By Christopher Cappiello

Exile in Guyville

By Dave White
Alyson Books, $13.95

Often one of the great pleasures of reading is to be taken far away—to meet people and experience places that one never would in real life. But the rewards of Exile in Guyville, Dave White's wittily observant and subversively intelligent memoir of his first year living in West Hollywood, are the exact opposite. It is the familiarity of the places and experiences that keep the reader riveted and smiling.

White and his partner (identified only as Morocco Mole in the text) relocated from Dallas in July 1999. Adjusting to L.A. traffic, learning to live among the beautiful bodies of WeHo, running into celebrities on a regular basis, and steering clear of the homicidal rage that simmers just below the surface of so many Angelenos' Botoxed smiles are just some of the potentially cliched subjects that White's witty and original voice turns into page-turning gold.

The self proclaimed bear from Texas writes with cutting humor about feeling out of place at such orthodox gay events as an Anne Miller Hollywood Bowl concert. Whether running into Rod Stewart at Fred Segal's or making an obligatory, if perfunctory, first visit to Pink's, White expertly conveys the sense of being the outsider, the newcomer, who isn't really sure he wants to join the club. Exile in Guyville is a quick and entertaining read that manages to both celebrate and skewer our little city within a city.

Rhapsody in Blood

By John Morgan Wilson
St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95

John Morgan Wilson staves off any potential staleness in his unique Benjamin Justice mystery series— with its gay, HIV-positive protagonist—by, literally, leaving town for Rhapsody in Blood, the series' entertaining seventh installment.

Wilson, a West Hollywood resident himself, has set most of the previous Justice novels in Los Angeles. But Rhapsody finds the disgraced former journalist heading out of town to an old inn in a high desert ghost town, where his friend Alexandra Templeton is writing a story about a film being made about the town's sordid past.

A 1950s film beauty, Rebecca Fox, was brutally murdered at the inn 50 years ago. Twenty-five years later, to the day, her daughter committed suicide in the same room. Now, 25 years from that tragic event, a Hollywood film is being made about the mysterious events. Of course another gruesome murder takes place, this time involving a hated Hollywood gossip columnist.

The cast and crew of colorful characters are all staying at the isolated inn, with suspects including the long-suffering producer, the abrasive director, the recently engaged leading lady and her sexy (and possibly bisexual) fiance, the bratty child star, and even a sassy little person stuntman who stands in for the little girl.

Rhapsody is a delicious whodunit that combines a classic Agatha Christie-like setting with some sexually charged encounters between Justice and the closeted male star. Wilson deserves credit for the change of scenery, and for adopting a slightly different tone for his latest work. To say any more would compromise the delights of reading Rhapsody in Blood.

Inside Out: Straight Talk from a Gay Jock

By Mark Tewksbury
Wiley Publishing, $24.95

Canadian gold medalist Mark Tewksbury joins the growing list of gay athletes who have penned their coming-out memoirs with the release of Inside Out, a straightforward and accessible account of his journey from a rural Western Canada childhood to a very public coming-out in 1998.

Tewksbury earned medals in the 1988 Seoul Summer Games and then made a dramatic come-from-behind run to take the gold in the 100-meter backstroke in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The tall, dark and handsome athlete with the sunbeam smile went on to enjoy a post-competition career as a motivational speaker and television personality, all the while hiding his sexuality.

While Inside Out traverses predictable gay athlete territory—the sacrifices made to excel in his sport, the loneliness of the closet and fear of being exposed, and the liberation of finally coming out—Tewksbury's book offers enough personal touches and intimate insight to make the familiar journey worthwhile.

Some of the book's most fascinating passages detail Tewksbury's work with the International Olympic Committee, and that group's dysfunction and maddeningly impenetrable bureaucracy. In perhaps an odd sign of progress toward equality, Tewksbury encounters similar dynamics among the organizers of the Gay Games when he is representing Montreal's bid for that event.

By the end of Inside Out, one wonders how different Tewksbury's story would have been if he had been able to read such an honest, direct book as a teen.

Just Outside the Spotlight: Growing up with Eileen Heckart

By Luke Yankee
Back Stage Books, $24.95

Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley

By Jon Krampner
Back Stage Books, $24.95

While Eileen Heckart and Kim Stanley, the subjects of two new and admirably thorough biographies, shared a dressing room in the original 1953 Broadway production of William Inge's Picnic, the two young actresses couldn't have been more different: Heckart enjoyed a loving, grounded family life while the erratic, married Stanley was in the midst of an affair with Monty Clift's brother that would result in an illegitimate son. The production simultaneously launched their nascent careers, with Heckart going on to receive accolades in theater, television and film over many decades, while Stanley's meteoric rise ended abruptly and led to a Garbo-like reclusiveness in the decades before her death.

Most Americans probably know Eileen Heckart best as Mary Tyler Moore's wisecracking Aunt Flo from several Emmy-nominated guest appearances on the legendary sitcom. But the rail-thin actress with the husky voice was a stage veteran and Oscar winner (Butterflies Are Free) who worked with such huge stars as Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. Just Outside the Spotlight is a loving look at her life and career by her gay son, director and producer Luke Yankee. In the interests of full disclosure, Yankee directed me in a 1988 national tour of Cyrano de Bergerac in which I met my husband. Even without that sentimental attachment, his intricately detailed and deeply personal look at his mother's long life and career is an inspiring read that any film or theater buff will eat up.

Female Brando is Jon Krampner's very different study of the life and work of the mysteriously gifted but tragically haunted Stanley. Like Marilyn and Elvis, Stanley had a self-destructive streak that often overwhelmed her talent. Fueled by dozens of interviews, Krampner paints a rich portrait of the Actors Studio dynamo who took Broadway by storm in the 1950s and '60s, only to disappear into seeming and voluntary oblivion. Female Brando will help make sure this shooting star of the stage is not forgotten.