Clifford Browder

The Pleasuring of men Clifford Browder

In New York City in the late 1860s, Tom Vaughan, a respectably raised young man, chooses to become a male prostitute servicing the city?s affluent elite, then falls in love with Walter Whiting, a renowned scholar and lecturer who proves to be his most difficult client. Having long wrestled with feelings of shame and guilt, Whiting, a married man, at first resents Tom?s easy acceptance of his own sexuality. Their story unfolds in the clandestine and precarious gay underworld of the time, which is creatively but vividly created. Through a series of encounters? some exhilarating, some painful, some mysterious?Tom matures, until an unexpected act of violence provokes a final resolution. ?The Pleasuring of Men ... is deftly drawn with rich descriptions, a rhythmic balance of action, dialogue, and exposition, and a nicely understated plot .. both engaging and provocative.? ?Sean Moran