Mark Behr Examines Masculinity, Militarisation and Sexual Identity in His Fiction

Mark Behr, author of The Smell of Apples and Kings of the Water, recently participated in a reading and book discussion at Washington University, where he addressed issues around identity, masculinity, race and “militarisation”.

In Allyson Scher’s report of the event, Behr is quoted as saying that reading The Colour Purple had an enormous impact on his life and writing: “It turned everything that I knew about myself inside out. I could never, after that book, write popular fiction again”, he said:

Cross your legs like this—not like that—so no one suspects you are the mommy’s boy we’re concerned you’re becoming,” Professor Mark Behr read during a lecture on campus Tuesday evening.

Students and faculty filled the seats of the Women’s Formal Lounge on Tuesday to hear Behr, a professor at Rhodes College and author of “The Smell of Apples,” in a discussion on literature, race and gender.

Behr began his lecture with a reading of a short piece he wrote in response to Jamaica Kincaid’s essay, “Girl.” Behr’s piece, titled “Boy,” which emphasized the pushing of the male stereotype onto boys.

• Complete article: Student Life

Book details

• The Smell of Apples by Mark Behr
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780349107561
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• Kings of the Water by Mark Behr
  EAN: 9780349122649
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