We'll Have to Talk About That Title

First of all, kudos to good old Gore (an unfortunate first name, in my opinion, unless you're a butcher) for tackling the topic of being a homosexual in the buttoned-up and denial-clad 1940s. That was risky. With everyone sneaking around, pretending to be what they're not, and doubly condemning those who are deemed to be so, what a confusing and lonely world it must have been. And so this book confirms. However, with attitudes toward homosexuals so vitriolic, why, oh why did he end the book the way he did? I can't imagine that personification did much good for the general public's image of gay men. What in the world was he thinking? So although it's lauded as the "first serious homosexual novel," I wonder if it did more to vilify homosexuality than anything else.