Books: We Both Laughed in Pleasure and The Sons of El Rey
By Zach Shattuck
We Both Laughed in Pleasure:
The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan
Lou Sullivan accomplished much in his life, being an activist who was widely publicized and a founding member of San Francisco’s GLBT historical society.
Sullivan was also erotic, and a romantic. He was passionate and desperate to find himself in a world which, for the longest time, assumed he didn’t exist.
Born in 1951, Lou Sullivan kept a diary from ages 10 until a few days before his death in 1991. It seems impossible to take three decades of diaries (24 journals) stuffed with newspaper articles, photographs, and scraps of an activist’s first chin hairs and turn it into something comprehensive. So editors Ellis Martin and Zach Ozma took a specific approach: because so much of Sullivan’s activist work is already well documented by external sources, they focused on celebrating the intimacy of Sullivan’s life.
It is easy for us to look at people who lived before (especially those with a laundry list of accomplishments) and polish away their erotic desires, their frustrations with their lovers, their journeys of discovery. It is those specific private aspects which are showcased, from Lou’s childhood beatlemania to privately exploring, discovering, and eventually embracing his identity as a gay man.
“It happened so different than I felt it would. Me, ready to go crashing in. But the world welcomed me without the fear I had of it.”
Because Sullivan literally wrote the playbook for gay transsexual men navigating their new life, he had to learn how to do it on his own. These selected diaries give us a front-row viewing into his trials in cruising. And he kept no reservations about the raucous adventures he and his lovers got up to! Sullivan speaks on men he meets for one night with the same detail as the partners he is enamored by. It is tender and lovely and sometimes frustrating. From movie theaters to private rooms to his own unlit bedroom, Sullivan’s candor and enjoyment of each intimate moment makes this, without question, the most lurid book I have recommended yet.
For every trans person looking to see themselves in writing, this is a great book for us and a beautiful gift from an elder. For the cisgender folks: you should read this. Grapple with a younger Lou who is uncertain about who he is, whether his identity is a fantasy or perhaps a fetish, and then grapple with a Lou who finally accesses his medical transition, who finds renewed joy and vigor in his life as he embraces the man he is.
The only regret I have with this book is that I had a deadline. I read through Lou Sullivan’s entire life in about a month. I would have preferred to draw it out for six. Six months for thirty years seems fair enough. Still, I tried to delay finishing – there are only 100 pages and eight years of life left. I have fifty pages of your life left to read. You are dead in eight more pages.
I anticipate I will read this book again at my leisure.
We Both Laughed in Pleasure has two copies available through San Diego Public Libraries.
The Sons of El Rey
By Alex Espinoza
Today I offer you secrets taken to the grave, love of the purest kind, heartbreak, abandonment, and the incredible art of lucha libre.
The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza centers on a grandfather dying. Hovering above the fading Ernesto are the spirits of Elena, the wife he could not love, and the supernatural force of El Rey Coyote, the world-famous luchador persona Ernesto created long ago in Mexico City. Through the eyes of these two spirits and three generations of men, unspoken tragedies spanning decades and nations are revealed to the readers while most characters are kept in the dark.
“Julián. I remember now. The rocks. We swam naked and kissed. I loved you more.”
Espinoza provides touching, engaging narration as he presents a family and the hidden stories lost to time and shame. It is reflective, I think, of how many stories from our community have genuinely been lost. Look at the two friends in this photograph, how happy they seem. That one is your grandfather yes, but who is this other man with the bright smile? What is his name? What happened to him?
Some answers only the spirits can give.
If you want a moving novel of gay love with a bittersweet ending braided into the promise of a hopeful and loving beginning, this is the book for you. Six copies are in our public libraries, but hurry because some are already checked out.