My Queer War [Paperback]

A POWERFUL STORY OF SEXUAL AWAKENING DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR FROM THE NOTED MEMORIST AND CRITIC


InMy Queer War, James Lord tells the story of a young man's exposure to the terrors, dislocations, and horrors of armed conflict.

In 1942, a timid, inexperienced twenty-one-year-old Lord reports to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to enlist in the U.S. Army. His career in the armed forces takes him to Nevada, California, Boston, England, and, eventually, France and Germany, where he witnesses firsthand the ravages of total war on Europe's land and on its people. Along the way he comes to terms with his own sexuality, experiences the thrill of first love and the chill of disillusionment with his fellow man, and in a moment of great rashness makes the acquaintance of the world's most renowned artist, who will show him the way to a new life.

My Queer Waris a rich and moving record of one man's maturation in the crucible of the greatest war the world has known. If his war is queer, it is because each man's experience is strange in its own way. His is a story of universal significance and appeal, told by a wry and eloquent observer of the world and of himself.

James Lord's books includeA Giacometti Portrait, first published in 1965, andGiacometti: A Biography(FSG, 1985), which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His most recent work isMythic Giacometti(FSG, 2003). He died in 2009.

???My Queer Waris magnificent . . . There has never been anything quite like it and it deserves to become a classic.??? ???Larry Kramer

???Here's proof that all wars could be a tiny bit less brutal with gay people serving in the military.??? ???John Waters

???It's an amazing testament to one individual's struggle with a barbarism mostly erased from triumphalist accounts of Nazi Germany's defeat . . . But what really stands out, what one suspects will#