Faggots

Rating:
Summary: How to describe ....
Review: My friends and I read this when it first came out - covertly. We were all very young and just coming out ourselves. Within the pages of this book we found exactly what Larry Kramer did not intend for us to see: a sexy, partying, unfettered, glamorous gay New York. Uh,huh. The satire was lost on us. Rather, we all talked about partying our ....off and moving to New York. We lived in Boston- so we did the weekend thing instead. Anyway, this is one trippy, weird and excessive novel. I really think all the excess undoes his intent and turns this into a Jackie Collins on hormones and mda extravagana. Of course, that does not mean that it wasn't entertaining and the not-to-distant future ultimately proved Larry's point for him. Dance from the Dance does a much better job at tackling this theme.

Rating:
Summary: A Period Piece, But Well Worth Reading
Review: Nobody would read "Faggots" for an introduction to the gay community today, and whether you remember the late 1970s with fear, loathing or warm affection says a lot about you and what's happened to you in the twenty years-plus since this novel was written.

The novel's main character, Fred Lemish, is a neurotic gay man on the edge of his 40th birthday. Fred is determined to find love and he thinks he has it in the form of "Dinky" Adams. Fred pursues Dinky through the worst (or "best" if you feel nostalgic) sexual excesses New York and Fire Island could offer in those years. No party, orgy or drug was off limits. People today may think that Kramer was exaggerating the gay scene for shock value, but actually he was taking the most excessive side of things and telling the story pretty straight.

Kramer's moral, that gay men should treat each other as people and not as commodities, has worn well with time, and the book is an interesting read from a time gone by. I just hope we understand it isn't representative of gay life today, and probably wasn't typical of all gay life even back then.

Rating:
Summary: A Period Piece, But Well Worth Reading
Review: Nobody would read "Faggots" for an introduction to the gay community today, and whether you remember the late 1970s with fear, loathing or warm affection says a lot about you and what's happened to you in the twenty years-plus since this novel was written.

The novel's main character, Fred Lemish, is a neurotic gay man on the edge of his 40th birthday. Fred is determined to find love and he thinks he has it in the form of "Dinky" Adams. Fred pursues Dinky through the worst (or "best" if you feel nostalgic) sexual excesses New York and Fire Island could offer in those years. No party, orgy or drug was off limits. People today may think that Kramer was exaggerating the gay scene for shock value, but actually he was taking the most excessive side of things and telling the story pretty straight.

Kramer's moral, that gay men should treat each other as people and not as commodities, has worn well with time, and the book is an interesting read from a time gone by. I just hope we understand it isn't representative of gay life today, and probably wasn't typical of all gay life even back then.

Rating:
Summary: No gay Tom Wolfe
Review: The book takes the reader on a disorganized - and ultimately, very repetitious - tour of the most sensational parts of urban gay male life in the late 70s. It caused a small flurry when it came out, not in the least as previous reviewers seem unaware, because it was such an unexpectedly schlock piece of writing from the man who had won an Oscar for the script of "Women in Love." Despite his top drawer university education at Yale, his great success as a writer for the screen, and a bundle of cash in the bank Mr. Kramer did not find true love in the arms of Mr. Right in the Fire Island Pines or the Hamptons. Oh cruel fate! The answer is more likely to lie in his obsession with himself, as witnessed in a string of mind-numbingly self absorbed works that followed this one, rather than in the raging hormones and simian brains that he attributes to his contemporaries in "Faggots."

This book would have been far better had it been considerably shorter, and had it been written by someone with a real talent for satire - the subject wanted a gay Tom Wolfe, and it unfortunately got a cranky sorehead. The era of the Seventies, whether you look at its wackiness or lament its excesses is comparable to the Twenties, and it's regrettable that the author couldn't have contributed something with more insight and humor.

If one is looking for a negative view of life in the fast lane of the gay world then Alan Helms's "Boy from the Provinces," would be an excellent book, and even though it makes zero attempt to be a barrel of laughs it manages to be far better balanced and more interesting than Mr. Kramer's novel.

Mr. Kramer's claim to fame, and to the thanks of many, will lie with his work as an activist in during the AIDS epidemic, an effort that initially at least probably benefited from his irascibility and megalomania, though in the end he abandoned his endeavors because he felt unappreciated here too. Perhaps somewhere along the line he should have learned to stop taking himself quite so seriously, and the world a little less so.

Rating:
Summary: No gay Tom Wolfe
Review: The book takes the reader on a disorganized - and ultimately, very repetitious - tour of the most sensational parts of urban gay male life in the late 70s. It caused a small flurry when it came out, not in the least as previous reviewers seem unaware, because it was such an unexpectedly schlock piece of writing from the man who had won an Oscar for the script of "Women in Love." Despite his top drawer university education at Yale, his great success as a writer for the screen, and a bundle of cash in the bank Mr. Kramer did not find true love in the arms of Mr. Right in the Fire Island Pines or the Hamptons. Oh cruel fate! The answer is more likely to lie in his obsession with himself, as witnessed in a string of mind-numbingly self absorbed works that followed this one, rather than in the raging hormones and simian brains that he attributes to his contemporaries in "Faggots."

