The Mammoth Book of Gay Short Stories Edited by Peter Burton
- Al Preston
- Aug 5
- 13 min read
By Al Preston
Warning: there’s some talk of sexual content
There are so many creative works made by queer folks. Stories about the struggles of being queer, stories about just having queer love and happiness. It can be difficult to find these stories the older they are. Many queer folks of the last 100 years hid the queerness between the words on the page. Those that didn’t kept their stories to LGBT+ magazines and bookstores and thus make those stories hard to find.
An edited collection of short stories like The Mammoth Book of Gay Short Stories is important to preserve queer authors and the kind of stories they tell. This book is edited by Peter Burton who explains in the introduction that there are 47 stories in this volume. They are stories between 1945 and 1996 only because Burton wanted to present stories of authors that were alive at the time of the book’s publication in 1997. They are also only stories from English speaking gay men, including a number of authors from England, Australia, South Africa, and a few other English-speaking nations. The last stipulation for being included in this book is that the stories and authors had to be LGBT+ positive.
Burton also specified that the stories are ordered alphabetically by the author’s last name. He explains that he chose this order to prevent too many stories about AIDS being right after each other. Honestly? I’m not so sure that helped? Yes…there weren’t stories about AIDS right after each other, but I noticed that many of the stories included death in other ways.
To be specific, a lot of the stories involved the death of a gay man either within the story itself or before the story and that death is important to the story. If the death was in the past, then that death has to matter to the character in the story either by being a lover or close friend. Within the story itself, the deaths were very often those of gay men, but sometimes of their family, friends, or lovers. Of the 47 stories, 20 contained death.
Some other statistics I noticed that there were two stories in the perspective of women and two were from the perspective of male prostitutes. There were about five mystery stories and about five supernatural stories, with a pretty significant overlap between those two genres. Otherwise, these stories were all varied and really interesting! I think I only disliked one of them purely because the characters were a bit too mean spirited for me, otherwise, I liked the vast majority.
I do wish the author bios that appear at the end of the book were at the beginning of each story. While I had fun trying to guess when and where each story took place, it would have been nice to have any idea at all before going into the story. I think I made mostly right guesses, but some of the author bios didn’t have the time period the story came from so I’m not entirely certain.
Regardless, there’s no way I can talk about all 47 stories here. That would take a long time and I don’t think I could do all of the stories justice. Instead, I will only talk about the 8 stories I liked the most.
“Minerva’s Ring” by Diesel Balaam (page 18)
This story takes place in England and is either in the 70s or 90s. There’s little to identify the time period of this story, although it’s clear archeology either was not as refined as it is today in this story or the author didn’t know much about it. The story is about a new-ish gay couple. One is a photographer and the other is an archeologist or aspires to be one anyway. The archeologist lost a boyfriend previously to a dig site and his new boyfriend is still jealous that he wears the ring the dead boyfriend gave him. The ring is from the dig site he died at. While out and about, the ring goes missing.
They’re going about life, it’s very domestic, when the aforementioned dig site is reopened for further excavation. The couple drive up to visit, which is where I think there’s a lack of knowledge of archeology here…if a site is being opened to excavation, they’re usually heavily blocked off, guarded, or protected so that civilians can’t just waltz in and steal things…or destroy anything on purpose or on accident. It’s impossible to completely prevent people from doing that, but there would be some effort made, but these two just walk on in without any resistance.
Once inside, they realize that it’s a dig site dedicated to Minerva, who is the Roman virgin goddess who is the deity of medicine and wisdom. The photographer turns to look at his boyfriend to see him talking to a ghost of his dead lover. He’s too late to stop them from touching and when he finally gets to his boyfriend, he’s dead. The ghost of the dead lover gives him the ring that they supposedly lost and the story ends.
I don’t know exactly why I like this one? I liked the supernatural element and while it was a bit predictable it was written really well. It wasn’t a story about being queer within itself. In fact, I could certainly see this same story being done with a straight couple. I really like stories where being queer isn’t the point, it’s just a feature.
