and Cliff's college roommate (Ralph). At 14 in 1967, Cliff has difficulty deciding if he (Cliff) is gay, straight, or bisexual. Howard's problem with women is that Howard and thousands of other American men are drafted (forced) to fight in Vietnam in 1968 but American women are not. In college in 1970, Cliff and Ralph see The Boys in the Band, a movie about gay life that sways Cliff one way, Ralph the other way. In adulthood Cliff consults a psychiatrist and learns about another se...
Funny, thought-provoking, historical novelette (short novel) about one Clifford Ryan, his older brother (Howard), and Cliff's college roommate (Ralph). At 14 in 1967, Cliff has difficulty deciding if he (Cliff) is gay, straight, or bisexual. Howard's problem with women is that Howard and thousands of other American men are drafted (forced) to fight in Vietnam in 1968 but American women are not. In college in 1970, Cliff and Ralph see The Boys in the Band, a movie about gay life that sways Cliff one way, Ralph the other way. In adulthood Cliff consults a psychiatrist and learns about another sexual orientation: sthenolagnia (pronounced stheno-lon¿-ya), a Greek word meaning sexual excitement looking at or touching muscular body parts. Some people say sexual orientation isn't a "choice" but Cliff and Ralph each must make a choice: date a male, or date a female. Their choice is influenced not only by The Boys in the Band but by people and events they see and hear from age 8 in 1961 to age 72 in 2025: JFK, RFK, LBJ, MLK Jr., Richard Nixon, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, the Vietnam War, The Graduate, The Godfather, Herman's Hermits, women's liberation, and gay liberation, all of whom or which are mentioned in this novelette. At times hilarious and heartwarming, at other times poignant and probing.
