Amazon.com This memoir is a meditation on what it means to be black， gay， and female in U.S. culture. Als， a gay man， writes about his mother; his sisters; Malcolm X's mother; and Dorothy Dean， an African-American woman who was at the center of New York's gay male circles. But his real subject is--as he puts it--what it means to be a "Negress" in white culture. Examining how race and gender shape all of our attitudes toward what it means to be a "woman，" "man" or "homosexual，" Als gets at the root of self-definition in a world that constructs very limited options. The Women is elegantly written and moves us through a variety of ideas and emotions with a fluidity that is both graceful and startling; it is unique in contemporary writings about race， sexuality， and gender. From Publishers Weekly "I knew I was a Negress... [when] I saw myself in my mother's eyes; the reflection showed a teenage girl， insecure， frightened and vengeful." Thus does Als， a black man， introduce the story of his mother's life and his intense identification with it， which， he feels， affected the direction of his sexuality. It is the first of three powerful essays on race and sexual identity in the black community. The other two essays explore the life of a legendary black "fag hag" and the culture of what Als dubs the gay "nigerati." Als， a staff writer for the New Yorker， does a highwire act， perched between an anguished portrait of his mother and himself and a dispassionate examination of a segment of black urban culture whose males feel they have two role models?"bad niggers" or victimized mothers. Both postures often coalesce in an ambivalent mix of pride and humiliation. Although he deals with familiar themes of black attitudes toward color， white values and perceptions， his vision is both original and wrenching. Altogether， this is a provocative， engrossing vision of both homosexuality and black culture. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information， Inc. See all Editorial Reviews