The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren

[ariadne1880]

I guess you are not understanding my point but that's OK. It was not only not believable -- on its face -- but in the context of the novel it was ludicrous.

 

I could imagine all the things you did and it didn't make the incident, in the context of the novel, any more believable.

 

It was the same with Mr. Roth in his novel in which he had Charles Lindbergh becoming president.

 

Not plausible.

[ariadne1880]

I don't equate "popular" with "bad" but I don't necessarily believe that because something is "popular" is must also be somehow worthwhile.

 

When something is trite and banal it should be pointed out. The writing in this book is on the 3rd grade level. There is no style to it at all. I was imagining what that same story would have been like in the hands of a master stylist. Much more memorable. Instead in read like a dime novel. Stephen King writes better.

 

As for "Latter Days" I actually like it although it's just as implausible as this book. The gay Mormon hunk -- while incredibly appealing -- apparently got and maintains that body (easily one of the best I've ever seen in a film) without every exercising or going to the gym!

 

Every character in the movie was a stock stereotype but that can work when it's put together well. I think "Latter Days" was put together well.

 

This book just wasn't IMHO. A beautiful central story with a lot of stuff that reads like it came out of some gay awareness pamphlet or worse.

 

Let's not pretend it is more than what it is.

[ariadne1880]

Where did you go to school in the late 70s?

 

I went to school in NYC and Rhode Island and never knew anyone who had read this book or who had even ever heard of it ....

 

You must have grown up in quite a place!

[Epigonos]

What I am about to say here is most definitely, an outstanding example of, prejudiced personal opinion and preference. Do keep that in mind when you read the rest of my post. Many of you will likely disagree with me and since nobody has elected me god that is just great.

 

There is a major problem in casting well known actors in popular novels, plays, or musicals. As I see it the role that is going to be extremely difficult to cast in “The Front Runner” is NOT that of Billy Sive but rather that of Harlan Brown. If I remember correctly in the novel, and it have been years since I read it, between coaching jobs Brown became a New York City escort working out of the baths. He was presented, I believe, as an angry, aggressive, leather top.

 

Now with the success of “Broke Back Mountain” many A-list actors suddenly have become interested in playing a gay character. Somehow I just can’t see Brad Pitt in the role of Harlan Brown as it was originally written by Patricia Nell Warren. I remember, only too well, what the screen writers did to the Achilles/Patroclus relationship in order to accommodate Pitt’s image when he played the role of Achilles in “Troy”. Suddenly he was in bed with NOT one but two women in an early scene of the film. With that established it became extremely difficult to understand his uncontrollable rage and sorrow when Hector killed Patroclus.

 

If I understand correctly the film rights to “The Front Runner” are currently back under the control of Warren. It will be interesting to see just how much control of the story line and the casting she will surrender in order to have her novel made into a film. If the novel “The Front Runner” is indeed made into a film I sincerely expect the story line of the film to be virtually unrecognizable when compared to the novel – BUT then that’s Hollywood folks.

[Luv2play]

I have mentioned several things that provide a context to Ms.Warren's novel whereas you haven't mentioned one. So what context are you exactly referring to, if you could explain?

 

And why not Charles Lindberg as President? If Hitler hadn't invaded Poland, maybe US history would have been a lot different.

[pegasian]

>Where did you go to school in the late 70s?

>

>I went to school in NYC and Rhode Island and never knew anyone

>who had read this book or who had even ever heard of it ....

>

>You must have grown up in quite a place!

 

 

I am NOT ARGUING your points. They are VALID. However, FRONTRUNNER has GREAT MERITS as a LANDMARK in GAY HISTORY. Remember, GONE WITH THE WIND is NOT OUTSTANDING for its writing but for its cultural impact. I see FRONTRUNNER's writing as generally FAIR/GOOD with POINTS for an INTERESTING and LEGIT VIEW on PRO RUNNERS and BRAVE in its portrayal of GAY MALES. The ending MAY be a play on a CLICHE...however, that CLICHE (unfortunately) is re-played OVER and OVER in REAL LIFE. You SHOULD HAVE given a SPOILER ALERT about it BEFORE discussing it. It is the IMPACT it had on its TIME that is IMPORTANT. I KNOW a LOT of STRAIGHT PEOPLE who CRIED at the ENDING. They CARED about these characters and found them fascinating/ interesting / involving. The NYT READERS CARING about GAY CHARACTERS in a POP NOVEL in the late 70's is a MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH!!!

 

IT has ALWAYS been the GREAT GAY MOVIE that HAS to be made. The HISTORY of the FAILED attempts to greenlight the movie are a HOLLYWOOD LEGEND. In the 90's MARIO LOPEZ was actually approached for one of the roles by Ray Kroc.

Jan Michael Vincent and Robbie Benson were two of the first actors considered for the BILLY SIVE role opposite Paul Newman (AFTER Robert Redford said he was TOO OLD for the part).

 

 

 

 

My HS? It was in a VERY SNOTTY "colonial" upper-class town in New Jersey that would NOT let NIXON move in after he left office. IT is mostly famous for a MASS-MURDER that took place in a mansion in the late 70's and is the hometown of Charles Addams.

[swallows22]

Get a grip, mate. As you admitted earlier, you weren't around in the early 70's. For US that were, this was a break-through for socially accepted gay reading.

