The Soft Spot

"I LOVE BOYS," the writer declares and with complete sincerity and candor he explores his own gay life and the gay world in which he lives. He offers no judgments on this life but only tries to say, "This is how I feel, this is how it happens, this is the way things are."

GAYLORD MERRIEWETHER III The narrator would like to go to bed with this very good-looking sailor. But is the sailor gay? The narrator discovers the answer only after he meets another navy man, a ruthless, decadent trade-queen who stops at nothing to satisfy his rabid sexual desires.

SMILE! What is it like to be a physique photographer? Who are his models? What are his sexual desires? Here is a portrait, etched in acid of a man whose life is severely bounded by bars, police, pictures and boys.

THE RUG SALESMAN What happens when a masturbation fantasy becomes real?

THE SPANISH BOYS A gay tourist meets: Benjamin, who looks and acts like an aristocrat, but is he? The Boy with the Blue Eyes, who traps his quarry with his exquisite performance in bed. The Chicken at the Beach. No more than fifteen, but he earns his living by slipping into the bath-house dressing room of any man who wants him.