Mapping the Territory: Selected Nonfiction

Novelist Christopher Bram has been writing essays for twenty-five years. Mapping the Territory, his first collection of nonfiction, ranges through such topics as the power of gay fiction, coming out in the 1970s in Virginia, low-budget filmmaking with friends in New York, and the sexual imagination of Henry James. He describes the heady experience of seeing his novel Gods and Monsters made into an Oscar-winning movie starring Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser, and Lynn Redgrave; and he discusses why he and his partner of thirty years don't want to get married. Bram looks both into and out of himself in these essays. He revisits the titles he read while finding himself as a gay man, and he also shows us Greenwich Village as seen from his front stoop. The book is not simply a collection of short pieces—it's an autobiography of ideas from one of today’s most lively and popular novelists.

Christopher Bram is the author of nine novels, including The Notorious Dr. August, Lives of the Circus Animals, and Exiles in America. His fifth novel, Gods and Monsters, was made into the Oscar-winning movie. He grew up in Virginia where he was a paperboy and Eagle Scout and attended the College of William and Mary. He was a Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lives in New York.

The first book of nonfiction from the author Tony Kushner calls "one of the best novelists writing in the world today."

Library Journal

In his first book of nonfiction, novelist Bram (Gods and Monsters; Exiles in America) explores the gay experience through a series of essays on such subjects as life on his front porch in Greenwich Village, his coming out in the 1970s, the making of his first film, and his views on gay marriage, along with reviews of fiction by straight and gay writers. In one of the best pieces—"Can Straight White Men Write Fiction?"—Bram presents a cogent, witty critique of contemporary straight-male writing, pointing out the egocentricity and lack of fully realized female characters. Bram laments the passing of small, independent bookstores as he sadly remembers a favorite one he used to visit, now another victim of the Internet and big chains. VERDICT These thoughtful, well-written essays will appeal to a gay audience and those wishing to learn more about the gay lifestyle. For libraries with budget concerns, however, this book might not attract enough readers to merit its purchase.—Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo

Christopher Bram is the author of eight other novels, including Gods and Monsters (originally titled Father of Frankenstein), which was made into an Academy Award-winning film. Bram was a 2001 Guggenheim Fellow and received the 2003 Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lives in New York City.