SPECIAL TEACHERS/SPECIAL BOYS

by Pete & Marc Rubin Fisher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 27, 1979

Special"" refers to the one-on-one approach at a multiracial N.Y. school for juvenile delinquents--and there is a fair measure of Blackboard Jungle-style authenticity and harsh humor in the near-hopeless work of straightening out criminal, disaffected kids. But ""special"" here also means homosexual, and the authors are clearly most interested in crafting gay propaganda via two message-laden plots. Unbeknownst to his students, Bob Davidson is a gay activist, and his appearance on a TV talk show sends the school into an uproar: colleagues overreact, students turn ugly but eventually get wise, while Bob and lover Tom remain terrifically brave and loving. Meanwhile, there's the equally romanticized story of blond hood Jim (""Rocky"") O'Brien, a boy prostitute who denies his own homosexuality (""Was Rocky Jim O'Brien the Third a fucking faggot?"") till he's sodomized by a transvestite and then falls head over heels for classmate Pete Santos: ""God-damit, I AM gay, and someday I'm gonna walk down this fuckin' street with a lover and I won't be fucking ashamed of it."" Rocky confides in Peter (""a new realm of understanding and communication was given to them both""), and voila!: R turns out that Pete too is really gay, as made explicitly, goopily clear in a night of ""bliss."" As so often in homosexual fiction, this mix of gush and hardcore is especially off-putting; even worse is the glossing over of Rocky's and Pete's immaturity and severe psychological problems. Too bad--the school itself often seems like a real place, too real to be used as a crude sexual pulpit.

Pub Date: Feb. 27, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION