Between Dances

Rating:
Summary: Hearty applause, Erasmo Guerra!
Review: BETWEEN DANCES is terrific novel. The fact that it is a first novel is amazing. Erasmo Guerra will be assuming a high position in the ranks of young American novelists if he continues to write this well.

Many authors have attempted to give us the "Inside Story" about the lives and psyches of male hustlers and go-go dancers. Often those other efforts have just been broad outlines for titllating porn books. Not BETWEEN DANCES. Guerra has created characters who are so real that with a refreshing economy of words gives us an in depth background of who they have been and why they have come to the business of selling their bodies on the stage and in sleazy hotel rooms. Marco, Chris and Jaime are not whining down and outers - they recognize that they perform not only for money but for the attention and love they crave. For once the johns are not painted as deviates; we meet and get to know some regular people who also have their needs and choose to pay for them.

But there is much more to this atmospheric, often poetic work than this. Guerra gradually allows us to learn how young boys are driven to flee their homophobic backgrounds and take risks that may seem irresponsible to those on the outside in order to establish loving relationships socially unavailable to them as adolescent "pre-gay" males.

And as if this weren't sufficient for a first novel, Guerra reals a penchant for describing not only inner city life in New York, but paints beautifully poetic vistas of the four seasons. Rarely has a writer lingered over the beauty of autumn or lifted us to the passing sights of jogging in the city the way Guerra has. This is a very talented young man and I eagerly await watching his career develop. And again, Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Hearty applause, Erasmo Guerra!
Review: BETWEEN DANCES is terrific novel. The fact that it is a first novel is amazing. Erasmo Guerra will be assuming a high position in the ranks of young American novelists if he continues to write this well.

Many authors have attempted to give us the "Inside Story" about the lives and psyches of male hustlers and go-go dancers. Often those other efforts have just been broad outlines for titllating porn books. Not BETWEEN DANCES. Guerra has created characters who are so real that with a refreshing economy of words gives us an in depth background of who they have been and why they have come to the business of selling their bodies on the stage and in sleazy hotel rooms. Marco, Chris and Jaime are not whining down and outers - they recognize that they perform not only for money but for the attention and love they crave. For once the johns are not painted as deviates; we meet and get to know some regular people who also have their needs and choose to pay for them.

But there is much more to this atmospheric, often poetic work than this. Guerra gradually allows us to learn how young boys are driven to flee their homophobic backgrounds and take risks that may seem irresponsible to those on the outside in order to establish loving relationships socially unavailable to them as adolescent "pre-gay" males.

And as if this weren't sufficient for a first novel, Guerra reals a penchant for describing not only inner city life in New York, but paints beautifully poetic vistas of the four seasons. Rarely has a writer lingered over the beauty of autumn or lifted us to the passing sights of jogging in the city the way Guerra has. This is a very talented young man and I eagerly await watching his career develop. And again, Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Guerra delivers!
Review: Guerra does it again! This first novel by the editor of one of the top selling gay anthologies delivers. This slice of urban gay life located within a web of shifting relationships and largely unerotic sexual liasons paints a compelling portrait of an endearing young man's quest for true love and sense of self. The characters are interesting, the story well rendered, and the go-go background hideously compelling. I couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: Okay, I wasn't going to pick up this book because it dealt with sex workers and I figured it just to be another piece of thow away erotica. Personally, I don't like that stuff, if I'm reading, exercise my mind, not my loins.

Anyway, Guerra's debut is beautiful story about a young man, unhappy with how his life turned out and the changes he makes to correct his situation. There is a beauty and emotion to this book that is missing from a lot gay fiction.

Guerra's book, while not brilliant, is very passionate and emotional. I felt for the narrator.

Pick it up, you'll be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: Okay, I wasn't going to pick up this book because it dealt with sex workers and I figured it just to be another piece of thow away erotica. Personally, I don't like that stuff, if I'm reading, exercise my mind, not my loins.

Anyway, Guerra's debut is beautiful story about a young man, unhappy with how his life turned out and the changes he makes to correct his situation. There is a beauty and emotion to this book that is missing from a lot gay fiction.

Guerra's book, while not brilliant, is very passionate and emotional. I felt for the narrator.

Pick it up, you'll be glad you did.