[151] The Dreyfus Affair – Peter Lefcourt

If Randy Dreyfus ever felt any confusion about the basic choreography of the sex act with another man, it dissolved instantly. As he stood watching his friend, he could see clearly how one would proceed if one wanted to.” [77]

Although exploring the similar theme of gay athlete and sports, The Dreyfus Affair, often looked upon as a more upbeat and funnier literary clone to the post-Stonewall classics The Front Runner (reviewed earlier), is even more provocative and engrossing a read that satirizes the subtle and insidious violation of human rights and dignity on the basis of sexuality. Combining romance, comedy, and baseball writing (so informative of baseball terms and jargons of which I was ignorant), the book, in a contemptuous tone, exposes how backward and hypocritical this country is. America would frantically jump at the first opportunity to act as moral guardian to human rights abroad and yet it is turning its back on liberty and justice at home.

Randy Dreyfus is the rising star who is aspiring to be a MVP. He is the hottest shortstop in the major leagues, happily married to a beautiful woman, and has a shopping center in Van Nuys named after him. Yet something very upsetting afflicts him—the more he tries to banish it from his conscious thoughts, the more intensely it encroaches him. No matter how adamantly he denies his feeling, Randy knows it is more than just deep-seated admiration. He has been teammate with D.J. Pickett for three years—spending a lot of time on the road, on planes, in hotels, in clubhouses. Their exchange is no more than perfunctory pleasantry and prep-talk for the game.

“So now you drag me up to a Chinese restaurant sixty miles out of town to ask me what my mother’s maiden name is.” [39]

Randy tries to ignore the thought, which at times nudges to the dangerous realm of forbidden, lustful, felonious acts between two men. But the thought does not peter out, it only intensifies. Come to terms with who he is. So the therapist advises. Randy only laments at the revelation that all his life he has twisted his insides up to deny what his real nature is. While teammates and sportwriter find themselves watching Randy spend great deal of time stealing looks at the second baseman, Susie Dreyfus ponders at the identity of a handkerchief’s owner. The private detective whom she commissions to unveil the secret affair only returns with clues that further mystify the case. Sudden surge of desire, sudden loss of control—give away to their affection in the wrong place at the wrong time. The scandal stirs up a maelstrom of controversies and bevy of jokes. Love becomes the whole nation’s business.

Amidst the gamut of media that frantically clamber for a piece of the hot cake, is the wrath of the old baseball bigots and homophobes who fear acquiescence to the players’ relationship will bring upon the league’s demise. Their so-called disciplinary actions is countered by a diatribe written by a fed-up sportwriter who accuses all parties involved in persecuting two citizens whose only crime is falling in love. The most touching part, almost like an antithesis to all the public outcry, is how the wife, who is afflicted by a chaotic tangle of contradictions, embraces the situation with magnanimity that demonstrates unconditional love.