LGBT Book & Video Blog

"Crossing Borders," by Will Carr. GLB Books, 372 pages, $23.95 paper.

Though he's now in his 80s, Carr's account of his youthful travels around the Mediterranean and North Africa more than half a century ago is remarkably vivid. The then-27-year-old Jewish man motored for months through countries as anti-Semitic then as they are now, including Egypt and Algeria, capturing both the physical geography and his own sexual and spiritual evolution with writing that is fluid and fresh - and fun to read. Carr traveled sometimes with companions for whom he felt a budding sexual attraction, sometimes alone with his thoughts and fears - often concerned as much about his own sexual bent as about his personal safety, but always enthralled by the people he met and the landscape through which he passed. It was an odyssey that changed his life many decades ago, and one that will charm readers today. Travel writing, coming-out story, historical document: this engaging memoir is rewarding on every level, a saga from a senior gay man still firing on all cylinders. More Book Notes. Purchase Crossing Borders.