“Cookery” by Patrick Gale (page 115)
I think this story is my favorite of the whole book. I believe that the story takes place in the US in the 60s or 70s based on the movies talked about. This story is about Perry, a young gay man who learned to cook from his mother. His mother eventually got very sick and Perry took over cooking for her until his father realized Perry was being too feminine cooking for the family while his very ill wife stays in bed recovering.
He forces his wife to return to cooking and keep Perry from helping her which leads to her death. While Perry doesn’t become a chief professionally, he still holds onto cooking as he becomes a forensic scientist. Cooking is how he keeps boyfriends and friends. He only cooks for his family once more when his brother gets married.
Eventually, his father has a stroke and needs to be cared for. Perry’s brothers don’t want to take him on, so Perry does. Not out of the goodness of his heart, but so he can lord over his father in revenge for himself and his mother. Granted, most of his revenge is pretty harmless. It’s mostly making his father watch gay porn, which doesn’t hurt him, and deal with a very flamboyant home nurse which also doesn’t hurt him.
After the stroke, Perry’s father is muted and not very mentally active so it’s not like he really understands what’s going on fully. It’s not great, but as I have personal experience working in a nursing home, it’s better than that. I also understand why Perry’s doing it.
Regardless, while at work, Perry meets a new detective who is going through a divorce. They start to bond and eventually start up a relationship. Perry tells the detective that he has a partner at home just to keep him from meeting his father. I’m not sure how or why that lie began, I don’t believe Perry said that the ‘roommate’ he lives with is his lover, I think the detective just assumed that.
Perry keeps up the lie until he realizes he’s in love with the detective and the divorce has finalized. At the end of the story, Perry makes his father a very nice diner. He thinks about his mother teaching him what wild mushrooms to pick for cooking and which ones are poisonous. So he makes a mushroom dish, two actually.
As his father is poisoned and dying, Perry eats some of the bad mushrooms himself and makes sure to mix together their dishes so there’s a mixture of both the good and bad mushrooms. He has to get his stomach pumped while his father dies. He tells the police that he thought he picked the right mushrooms and acts torn up.
Then, at the end, he welcomes his detective boyfriend into his home, reassuring him that his ‘partner’ is gone.
I love this story for the clever writing and the creative killing. It’s a good point of view of a murder mystery from the eyes of a killer. I love the characters, I like how we get to the point where Perry kills his father, and it’s really well thought out. This is one of my favorite genres of story and this one nailed it perfectly.
“Snowfall” by Joseph Hansen (page 156)
This story is more impactful and memorable as well as being one I just generally liked. This is another story where I could see it being told with straight folks, but it’s also heartbreaking.
Roy is a professor and made a mistake in attempting to pay a violent motorcycle gang leader to have sex with him. In that encounter, the leader destroys Roy’s eye leading to him getting a glass one. After that, Roy keeps his head down but becomes really close to another professor who was initially just seeking advice from Roy on being queer within their institution.
Before Roy can tell the other professor his feelings, encouraged by another queer colleague that it might go well, the motorcycle gang shows up and takes over the house Roy lives in. He and the mother and daughter that share the house with him are taken hostage. The daughter is about to hauled away to be raped, most likely, when the other professor shows up and sneaks into the house. Roy had initially invited him over and tries to get him to call the cops or at least untie him so they can both face off against the gang together, but the professor, thinking he can handle them himself, decides that saving the daughter first is the best thing to do. Thankfully, he did manage to call the police first before sneaking in, but he still runs off to face off against the entire gang alone.
The story then cuts to that professor’s funeral. Roy, heartbroken and guilt ridden, choses to leave the college and town to get away from all of the mistakes he’s made. It’s a really upsetting and sad story, but it’s written really well, and I got horribly attached to all of the characters. I was shocked at how sad the ending was, hoping that these guys could get together and be happy.
