Blackouts (novel)
[2] Eighty of these interviews and case histories were eventually included in the 1941 Sex Variants study, published by Dr. George W. Henry, which concluded that homosexuality is a pathological condition.And now Nene, suffering from gaps in his memory due to mental fugues, seeks the advice of Juan, whom he feels he can confide in.Gay had earlier discovered a copy of the 1941 medical book Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns and is distraught that the work of Jan Gay, the journalist who conducted the interviews featured in the book, has been co-opted by medical professionals who described homosexuality in a derisive way.[5] Regarding the novel's unconventional narrative, Charles Arrowsmith of The Washington Post stated: "In some ways it’s more like collage, an ingenious assemblage of research, vignette, image and conceit."[6] Writing for The New York Times, Joshua Barone stated that the novel is "A dreamy novel that unfurls among mixed media and Socratic dialogues, moving freely between fact and fiction as it proposes and complicates questions about how history is made..."[7] Also writing for The New York Times, historian Hugh Ryan commended Torres for his ability to metaphorically depict how queer identity has been suppressed from the records throughout history, stating: "The supreme pleasure of the book is its slow obliteration of any firm idea of reality — a perfect metaphor for the delirious disorientation that comes with learning queer history as an adult.