This book would have been far better had it been considerably shorter, and had it been written by someone with a real talent for satire - the subject wanted a gay Tom Wolfe, and it unfortunately got a cranky sorehead. The era of the Seventies, whether you look at its wackiness or lament its excesses is comparable to the Twenties, and it's regrettable that the author couldn't have contributed something with more insight and humor.

If one is looking for a negative view of life in the fast lane of the gay world then Alan Helms's "Boy from the Provinces," would be an excellent book, and even though it makes zero attempt to be a barrel of laughs it manages to be far better balanced and more interesting than Mr. Kramer's novel.

Mr. Kramer's claim to fame, and to the thanks of many, will lie with his work as an activist in during the AIDS epidemic, an effort that initially at least probably benefited from his irascibility and megalomania, though in the end he abandoned his endeavors because he felt unappreciated here too. Perhaps somewhere along the line he should have learned to stop taking himself quite so seriously, and the world a little less so.

Rating:
Summary: A quote from Pulitzer-prize winning playwright, Tony Kushner
Review: The following quote appears on the British edition of Faggots, as published by Minerva, and will appear on the next US printing of Faggots:

"The liberation of sexuality from the bonds of Moralism has left in its wake a crying need for principled, intelligent, vigorous explorations of how a genuine morality can be introduced to our newly minted freedom. This exploration is a central part of Larry Kramer's historically significan literary work, of which Faggots constitutes an important beginning and a key. As a documentation of an era, as savage and savagely funny social parody, as a cry in the wilderness, and as a prescient, accurate reading of the writing on the wall, the novel is peerless and utterly necessary. It is brilliant, bellicose, contemptuous, compassionate-and as is true of everything Kramer writes-behind its delectable, entertaining, sometimes maddening harshness is a profoundly moving plea for justice and for love. There are few books in modern gay fiction, or in modern fiction for that matter, that must be read. Faggots is certainly one of them." Tony Kushner

Rating:
Summary: Jeremiah Was an Optimist, Kramer Was a Bullfrog
Review: The problem(s) with most would-be gadfly/naysayer/doomsday prophet types? They can't seem to transcend their own egotism, and they never find anything nice to say about anybody. Even Jeremiah had the sense to prophesy that things would eventually get better, and to refrain from blaming everybody but himself.

(A by no means irrelevant aside: by now, Kramer has lost most of whatever credibility he ever had on the AIDS crisis by calling too many undeserving people "murderer" too many times. Still, the world owes him an ENORMOUS debt of gratitude for being the firstest and the loudest to cry havoc as people started dropping like flies.)

"Faggots" is an attempt at satire that is almost never humorous, though there are a few precious bits of wickedly funny writing, such as one takeoff on the stilted dialogue that prevailed in '70's gay porno.

Kramer, at this point in his very interesting career, had overdosed on the vapid shallowness and callous, heartless promiscuity he saw all around him in Greater New York. Over and over he uses the voice of his alter-ego narrator to sound the note of alarm that gay men are just doing this life thing all wrong, and should, really really SHOULD, just drop everything they're doing and put the development of their hearts and minds over the development of their pecs and abs and the fulfillment of their groins... over and over and over and over and over and over and over again through page after tedious page.

What he never seemed to understand at the time was that: (a) Most guys who had lived significant portions of their lives west of the Hudson already knew this, and were in no rush to get to the next Red and White Party on Fire Island. (b) If you want those around you to feel and act more kind-heartedly to each other, you must start with the man in the mirror. The narrator seems to have finally begun to sense this by the novel's end, but remains too vainly preoccupied with his own pain to reflect that maybe his precious Dinky, and all the others whom he can neither forgive or forget, acted that way in large part because... they thought that's what people like him wanted. Or else they wouldn't BE there, ya know?

To put it another way, Kramer's stand-in still doesn't recognize his own role in helping along all the fashion-fascism Attitude Queen-ness he deplores. To put it yet another way: The great thing about operating in a thickly crowded social environment chock full of others of your kind is that if, for whatever reason good-bad-or-indifferent, you just don't get along well enough with Person A, there's always Person B. The horrifying thing about it is, Person B knows that too.

Well, Larry, if you ever read this, you're always welcome to ship out to some radical faerie sanctuary out here in the boonies and catch a glimpse of what you've been missing... Probably not. You do still have important things to do in the city. I hope.