This particular story isn’t for everyone. I liked how much it pulled me in, how well written the characters were. I liked it, but not everyone will.
“Ginger Roger’s Private Collection” by Robert Leek (page 230)
This is a much sillier story than the others. It’s also the only story that I semi-recognized. I don’t believe I’ve read it before but I feel like I’ve read references to it. It’s a pretty simple story. It takes place somewhere in the United Kingdom, I’m not sure when.
Ginger, a friend of the point of view character Michael, needs help temporarily hiding his collection of photographs and paintings of penises that cover just about every wall of his apartment. Ginger’s cousin, a priest who has been doing charity work in Africa, is coming to visit and Ginger doesn’t want him to see all of the penises on his wall, worried about possible homophobia from his cousin.
Michael agrees on the condition that he can put the artworks up in his gallery. Over the course of a night, all of the pieces were taken out of Ginger’s home and put into Michael’s gallery. Michael keeps attempting to ask Ginger about one of the pieces and who the owner of the penis is, but never gets a chance to.
Between convincing Ginger to sell some of the paintings or just the prints of the pieces to those that came to the gallery show, Michael’s kind-of lover and Ginger’s butler are helping out and talking to each other. Eventually, Ginger’s cousin comes and despite all of the effort put into taking the artworks out of Ginger’s apartment, they forgot about all of the pieces in the guest bedroom.
Luckily for them, Ginger’s cousin isn’t offended and instead loves the pieces. He’s such a godly man that he believes that the pieces are just about the glory of the human body and not a bunch of pictures of the dicks Ginger had…experiences with.
As Michael goes to sell some of the paintings, he and some of the buyers are shocked to see that their favorite piece was already sold. In the end, the piece is of Ginger’s butler who is now dating Michael’s former sometimes lover. That’s it. That’s the whole story.
It’s just a silly little story about penis art. After some of the much sadder stories, this story was a relief and genuinely made me laugh.
“The War Over Jane Fonda” by Robert Patrick (page 281)
Of the stories, this one captures a moment in time. It takes place in the United States sometime in the 90s. A gay man decides to go live with his sister and her veteran husband. They don’t do too much other than watch the news.
The husband is a conservative republican, and the sister just follows along with whatever he does politically. The gay man tries to get them to consider other viewpoints which never seems to get him very far.
At the time of this story, Bush is president and most of their political discussions are based around his decisions. Specifically, around the fighting in Afghanistan. The gay man and his brother-in-law start to have a generally good relationship listening to these news reports and commenting on them.
Then Jane Fonda, who had many anti-war opinions during Vietnam, is brought up. The brother-in-law fully believes that Fonda is a traitor to the nation for protesting a really unpopular war because he felt like all of those negative beliefs and thoughts were placed on the soldiers unfairly. Meanwhile, the gay man tries to correct his brother-in-law about what Fonda was doing, but the conversation quickly becomes impossible.
The gay man eventually asks his brother-in-law if they should hate each other because the gay man has experience being hurt and harmed by the government itself for protesting the war. After a moment, the brother-in-law says that the gay man is family and is therefore exempt from his bigoted or harsh commentary.
I think this story speaks to the world of the time but also the way some conservatives see the world. How they don’t think about how other people outside of their vision, their social circles, may react or feel about things. However, when it comes to the people they know and care about personally, their views change significantly.
It’s a hypocritical view. A member of a particular group commits a crime, and that person becomes representative to the whole group. However, if they personally know someone from that same group, that person becomes the exception, not the standard.
This story is perhaps the most thought provoking of the stories when it comes to the real world and the people you may know.
“Hunter” by Felice Picano (page 309)
Ben is a young writer who arrives at a writing commune thing, invited there by his professor. Basically, it’s a bunch of nice houses available to writers in the summer so that they can focus only on writing. When Ben arrives, all of the normal homes have been taken, but his professor suggests the cabin of another writer not coming to the commune.
