An energetic, sonorous, but uneven paean to the virtues of unorthodox sexuality.
LGBTQ+ people have led the way in human progress, according to this manifesto.
Kennard, an environmentalist and community organizer, contends that gay, bisexual, trans, two-spirited, and genderfluid people have made disproportionate contributions to the arts, sciences, and social advancement. He theorizes a biological basis for their achievements, arguing that “nature has programmed queers to challenge the prevailing social system” and given them a “queer consciousness” that “implants a strong desire to rectify social wrongs,” so much so that “queers…are operating on a higher moral plane than most other people (i.e. straight people).” Unfortunately, the author asserts, homophobic historians have maliciously denied the queerness of many notable figures, a misdirection that the book tries to rectify by spotlighting 150 of them, all dead. He includes people who are generally recognized as gay or bisexual, from Sappho to Leonardo da Vinci, Tchaikovsky, Little Richard, and several Beat poets; others, like Eleanor Roosevelt and Malcolm X, whose queerness is hotly debated; and some who almost nobody thinks are queer. (Richard Nixon had a gay affair with his crony Charles “Bebe” Rebozo, Kennard claims, citing the leader’s frequent trips to the banker’s Key Biscayne, Florida, manse.) Writing in lucid, lively prose—“In legend, these fierce women warriors matched men in physical agility, in strength, in archery, in riding skills, and in the arts of combat. But the Amazons are not merely legends! They really existed!”—the author offers a wealth of information on intriguing personalities both celebrated and obscure. Unfortunately, the information is sometimes inaccurate or taken out of context. (Florence Nightingale did write that “no woman has excited ‘passions’ among women more than I have,” but she meant passion for nursing careers, not lesbian desire, as Kennard insinuates.) Moreover, the author’s argument that all the best people are queer is nearly tautological, since virtually everyone can fit his loose criteria for queerness, including anyone who weathered prurient gossip, burned letters, never married, or just had a close same-sex friendship. He even labels Abraham Lincoln a “two-spirit” who “repressed his queer sexuality,” solely because the president supposedly displayed a “feminine side” by pardoning deserters and visiting wounded soldiers. Queer people and their allies may be inspired by Kennard’s cheerleading, but history buffs may feel some misgivings about it.
An energetic, sonorous, but uneven paean to the virtues of unorthodox sexuality.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 979-8702594439
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