As for this novel, it makes for occasionally interesting reading. We can't call it outdated because it wasn't even intended to be an accurate portrayal of its own times, but the No-Funhouse mirror through which it views its times is also outdated. Its greatest virtue, however, is that its production leveled the emotional ground within Kramer himself, blasting it to bedrock and clearing the way for his undoubted masterpiece, "The Normal Heart," in which among other things his protagonist finally awakens to the notion that even guys who get called "troll" a lot can have an Inner Twinky who needs to be put firmly in his place... like, say, maybe sending the twink out to get coffee and changing the locks while he's gone...

Rating:
Summary: Not a book for everyone
Review: The story centers on Fred Lemish, a 39-year-old gay man trying to find true love in New York in the late 1970s. In fact, he's told the man he's been dating that he is in love with him and is waiting for his response. In the meantime, we follow Fred and his friends as they party and sex their way through New York gay night life from the Everhard Bath and club openings to the first summer parties on Fire Island.

I found this book very difficult to enjoy. While Fred is agonizing about his boyfriend, Dinky, he's also out at the baths, experimenting. His friends are drugged to a very high degree and are also lamenting about love but having sex with anything and everything that catches their eyes. Kind of hard to warm up to these characters.

For me, this book espoused all the negative aspects that we're pounded into me about being gay: everyone does drugs; it's all about sex, sex and sex; and you must have the perfect body (looks, weight, etc.) in order to be accepted into gay society.

Maybe on a historical level, this book works to show what gay life was like back in New York in the late '70s. I don't know if that's enough to recommend it as a "must-read."

Rating:
Summary: Life on the OUTside
Review: There was a point where I wanted to start reading classic gay literature. I remember seeing Larry Kramer's FAGGOTS on the shelf at a local Borders, but decided to get it another time. I have read his fantastic play THE NORMAL HEART years ago, just when I came out and wanted to explore gay themed writings. I finally bought FAGGOTS a weeks ago on amazon. All I have to say is WOW!!!! This is not just a "walk in the park" kind of read. This is a book which really slaps you in the face. Larry Kramer does NOT (and he really doesn't) hold back ANYTHING in the lives of gay men. The focus of the book is Fred Lemish, a 39-year old man who is looking for love. However, there were more obstacles in the world of gay men than he should have known.
The issue of sex is very very exploitive. From outdoor sex, to leather, to raunch, to pig-sex, to groups, and also an explisive orgy scene. (And just you wait until the climax of the novel!!) But what Kramer shows is how obsessed sex is with gay men. Many scenes take place in gay clubs, which many sexual activities occur.
I did not mind the many characters in the book. Even though Kramer makes Fred Lemish the hero, we also observe many others in the gay lifestyle. At first is may seen complicated. BUT as the novel progresses I was able to follow and know the characters in the book.
The nover was written in 1978, just before the AIDS crisis began. HOWEVER, after I read this book, I thought--Could this REALLY happen today?? I felt it still does.
Kramer handles the themes very well in the novel. How love is handled, how the way characters are drawn, and how the gay lifestyle IS. This is a truthful and serious work. In a few years I would most likely pick this book up again.
I highly recommend Larry Kramer's FAGGOTS. It is definitely a book to be read and talked about.

Rating:
Summary: Life on the OUTside
Review: There was a point where I wanted to start reading classic gay literature. I remember seeing Larry Kramer's FAGGOTS on the shelf at a local Borders, but decided to get it another time. I have read his fantastic play THE NORMAL HEART years ago, just when I came out and wanted to explore gay themed writings. I finally bought FAGGOTS a weeks ago on amazon. All I have to say is WOW!!!! This is not just a "walk in the park" kind of read. This is a book which really slaps you in the face. Larry Kramer does NOT (and he really doesn't) hold back ANYTHING in the lives of gay men. The focus of the book is Fred Lemish, a 39-year old man who is looking for love. However, there were more obstacles in the world of gay men than he should have known.
The issue of sex is very very exploitive. From outdoor sex, to leather, to raunch, to pig-sex, to groups, and also an explisive orgy scene. (And just you wait until the climax of the novel!!) But what Kramer shows is how obsessed sex is with gay men. Many scenes take place in gay clubs, which many sexual activities occur.
I did not mind the many characters in the book. Even though Kramer makes Fred Lemish the hero, we also observe many others in the gay lifestyle. At first is may seen complicated. BUT as the novel progresses I was able to follow and know the characters in the book.
The nover was written in 1978, just before the AIDS crisis began. HOWEVER, after I read this book, I thought--Could this REALLY happen today?? I felt it still does.
Kramer handles the themes very well in the novel. How love is handled, how the way characters are drawn, and how the gay lifestyle IS. This is a truthful and serious work. In a few years I would most likely pick this book up again.
I highly recommend Larry Kramer's FAGGOTS. It is definitely a book to be read and talked about.