There are two "losses" here: the author's loss of his first love, a kind man named James, to impulsive infidelity (the author's); and the world's loss, that of author Michael Grumley, to AIDS, ten years ago. This autobiographical novel is many things: well-written, simply told, generous to his quite wonderful family and the place he grew up in. It's also heartbreaking because the reader knows from the outset that Grumley has died of AIDS; the introduction is a beautiful one, a eulogy really, by Edmund White. A good book for gay teenagers -- the observant and comforting portrayal of childhood, adolescence, and (blissfuly untormented) emerging sexuality amidst the comfort of a good family is refreshing and heart-warming. The descriptions of nature, people, and New Orleans are precise and seem effortlessly well-wrought. The requisite trip to early- 1960's California is (sanely) made brief, and Grumley returns home to Iowa none the worse for wear -- and ready to take on his future. I really liked this man and the story he tells, and it breaks my heart to know that's he's gone.

Being true to yourself is almost impossible without being true to others. This is one lesson the hero of "Life Drawing" almost learns. At its heart, this book is about relationships. Mickey is looking for a place to fit in. He loses his chance with James because he is blind to the fact that his place is already secure. As the innocence of Youth drowns in possibilities, this journey of discovery stretches down to New Orleans and extends to the West Coast. The journey is a

reflection of the one we all must take and the opportunities we recognize or ignore.

For its time, this book may have been revolutionary. However, when so many great books have been written by/on black gay men (Brother to Brother, One More River to Cross, Vanishing Rooms, etc.), there is little need to read this book now. This book allows white men to speak more than blacks do. Relatives of Smith's black lovers say he exploited his mates. Why did Langston Hughes' estate allow his work to be published here but not spoken in Isaac Julien's "Looking for Langston"? Don't let the new cool cover fool you. There's better stuff out there, even interracial stuff.

'For the first time, the Afro-American and interracial gay experience: a collection of short stories, personal reminiscences, interviews, political articles, photos, poems, drawings -- from the most scholarly to the most explicit by 43 writers/artists. Re-issue of a gay classic. Includes work such as "The Double Life of a Gay Dodger," [on a black baseball player]; "Smoke, Lilies and Jade" -- a short story by Harlem Renaissance writer Bruce Nugent; "T'ain't Nobody's Bizness: Homosexuality in 1920s Harlem," by Eric Garber; "Racism in the Gay Press," "Struggles of a Black Gay Pentecostal," work by world-famous writer Langston Hughes, and much more......' - from Gay Sunshine Press