Wayne Hoffman

Carroll & Graf

$14.95, paperback

Hard explores both a year in the life of gay men and the world of sexual politics during the late 1990s. Moe Pearlman, a writer in his 20s, is known in New York City as a giver – his oral-sex skills are legendary. All is well in Moe’s world until the mayor begins a war on bathhouses, sex clubs and their ilk. Joining the mayor on his conservative crusade is Frank DeSoto, the publisher of the only gay pub in town. Having recently lost his lover to AIDS, DeSoto makes a secret pact with the mayor to rid the city of its various pleasure domes.

Soon, it’s not just war – it becomes personal for Moe as well. Faster than you can say “bring it on” it’s already being brought by both parties and their separate views on sexuality, each feeling he’s in the right on the idea of what constitutes being a modern-day gay. Hoffman delves into Moe’s psyche to show what makes him itch and how he goes about scratching it in the second decade of AIDS.

Hoffman undercuts the battle by viewing its costs through the eyes of various members of the community, whose personal experiences belie their political affiliations. Men are defined by these leanings, as well as the gay divide of generation, race, class and HIV status. This is one debut novel that packs a no-holds-barred wallop as it journeys from the dark-lit backrooms to the midnight-blue world of politics. Hard is described as a smart, fast-paced, raunchy, funny and sexy comic strip of a novel about the way gay men live now.

John Weir

Viking

$23.95, hardcover

The theme of loss is at the very heart of Weir’s long-awaited second novel. What I Did Wrong puts the spotlight on Tom, a 42- year-old professor at Queens College, as he tries to scotch tape his world back together; a world ravaged by AIDS.

Tom has watched the familiarity of his existence torn asunder in the height of the plague, and is now standing in the unformed shadows of transformation a decade later. He struggles to maintain an air of normalcy in a world that is undergoing changes, both incredible and staggering. As AIDS comes under control, gay culture enjoys a renaissance in mainstream society and gay men have to figure out their societal role in this brave new world.

Tom struggles to come to grips with his own role in the world at large and sees this reflected in his students – young men who structure their exoskeletons of masculine identity over sexual ambiguities. Tom tries to strike a balance between developing kinship with the students and wrestling with his own demons.

Weir’s 1989 debut novel, The Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket, was one of the first books to deal with the AIDS epidemic and was a recipient of that year’s LAMBDA Literary Award for Gay Men’s Debut. Publisher’s Weekly said Weir’s prose has “humor and grace to spare.”