SOLID GOLD READING	When a trio of top runners arrives at a small, upstate New York college, track coach Harlan Brown's life is wrenched, slowly, out of the closet. He's a man with a past. A past not uncommon to gay men in the mid-seventies, a time when Gay Liberation was still in it's infancy. And when Billy Sive announces that he, Vince Matti and Jacques LaFont are gay, Brown realizes that, should he take them on his team, he will be haunted by his past and tormented by new desires, especially those he instantly felt for Billy. It's winter, 1974 when the three star runners show up at Prescott College, having been booted off the team at Oregon State when the coach catches Vince and Jacques 'fooling around' in the locker room. Sive's father, a gay activist lawyer, busy fighting for civil rights and the the repeal of the federal sodomy laws, suggests they try Prescott. They are primed for the Montreal Olympics and Brown, feeling their talent and Olympic potential will be a boost to his floundering team as well as the small college, takes them in.
SOLID GOLD READING	Somewhere between the frantic pace of training for distance running, arguments over training schedules and full academic and career lives, the spark between Harlan and Billy bursts into a three alarm fire. But the bomb-shell bursts when a tabloid reporter outs them all and all hell breaks loose. The NCAA and AAU as well as Olympic officials are out to stop these gay athletes from competing in Montreal. Of course, there are any number of other athletes who would like to stop them as well; but still others who take their side. Ultimately, Billy does make the Olympic Team and Montreal, where he will double in the 5000 and 10,000 metre distance races. But this story does not have a happy ending. Tragedy strikes; a vicious blow that will end the successes of competition and the douse the fires of love and passion. This book is a marvellous study of gay love and relationships in the early days of our struggle for equal rights. Moreover, it inspires the reader to take a stand and to fight, even sacrifice for the things that are important to him/her. It's dated, but not at all outdated. The events are fiction, but there is a dramatic recreation of Stonewall in which the author casts her leading man as a rebel, fighting off the riot cops during the famous uprising that opened door for today's gay rights movement. And as Harlan's past catches up with his present, one becomes enmeshed with the characters, emotionally tied to Billy's racing victories and the loving relationship he and Harlan build.
SOLID GOLD READING	As a young man, just coming out, this reviewer found The Front Runner to be an encouraging force. It's heart-shattering climax, however, serves to remind us that the struggle for equal rights, social understanding and total self-acceptance are not enough to break the misguided perceptions of some of the heterosexual world about the gay lifestyle. And in spite of favorable legislations and policies, we must strive to educate and enlighten those who are defiantly against us. Patricia Nell Warren has done an incredible job of getting into the mindset of gay men. She has created a group of characters that you want to reach out and touch; shake their hands; hug with appreciation. What's more, she speaks in the first person as Harlan Brown, and you never notice that a woman is telling the story. I think she has managed to touch every issue that touches every gay man's life from time to time and she does it with great sensitivity and sincerity. Younger readers today will still enjoy The Front Runner. It will give them the opportunity to look back at a time when the gay lifestyle was far less acceptable and to see that someone before them, cut the paths we now march down with Pride. Patricia Nell Warren, through works like The Front Runner was, and continues to be, a trailblazer.

THE FRONT RUNNER by Patricia Nell Warren - Wildcat Press ISBN: 0-9641099-1-3

Cover art courtesy of Wildcat Press - Used with permission

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