Dancer from the Dance - SFBA Book Club

Paperback, 250 pages

English language

Published Dec. 5, 2023 by Harper Perennial.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-332006-2

(1 review)

Andrew Holleran’s landmark novel of a young man's search for love and companionship in New York’s emerging gay world in the 1970s, with a new introduction by Garth Greenwell. Young, astonishingly beautiful, and tired of living a lie, Anthony Malone trades life as a seemingly straight small-town lawyer for the decadence of New York’s emerging gay scene—an odyssey that takes him from Manhattan’s Everard baths and after hour discos, to lavish orgies on Fire Island and parks after dark. Rescuing Malone from a possessive lover and shepherding him through his immersion in this life of fierce joys and cheap truths is the flamboyant Sutherland, a high-camp quintessential queen. But for Malone, the endless city nights and Fire Island days are close to burning out, and despite Sutherland’s abundant attentiveness and glittering world-weary wisdom, Malone soon realizes what he is truly looking for may not be found in these beautiful places, …

Andrew Holleran’s landmark novel of a young man's search for love and companionship in New York’s emerging gay world in the 1970s, with a new introduction by Garth Greenwell. Young, astonishingly beautiful, and tired of living a lie, Anthony Malone trades life as a seemingly straight small-town lawyer for the decadence of New York’s emerging gay scene—an odyssey that takes him from Manhattan’s Everard baths and after hour discos, to lavish orgies on Fire Island and parks after dark. Rescuing Malone from a possessive lover and shepherding him through his immersion in this life of fierce joys and cheap truths is the flamboyant Sutherland, a high-camp quintessential queen. But for Malone, the endless city nights and Fire Island days are close to burning out, and despite Sutherland’s abundant attentiveness and glittering world-weary wisdom, Malone soon realizes what he is truly looking for may not be found in these beautiful places, where life is crowded, and people are forever outrunning their own desires and death.

17 editions

Mr. Acton reviewed Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran

Wiser people than me have described it better

4 stars

Written in a time before HIV smashed the gay world, Dancer from the Dance reflects on the freedom, community, narcissism, and dangers of the NYC nightlife as people try to find love and themselves. Is it a conveyer belt that spits people out as husks of themselves? Is it worse than a life of a closeted man trapped in someone else’s American dream? This book doesn’t give an answer, but it also doesn’t flinch from the grittiness of giving yourself to dance, sex, and drugs.

The book is a challenging read as the unnamed narrator(s?) gossips about Malone and Sutherland in luxurious detail. Like spilling the tea with friends, details return and get slightly twisted. Pedestals are built, smashed, and then the pieces are put on display as talismans of those who once stood on them.

I enjoyed it, both as a snapshot of a moment in time as well …

Written in a time before HIV smashed the gay world, Dancer from the Dance reflects on the freedom, community, narcissism, and dangers of the NYC nightlife as people try to find love and themselves. Is it a conveyer belt that spits people out as husks of themselves? Is it worse than a life of a closeted man trapped in someone else’s American dream? This book doesn’t give an answer, but it also doesn’t flinch from the grittiness of giving yourself to dance, sex, and drugs.

The book is a challenging read as the unnamed narrator(s?) gossips about Malone and Sutherland in luxurious detail. Like spilling the tea with friends, details return and get slightly twisted. Pedestals are built, smashed, and then the pieces are put on display as talismans of those who once stood on them.

I enjoyed it, both as a snapshot of a moment in time as well as the parallels of post-PReP and then. I look forward to reading more of Andrew Holleran’s work, especially as it interacts with the times he lives through.

Subjects

Gay men -- Fiction
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction