A Gay Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Excellent example of gay erotica from the 1960s. Entrepreneur Todd has the superb idea of taking over a village in Mexico to host a rerun of the original Olympics with paid sex workers playing the nude athletes and lots of bacchanalian entertainments. For the reader there's lots of graphic sex, some actual plot, and a sweet ending as certain characters couple up. I won't say which -- but unfortunately that will be spoiled for you if you read the foreword.

The book itself is great, but it would have been so much more enjoyable if it had been proofread and if the foreword could have been an afterword so we didn't have to read the whole story in somebody else's words first. Hats off to Bert Shrader, whoever he is or was!

I think this might be my favorite out of the three novellas I've read so far from this imprint. Basically this guy decides to set up a 'gaycation' spot in this town in Mexico and make it look like the Olympics in ancient Greece. Despite the entire set-up of this book being a sex vacation, I think it actually had the least sex in it. I mean don't get me wrong, there was A LOT of sex, but there were also a few chapters with no sex whatsoever. *gasp* I know that sounds ridiculous by today's standards, but by the standards of the late 60s / early 70s I'm coming to understand that it actually pretty out of the norm. Also something that sets this apart is that it gets a truly adorable fluffy happy ending. It was a lot of fun to read and honestly the only major complaint I have is that the author insisted on using the word 'jazz' instead of 'jizz' but maybe that was common at the time? It definitely sounds ridiculous now but what are you gonna do I guess

A Gay Thing is an erotic novel of the kind I have not read in many years. It was hard to get into at points, at other points not hard at all. Yet I had a firm desire to finish the novel, so I geared up and gave it all I had. For me, the climax of the novel was the ending, but I can't reveal that here. The logistics of putting together a week like the one in the novel would have been astounding. The author had to factor some of those in, and he rose to the occasion. The biggest complaint for the novel is the abundance of typos. Perhaps one could have spent less time on the lengthy prologue and more of fixing many mistakes. Thanks, NetGalley, and the publisher for this ARC.

Honestly, I'm not even sure how to approach reviewing this book. It's like nothing I've ever read before...a gay erotic romp in an absolutely absurd set-up. There's not much plot to be found, and the plot that is there is minimal, basically only there to propel you from one orgiastic sex scene to the next. (Plus, all the major plot points are pretty much outlined for you in the foreword, so there's absolutely no sense of suspense at all if you read it, which I did).

I read the whole book even though I'm not usually a seeker of books that are mostly erotica, but I read the whole thing because I try not to DNF books from NetGalley, and besides, it wasn't like the book was bad, just not what I had expected (I don't know what I was expecting...perhaps this one is on me). There were funny moments, and what I enjoyed the most was the knowledge that this was a book written in a different time, a different historical context, for a different audience. It was interesting to see what bits of it obviously seemed dated, and which parts were still relevant. I also learned several new euphemisms for bodily parts and excretions, which were amusing and a bit uncomfortable at the same time, although I suppose that today's euphemisms will sound the same in 50 years or so.

I think what it comes down to is that I was not the target audience for this book, as a (queer) woman who does not seek out erotica. Being that nowadays, the world of M/M fiction is written primarily by and for women, straight or otherwise, this was actually a refreshing experience. Although I believe I remember that the foreword mentioned that the author wrote under a pseudonym, I am operating under the assumption that at the time, gay male erotica was written by and for gay men. Of course, I could be wrong, but that was my guess. (This is not to say that I think gay men are primarily interested in erotica over plot, that just happened to be the format of this book). I can't really work out how I feel about the book because it's not for me, and that's ok. However, I think that reading this book (and the foreword, full of spoilers as it was) was an interesting experience and I'm glad that I did, because it gave me a bit of a taste of what LGBT fiction was written and available in previous decades, something I knew nothing about before.

this was a tremendously fun book! campy and outrageous, it knows exactly what it is and doesn't try to pretend it's anything but a book about, essentially, a gay sex olympics. and if the words "gay sex olympics" don't pique your interest, then i don't know what will.

lots of really good erotic scenes, and also hints of romance that don't veer into the ridiculous like in some erotica novellas. the only thing that really annoyed me, as a classicist, was the fact that greek and roman things were mixed up a bit (togas, forums - a better title for this book would be "many, many gay things happened on the way to the amphitheatre") but honestly? are we reading this for factoids about ancient greece? no. no, we are not.

Reading this classic gay erotic tale takes me back to some of the first gay literature I ever read. It is interesting and engages readers on a number of levels: 1) the writing is more colorful, or veiled, in the language it uses compared to erotic stories of today; 2) it exposes (reminds) the self- hate or closeted necessity that made many men live sometimes lonely, sometimes secret lives. Those elements are, of course, all secondary to the main story. Overall, this book is a fun tale of many men gathering for a festival of carnality. It's not the best of this genre, but if you are interested in classic, erotic gay fiction from the late 1960's, or just curious-- it's worth the read.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.