Playwight/Activist Larry Kramer Calls New York Times Book Reviewers 'Second Rate and Homophobic'

Playwright/activist Larry Kramer has never been one to keep his opinions to himself, especially when it comes to gay rights issues.

A co-founder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis, his 1985 play, THE NORMAL HEART, chronicled the numerous obstacles he and his colleagues had to work through to get politician aware of the fact that the AIDS epidemic was a serious issue.

His first novel, FAGGOTS, was published in 1978 and his THE AMERICAN PEOPLE VOLUME 1, SEARCH FOR MY HEART was recently released.

As it is in theatre, a positive review from the New York Times can make or break a book's success, but in a recent Paper article, Kramer harshly criticizes the Times book reviews for what he calls a lack of understanding and empathy for what gay writers are trying to do and say, and critics from other publications that he suggests look to the Times for guidance.

"The daily New York Times and its Sunday Book review are famous among gay writers for ignoring us, or trashing us," he writes. 'Straight critics just don't get us. Just like straight historians don't get us. It's their way or the highway. And as the Times goes, so go other publications and critics in America in their relentless game of Follow the Leader."

Calling the Sunday Times Book Review "second rate and homophobic," he's especially angered at the lack of recognition for gay novelist Andrew Holleran.

"Every one of his books is a gem. If he were straight, his reputation would be immense."

Kramer describes his latest as, "a novel about how homosexuals have been ill-treated and ignored by straight historians since the beginning of time," and questions the professionalism of the two Times critics who reviewed it.

"When I read a review I can tell if the critic has really read my book. The two NYT reviewers border on the unprofessional. I would bet that neither of them read the 775 pages of my book, as they continued to trash it and its 'loudmouthed activist' author. They spend most of their reviews discussing a me they think they know from my alter-ego activist persona and not my book, which they hardly mention, or its goals, or the quality of its writing, which I've worked so very hard to do well. The few sentences they finally spend discussing content are invariably filled with inaccuracies. That's the giveaway for their cherry-picking."

Click here for Dwight Garner's New York Times review of THE AMERICAN PEOPLE VOLUME 1, SEARCH FOR MY HEART.

Click here for John Sutherland's New York Times review of the book.

Click here for Larry Kramer's entire article.

Photo: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.