Who Will Cliff Date?

This funny, historical novella raises a fascinating question: If a teenage boy is sexually aroused looking at muscular boys, is he gay, or does he simply have a muscle fetish? If he has a muscle fetish (clinical term: sthenolagnia), he can date boys but may, possibly, if he chooses, have the alternative of happily dating athletic girls. Cliff Ryan is that boy in 1968. In 1970 he goes to college and meets his roommate, Ralph. Cliff and Ralph go to a new, gay-themed movie, The Boys in the Band. The movie sways Cliff one way, Ralph the other way. Some people say sexual orientation isn't a "choice" but Cliff and Ralph each must make a choice: date a male, or date a female. Their choice is influenced not only by The Boys in the Band but by people and events they see and hear from age 8 in 1961 to age 72 in 2025: JFK, RFK, LBJ, MLK Jr., Richard Nixon, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, the Vietnam War, The Graduate, The Godfather, women's liberation, and gay liberation. A subplot involves Cliff's older brother, Howard. Howard has a different problem with women: The U.S. Government in 1968 drafted (forced) Howard and thousands of other young American men, but no American women, to fight in Vietnam. Howard wonders: If women want equal rights, why do women have the right to stay home during a war but men don't? At times hilarious and heartwarming, at other times poignant and probing.