Cures

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Duberman gives a witty and searingly candid account of how he came to accept his homosexuality despite the efforts of psychotherapists intent on ``curing'' him of it. (Apr.)

Library Journal

``Western science has pursued the causes and cures of homosexuality with a zeal that has been almost comic--were it not for the tragic number of lives destroyed in the Process.'' Duberman, a noted playwright, historian, gay activist, and author of Paul Robeson ( LJ 1/89, a ``Best Book of 1989'') chronicles his slow emergence from the closet of the late 1960s by slaying the dragons of his deeply internalized homophobia. He candidly describes his involvement with 1960s psychoanalysis and his half-hearted desire to be heterosexual. Realizing that he must forge his own path to self-acceptance, he reaches out to gay rights groups formed after the pivotal Stonewall riots in 1969. As with his About Time: Exploring the Gay Past (Gay Pr. of New York, 1986), Duberman's memoir contributes to the documentation of homosexuality's history. Recommended for all libraries, particulary those with gay/lesbian studies collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/90.-- Kevin M. Roddy, Oakland P.L., Cal.