Gay
Body : A Journey Through Shadow to Self by
Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson's Gay Body: A Journey Through
Shadow to Self is a remarkable personal account of what it
means to possess, or live in, a gay body in the world today. But
this book is not about body building, AIDS, or even simple
physical health. In Gay Body Thompson takes one of the most
profound questions of Western philosophy--how do we unite our
corporeality with our emotional and spiritual selves--and
meditates on it from a uniquely gay male perspective. Using gay
liberation philosophy, Jungian psychology, radical fairy thought,
and his own experiences with drugs, S&M, and transgressive
sexuality, Thompson has created a work that mixes autobiography
with theory in an attempt to discover how gay men can find their
fullest potential, their truest selves.
In an electrifying mix of theory and
autobiography, the author of Gay Spirit and Gay Soul explores the
stages of healing and recovery that gay men can experience if they
dare to take the path leading to a fully integrated body and
spirit. Mark Thompson details his own experience of growing up gay
in a dysfunctional family in early 1970's San Francisco.
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
"Stories like this don't usually get
told--perhaps that's what makes Thompson's cri du coeur noir feel
so fresh and original....I see both selfless generosity and
fearlessness in the telling of these extremely intimate stories,
which the author has put out in the hope of helping other gay men
to see and learn about themselves." -- Harvard Gay &
Lesbian Review
"Gay Body is as much a meditation on
the spirit as it is the flesh. Thompson's moving, sometimes
harrowing, sometimes gut-wrenching memoir...is but one version of
the journey that all gay men must take if they are to find
themselves whole." --Lambda Book Report
"Gay Body has the warmth and
humanity of an autobiography and the depth and analysis of a
theological work, yet reads like a mystery novel....Thompson seems
to have found the unconscious pulse of a gay man's soul, for as I
read, I found my own experiences coming back to me within a wider
perspective and with new understanding." --White Crane
Journal
"Thompson seamlessly weaves an unsparingly
candid autobiographical narrative with broader observations,
drawing on elements of Jungian archetypes, gay history and
mythology, and New Age spirituality....A provocative work."
--Library Journal
"This brilliant book should be required
reading for every gay man interested in personal growth and
healing....Gay Body offers invaluable insight, compassion,
and wisdom to guide us in our search for meaning." --Genre
"The road Thompson travels is fascinating,
as he unlocks closets within closets....A powerful inner
quest...truthfully described." --The Washington Post
