Gay man's murder affects us all
A book review by Warner M. Montgomery

Dwight Cathcart was voted Most Likely to Succeed in the Class of 1957 at Dreher High School.

Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

Ceremonies

By Dwight Cathcart

Adriana Books

P.O. Box 323

Boston, MA 02117

www.adrianabooks.com

1957. My senior year at Dreher High School. Queers, faggots, and freaks were rolled on the State House grounds for fun.

2007. The 50th Reunion of the Class of 1957. Gays, lesbians, and homosexuals are among our sons, daughters, relatives, and friends.

The 50- year transition from bigotry to civility has been painful. The emotions, feelings, and anxiety of homophobia tore at us all. Some turned to drinking and drugs, some to suicide. Most survived. One took up the pen and put the pain to paper.

Dwight Cathcart was my childhood friend at Schneider, Hand, and Dreher where he edited the school newspaper and was voted Most Likely to Succeed by the Class of 1957. We were classmates at Sewanee and USC where his goal was to write "The Great American Novel."

Dwight married at Vanderbilt while getting his Ph.D. His dissertation was on John Donne. He taught English literature at the University of Michigan and then the University of Maine. He and Mary had two children.

In 1984, his life changed dramatically. He acknowledged his alcoholism and his homosexuality, divorced, quit his job, and began counseling those in similar situations. One of his counselees was brutally beaten and killed by a group of homophobic boys. Dwight fled to Boston, began a new life…and began writing about his murdered friend.

Dwight's book, Ceremonies , begins with the death of the 17- year- old boy and for 525 pages leads the reader through the agonizing history and psychology of America's gay community and its battle with America's homophobia. Dwight Cathcart has written his Great American Novel, a break through Great American Gay Novel.

Dwight Cathcart has written a remarkable novel, Ceremonies.

Each chapter looks at the murder through the eyes of one of the people personally affected by the murder. As these first- person experiences intertwine, the reader finds himself inside the gay community trying to cope with a brutal attack on one of their own.

Dwight deals with these dead- serious issues in a delicate professional manner. As his characters probe their own feelings while going about their everyday lives, Dwight forces horrid realizations on his reader. He pulls no punches.

The ever- present fear that gay men faced in school, on the job, and with their families jumped from the pages of Ceremonies . To "come out" might mean being ridiculed in class, losing your job, or being shunned by your family. To hide in the shadows of the "closet" continues the lie and denies your own dignity.

Dwight's lesbian characters also confront the reality of the patriarchal, sexist world in which they lived. To speak or act against the political forces trying to bury the issue of homosexuality along with the dead young man, might mean destroying façades that allowed them to move freely in society.

For me, Ceremonies was not easy to read and had to be absorbed in small bits. Each character brought to mind a friend, a colleague, or a family member and the anger, sadness, or shame they must have felt because of me. There were times in my life when I did not stand up for them. Instead, I chose to be silent. That silence may have resulted in the kind of horror that provoked Dwight to write Ceremonies.

Fear of the unknown can bring someone to hate and to commit violence. As the characters in Ceremonies sought to understand how their friend could have been murdered, their own fear edged toward hate and thoughts of violence. Dwight, in his first novel, has captured the hatred that festers in all of us. He has challenged us to understand our own fears.

Dwight Cathcart will be in Columbia March 22 for two readings and a booksigning. For his friends and Dreher classmates, he will read from Ceremonies and his upcoming autobiography, Race Point Light , at the Capital Senior Center, at 11:30 am. This luncheon is by reservation only. Contact Warner M. Montgomery (803-771-0219, warner@thecolumbiastar.com) for reservations.

A booksigning will be held at the Happy Bookseller March 22 at 5 pm.