Outbound: Finding a Man, Sailing an Ocean (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies, Joan Larkin and David Bergman, Series Editors)

"Outbound is the story of two voyages: an Atlantic crossing in the 33-foot cutter Clarity, bound for Scotland; and the hard voyage of self-discovery that finally brought Bill Storandt to his life partner." "Storandt's account of the adventure he had carefully planned with longtime partner Brian Forsyth and their friend Bob soon turns into a white-knuckled sailing yarn, as they encounter a fierce storm four hundred miles from the Irish coast that tests their courage and sailing skills. This sea story, vividly evoking life in a small boat on a big ocean, is interwoven with Storandt's flashbacks to his earlier life." "He had married a girl who'd been a buddy since seventh grade. He'd studied at Julliard, been a freelance musician in New York, tuned in and dropped out to a geodesic dome in the Vermont woods, left the marriage, and tacked through his life, one big question unsettled, until the evening that changed everything. The very night he was finally ready to venture into a big-city gay bar was the night he would meet a young Scottish doctor - Brian - who was equally new to this outward turn."--Jacket.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction, LGBTQ+. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.