Go the Way Your Blood Beats compiles fiction by African-American authors which uses bisexuality and homosexuality as literary themes. Shawn Ruff, editor of the anthology, clarifies in the introduction that the collection is not based on the sexual orientation of the authors. Rather, the short stories and excerpts present a broad range of sexuality in African American literature.
The thirty-two selections feature well-known authors such as Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde while also introducing the work of newer authors. The collection is organized into nine sections addressing the misconceptions of lesbian and gay life, dynamics of sexual identity, the conflicts for individuals and families and friends, sexual ambiguity and the complexity of love, betrayal and abuse, and a variety of voices and settings, Go the Way Your Blood Beats offers a mix of emotions that many people can identify with.
The collection takes sexual orientation out of the mere erotic and back into a humanistic environment. In "Ice Castle", Becky Bertha presents the thoughts of a young woman on the verge of a new love, yet sorting through thoughts of her family and the wide divide between her background and that of the woman she met. Gloria Naylor writes about two women and their new neighborhood in "The Two", depicting the unexpected hurt of gossip as well as unlikely friendships. Randal Kenan relays a story of poverty, seduction, and blackmail, exploring the varied motivations of each individual. From love, to laughter, to anger, to pain, this collection of stories conveys what it means to be human in a society that has innumerable reactions to sexuality and sexual orientation.
Reviewed 4 September 1998 by Deborah Wiese.