Edge: Travels of an Appalachian Leather Bear
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.73 (759 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 159021059X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 208 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-07-25 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
He has published three award-winning poetry chapbooks, two full-length books of poetry, a novella, Devoured, included in Masters of Midnight, a book of poetry and memoir, Loving Mountains, Loving Men; and a volume of short fiction, A History of Barbed Wire, which won a Lambda Literary Award. Jeff Mann grew up in Virginia and West Virginia, receiving degrees in English and fores
Traversing the edge with a fascinating guide A Customer Jeff Mann makes his living as a teacher and has published as a poet but is revealed in this book as a prose artist. The second essay in the collection, "Watching dark Shadows," should be required reading for everyone, gay or straight. For this straight woman, it was a beautifully painful experience: so exquisitely written, but so terrible to know in such detail what I have the luxury of not experiencing at all in my life. To arrive at the last sentence of this essay is worth the cost of the book.Another essay, entitled "Drambuie," deals with Mann's longing for and envy of youth/youthfulness. In th. Boundaries Poet and teacher Jeff Mann shares his influences and memories in this collection of essays. Through travel to places such as Scotland and Key West, he connects the foreign to the personal and ruminates on family legacy, gay life and literature, and the trials of being a leather bear. Mann is an accomplished writer, and these essays are well written, but certain points are repeated over and over, creating tedium for the reader. And unfortunately, he doesn't elaborate much, so by the end of the book, the reader is not left with a clear picture of the whole man he has become, but rather is only brief. MY KINDRED SPIRIT, EXCELLENT BOOK i will mention that reading this book now does make some of the references a little dated, but do not let that stop you from reading this book. i titled this review as a kindred spirit because of the deep similarities he and i share, especially with the travels that he has done. mann has traveled to many places in europe, and amazingly many of the places he visits and described i have been there as well. it was amazing to me reading about the things he did at those places, and i myself literally did the exact same thing he did. from peering over a cliff in ireland and gazing straight into turbulen
But he is never an idle traveler--he is challenged by his experiences, and his observations reveal the thoughts of many gay men. Along the way Mann ruminates on a variety of subjects, from lost lovers to wearing kilts, theophany, Sylvia Plath, adult videos, and bathhouses. The autobiographical essays in Edge offer insight into the passions of acclaimed author Jeff Mann. These memories, insightful as they are endearing, range from his boyhood obsession with the gothic allure of Dark Shadows, to the doubt and pain of being a Southerner, and so at the edge of the gay community, and the appeal of leather bars and bear culture. Mann also visits ma
The result is a unique and valuable life-and-times autobiography cum travelogue that I simply gobbled up. --Felice PicanoThese are damned good essays, shot through with a self-effacing generosity of spirit and an expansive affection for places, persons, and ideas. All this would be enough, but what makes Mann's book a keeper is his clear-eyed (never cloying or vicious) yet tender (never sentimental) treatment of himself, the edges he's traveled, and the ones he embodies. --Rainbow Reviews. Jeff Mann's collection of essays reads as though he were already one of the mo