Has anyone suggested that it is worthy of the Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize for literature?

Just let us old timers bask in a defining moment.

And take your haughty opinions elsewhere. Cheers!

[pegasian]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT: Time Ref: January-June, 2004 323 966-2466

 

 

 

MOST POPULAR GAY NOVEL CELEBRATES

THIRTY YEARS AND 30 MILLION READERS

 

The Front Runner Marks 30th Anniversary This Year

 

 

 

LOS ANGELES--An internationally revered novel about the love relationship between an ex-Marine track coach and an openly gay athlete will mark its 30th anniversary this year with an estimated thirty million readers worldwide.

 

Landmark author Patricia Nell Warren will commemorate three decades for her most renowned novel, The Front Runner, with appearances and book signings in cities across America, including celebrations in New York and Los Angeles in June to coincide with the author’s 68th birthday.

 

In addition, Warren anticipates the release this year, through Wildcat Press, of the 30th Anniversary edition of The Front Runner, sporting a new cover, historical retrospective and a new author’s foreword.

 

The first contemporary novel about gay love to make the New York Times bestseller list and appeal to both gay and mainstream readers, The Front Runner is considered by most literary experts to be the most popular gay novel in American history. Published in 21 separate editions and translated into ten languages to date, The Front Runner has sold an estimated ten million copies over three decades, and continues to be one of the top selling gay novels worldwide.

 

Warren, who has written eight novels and four books of poetry, has attracted an estimated thirty million readers to date with her diverse literary subjects ranging from gay life to Native American philosophy. Her recent novels, Billy’s Boy and The Wild Man, explore the coming of age for gay youth in different cultures, and have also won her critical acclaim for their authenticity and unusual insight.

 

However, it was Warren's unique novel about openly gay and lesbian athletes which made literary history and forever sealed her place as a gay icon by cracking the New York Times best-seller list with what Times critic Richard Roberts heralded in 1974 as "the most moving, monumental love story ever written about gay life."

 

The Front Runner, which has shepherded countless thousands of gay men and women out of the closet over the years and marked the gay rite of passage for many of them, has unassumingly become what Update News proclaimed in 1995, “the most important piece of literature of the Post-Stonewall era."

 

“Few books in the gay community have so greatly influenced self-esteem, political and social perspectives—even fashion,” declares Warren’s long-time business partner, Tyler St. Mark. “Most gay people who came out during the 70’s and 80’s can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first read this remarkable story,” he says emphatically. “Many of them rushed out to purchase running shoes and tank tops, inspired by the book’s athletic theme,” he muses.

 

In an era when the entire sum of gay-themed novels could fit on one library shelf, The Front Runner presented mainstream gay characters within an unusual premise: a tough, conservative college track coach, who is secretly homosexual, falls in love with an openly gay runner. Together they confront hatred and prejudice all the way to the '76 Olympics. The reaction by readers worldwide has created a literary legacy few other gay novels can come close to matching.

 

Thirty years after its premiere, when sales of a gay book are considered a reasonable success at 20,000 copies, The Front Runner has never been out of print---a phenomenon for any book much less a gay-themed one.

 

Perhaps one of the most evident and lasting legacies of The Front Runner has been the establishment of over 100 gay and lesbian running clubs under the auspices of the International Front Runners. Inspired by Warren’s novel, the first Front Runner club was founded in San Francisco in 1974, and today there are chapters in most states as well as ten other countries around the world.

 

Equally noteworthy is the novel’s unusual cross-ever appeal. The Front Runner has managed to attract innumerable heterosexual readers as well over the years and was included as one of the great sport stories of all time in Brandt Aymar’s anthology, Men In Sports. Indeed, it was mainstream film producers like Paul Newman and Frank Perry who first scrambled to obtain the motion picture rights due to its mainstream success, and Hollywood has speculated for years which popular actors would be cast in the roles of Coach Harlan Brown and Olympic runner Billy Sive, as several productions have attempted to get past the starting gate amid studio concerns over the first large budgeted gay-themed motion picture.

 

Over the years, Warren has received thousands of letters from readers around the world expressing appreciation for her having enhanced the quality of their lives with her books; for having set principles by which they could live, for having given them hope—even for having turned some away from suicide. According to many veteran activists in the gay community, Warren’s novels have inspired countless gays and lesbians towards self-acceptance and the courage to face homophobia with pride, dignity and honesty.

 

Although born out of the tumultuous civil-rights issues of the 60’s and 70’s, Warren’s landmark novel has retained its capacity to inspire and influence young people today. While those who first read The Front Runner in high school and college are now in their forties and fifties, succeeding generations have continued to discover this gay classic, including a growing number of open-minded straight teens.

 

“I think it resonates so deeply with people regardless of age, gender, or sexuality because of its universality,” says 19-year-old Jonathan Newman, an openly gay college athlete at Vassar College. “It is a deeply moving and important story, perhaps even more impactful today than thirty years ago!” he explains. Newman, a distance runner who hopes someday to audition for the film production, is one of hundreds of new readers who have connected to The Front Runner legacy.

 

"I am always pleased to embrace another generation of readers," says Warren, who now receives more email than hand-written letters from her newest readers. "It is my earnest hope that The Front Runner will continue to inspire people all over the world who, because of their sexuality, must confront hatred, rejection and prejudice every day of their lives,” she states fervently.