The Benefits of Homosexuality; Rejecting Bodies, Identity and Desire in 'Another Country' Anonymous College

In James Baldwin’s novel Another Country nearly all of the central characters experience anxiety, confusion, or conflict when it comes to the interweaving of their bodies, identities, and desires. The character of Eric however, a homosexual expatriate who returns to New York in the middle of the novel to pursue a career in acting, could be argued to not experience such crises, even when he engages in an affair with the heterosexual and married Cass. In fact, Eric’s affair with Cass in no way confuses his homosexuality.

When we are first introduced to Eric he is living in France with his lover of just over two years Yves. Baldwin presents Eric and Yves as having a healthy, loving, and mutually respectful relationship free of the racial, gendered, and classed subtext that is present in the relationships of all of the books other characters. During the first chapter in which Eric is introduced, the couple are presented by Baldwin as content with each other:

“[Eric] and Yves had been together for more than two years and, from the time of their meeting, his home had been with Yves. More precisely and literally, it was Yves who had come to live with him, but each was, for the other, the dwelling place that each had despaired of...