5691. Finistere, by Fritz Peters (read 11 May 2020) This book was published in 1951, before the days of same-sex marriage. It tells of a 15-year old boy going to school in Europe who enters into a relationship with a teacher. The situation is well-drawn and ends in tragedy, rather than the boy returning to morality. ( )

When I read this around 1971, it moved me to tears. It was the first gay novel (or just about material of any kind) I had encountered that was anything but dispiriting. It came out at a time when everything a curious young person was likely to find was depressing and squalid. For instance, a censorious type some years later was horrified to find a book by Jean Genet in a high school library and demanded its removal. What are you worried about, I wanted to reply. If you want to send a typical kid running away screaming from the thought of being gay, you couldn't do better than have him read it. Although Finistere had the required unhappy ending, it is relatively celebratory and even lyrical.

Of course, nowadays the fact that the relationship portrayed was somewhat inter-generational would prompt gay activists to lead the way, if anything, in shunning it for another reason. Their expediency has deprived them of the guts of their predecessors such as Allen Ginsberg, Paul Goodman, and Fritz Peters himself. ( )

15-year-old Matthew falls in love with Michel, one of his teachers. ( )