Learning to Lie

This book is the story of Tom, a boy who grew up in the era when homophobia was deeply ingrained in American society. Since childhood, Tom was already aware of his sexual orientation and struggled to keep it hidden from everyone including his family―Tom’s loving mother reared her children free of gender stereotypes and taught them the value of compassion to those who were considered outcasts in their neighborhood. 

When he was drafted for military service, Tom, being an intelligent boy, was recruited in the Intelligence Corp of the US Air Force and was sent to finish a master’s degree in Russian language and culture, to which he excelled. There he met his first love, a handsome and well-built Italian, with whom he had an affair that lasted for months until the guy was moved to a different base. Tom remained faithful to his lover, but this loyalty cost his dismissal from the military when he inadvertently revealed to someone his homosexual affair at the time when the McCarthy hearings in 1954 were arresting people having “subservient” character. 

With his relatives unable to accept him, Tom escaped to California to save his family from the shame. Broke and penniless, it was difficult to find a job without lying about his undesirable II discharge. To live in a society at a time when being a pervert was treated with abomination, Tom found a way to survive―learning to lie.