How Long Has This Been Going On? FROM OUR EDITORS
This sweeping novel moves from the seedy bars and "meat racks" of the post-World War II gay underworld, through the history-making Stonewall Riots of 1969, and on to the era of gay pride and triumphant marches down the Main Streets of urban America. On Mordden: "Undeniably an outstanding gay writer."-- Kirkus Reviews.
ANNOTATION
With dozens of characters in locations from New York to L.A., San Francisco to the heartland, this novel encompasses the entirety of the gay and lesbian experience in America since World War II. From the author of the Buddies trilogy and a regular contributor to The New Yorker.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
With dozens of characters in locations from New York to L.A., San Francisco to the heartland, this novel encompasses the entirety of the gay and lesbian experience in America since World War II. From the author of the Buddies trilogy and a regular contributor to The New Yorker.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
According to Mordden's (I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore) sweeping panorama of gay life in the United States, ``the history meter is ticking''-and what a resonant sound it makes throughout these masterfully crafted pages. Beginning in L.A. in 1949 and concluding at New York City's 1991 Gay Pride Parade (with interim stops in San Francisco, rural New Hampshire and small-town Minnesota), this singular work chronicles the emerging gay consciousness with trenchant humor, editorial observations tinged with a soupon of cynicism and scenes of often devastating emotional impact. Mordden pulls no punches as he presents a compelling assortment of quirky characters (both male and female) who connect, disconnect and reconnect in a constantly affecting game of musical lives. Bitter and sweet, it's all here: the barely opened closets of the 1950s, the 1969 Stonewall riots, the growing prominence of San Francisco (``the great city of do-as-you-like'') as a gay capital and, of course, the coming of AIDS. Evocative descriptions make appropriate, occasionally campy, references to pop culture , while comic and poignant passages commingle throughout the detail-packed narrative-frequently within the same paragraph. Stylistic variations, too, blend to create an astonishing scope; Mordden changes tenses, addresses the reader and often presents the same scene, Rashomon-like, from several points of view. His characters remain achingly real, yet they also perfectly typify their generation-and, what's more, evolve with the changing gay climate. If the book has a message, it might well be found in the observation of a New Hampshire man in 1990: ``It's not that things change so much as that we see them different.'' Thanks to Mordden's stunning work, we can see a little more clearly now. Author tour. (May)
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