The Color of Summer, or the New Garden of Earthly Delights
A few open-door scenes, described but not lingered on.
Direct. Plain anatomical words, moderately crude dialogue.
Estimated from the blurb · 0 reader votes
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Blurb
Arenas's finest comic achievement is also the fulfillment of his life's work, the Pentagonia, a five-volume cycle of autobiographical novels he began writing in his early twenties. Although it is the penultimate installment in his "secret history of Cuba," it was, in fact, the last book Arenas wrote before his death in 1990. A tale of survival by wits and wit, this is ultimately a powerful and passionate story about the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of political and sexual repression.--From publisher description.
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The Palace of the White Skunks
Old Rosa
Same author's Cuba under Castro, queer persecution and prison camps, but stripped of the comic sprawl into something short, bleak and brutal.
Us
Keeps the theme of men whose love must stay secret under outside pressure, though the tone is warm and hopeful rather than satirical.
Moriré besando a Simon Snow
Another queer male love story where hostility masks desire, but this one is light YA fantasy with a hopeful ending instead of political brutality and satire.
Carry On
Also a queer m/m story with wit and magic, though it's gentle YA romance with a hopeful ending rather than political savagery.
Top Secret
Another story of men hiding desire behind masks, though this one trades satire and political danger for a spicy, hopeful campus romance.