The Brig

This 66,000-word novel is a gay BDSM story set toward the close of the Vietnam War. It has been out of print for nearly twenty years.

Long before "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," being gay in the armed forces could mean a dishonorable discharge, along with a psychiatric label of mental disorder. The novel follows a young sailor who is waiting to be discharged as a conscientious objector when he is locked in a military prison. There, his captors use physical pain, fear, sexuality and psychological games to reshape his mind and wear down his resistance.

As the pressure mounts, the sailor begins to see both himself and the men who hold him more clearly, and that understanding gives him a way to unsettle them in turn.