I was quite the Twain fan as a youth, and his stories about young men always appealed to me in a sort of romantic if not erotic manner. As a gay man, I felt the appeal of the author's celebration of youthful, positive masculinity. I absolutely noticed the absence of developed women characters. I doubt we'll ever know what made Twain tick, because he seems to have kept his inner life so very deliberately private. But I have my suspicions, and they make me as happy as dreams of rafting down the Mississippi with Huck and Jim on a warm summer's night.