Men on Men 2: Best New Gay Fiction

Stambolian's second anthology of gay fiction, representing 18 writers, reveals a broad range of subjects and settings: a gay man reflects on his pained relations with his father in Gary Glickman's moving and graceful ``Magic''; Joseph Pintauro's ``Jungle Dove'' focuses on straight male prisoners coerced into sex with each other; a married, bisexual schools superintendent narrates Allan Gurganus's ``Adult Art.'' Sadly but inevitably, AIDS, along with New York City's gay community, is central to many stories, among the best of which are ``Solidarity,'' a previously unpublished work by Albert Innaurato, and Christopher Davis's ``The Boys in the Bars.'' Yet Stambolian's promise of mainstream appeal is unlikely. The collective misogyny is offensive and the literary merit of perhaps a third of these pieces is insufficient to command the attention of readers without ties to gay culture. (Nov.)