Classics scholar Charles Beye was openly gay in his teens in the 1940s, twice married to women, fathered four children, has been partnered with a man for the past 20 years, and waited until he was 82 to release this memoir My Husband and My Wives: A Gay Man's Odyssey [Kindle]. Published today by FSG, it earned a boffo review from NPR's Maureen Corrigan:
“It’s Beye’s charming raconteur voice, however, and his refusal to bend anecdotes into the expected ‘lessons’ that really make this memoir such a knockout. Beye won me over in his introduction when he admitted that, looking back at the long span of his life—he’s now over 80—the big question he still asks himself is, ‘What was that all about?’ . . . Beye’s story is a complex, poignant addition to the sexual canon. While he seems to have been blessedly free of the standard sexual guilt growing up, he was also acutely aware of the cost of being different . . . Beye’s memoir ends on a joyous note. He and his husband of the title have been married for some four years; together for 20. Bowing to his background in ancient Greek, Beye subtitled his memoir ‘A Gay Man’s Odyssey,’ but he might just as well have availed himself of the affirmative LGBTQ slogan It Gets Better.”
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