Ben has a crush on his professor, Victor, but knows those feelings won’t be returned. He tries to write and get closer to Victor. He finds out that the cabin he’s staying in used to belong to a writer who passed recently. That writer was a gay man who would cruse at the few locations nearby. One of those tricks ended up killing him in that cabin.
As Ben writers and pines after his professor, he masturbates in the cabin. As the days go by, he realizes that the locks on the cabin are broken and someone is watching him as he sleeps and whatever this person is, it makes him horny. For a time, he thinks that it’s Victor, until he realizes that Victor left shortly after this person started showing up.
So, he gets the locks put back in, but the person remains and he suddenly realizes that it’s the ghost of the writer who died in the cabin. Then, suddenly, the story changes point of view.
We’re told that Ben never left the commune when the others did. The wife of the man who owns the place makes sure he has food, although she hadn’t seen him. Victor finds this out and goes to the cabin to try and convince Ben to go home.
When he bursts into the cabin, he finds Ben’s body in the bed. It’s implied he froze to death over the winter, but he died after an orgasm which Victor instantly attributes to the ghost of the writer.
It’s a bit of a weird story, but it’s also kind of interesting? It’s one of the few stories that has a supernatural element. I’ve seen this sort of set up before, but it’s fun to see it in a shortened version that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
“Sundown” by Peter Robins (page 361)
As previously mentioned, there are only two stories that are in the point of view of women. This is one of them.
Anna is an older woman just sitting on her porch reflecting on her past. This story takes place in, I think, England or Australia and around the 80s and 90s. She reminisces about when she was a child and her father was taken away during World War II (I believe) for brewing alcohol when it was banned.
Briefly, she thinks about her husband who has passed but mostly, she’s thinking about her sons, one of which still cares for the family farm and may get married soon.
The other son, she remembers that he was abused by the town priest. She remembers how furious she was at the priest and that, despite still going to church, she doesn’t believe a thing he says.
Due to what happened to her son, he goes away for school and rarely comes home. Unfortunately, she learns only when it’s too late, that her son was in the hospital and died. During his funeral, she sees that the friends that came are all clearly some level of queer. While she doesn’t recognize that, we the reader do.
She regrets not asking his friends to talk to her, to tell her what they were all suggesting with their words. It’s heavily implied that her son died due to AIDS, but she wasn’t aware that he was queer or even had AIDS.
That’s the entire story. It’s hard to know what would have happened if this woman knew that her son was queer, but she clearly loved him a lot. It’s a melancholy story, which wasn’t rare in this book, but this one really caught my attention.
“Hemo Homo” by Lawrence Schimel (390)
This is another sillier story, but a really fun idea. Schimel is known for writing stories about vampires, and this is another one. It’s a peek in the life of a gay vampire just going about life. He tells us that he’s worried about his health because he has AIDS.
Apparently, his vampiric blood keeps him alive, but when AIDS came about, he wasn’t aware like most of the population of the US and was infected probably by consuming infected blood. While it’s taken longer for him to be affected by AIDS, he’s starting to feel the effects. It seems that consuming uncontaminated blood has kept the disease at bay.
Sadly, it seems that he’s not immune to the disease. He has a theory that the AIDS is reverting him back into a mortal before finally killing him. It’s a really interesting take on AIDS and vampires in relation to AIDS. I don’t think I’ve read many or any other stories focusing on those two things.
As someone who likes to do some creative writing and loves world building, I always wonder how authors might handle vampires and AIDS. I can also understand that might be a touchy subject, but Schimel handles it really well and I’ve considered looking up his other works about vampires.
Those are the stories I liked the most in this book. There are 39 others to read if you manage to find the book! It’s really fun to read the creative works of queer folks across time. I’m hoping I can find another edited work like this one for other members of the LGBT+ community!
Comments