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Rating: 
Summary: Smart, sexy, hilarious
Review: Any novel that takes as its title an allusion to one of Shakespeare's most famous lines is making a promise to readers that may be impossible to keep, but this book delivers, admirably, on almost all counts. Intelligent and darkly funny, it is an engaging and fast-paced (sometimes breathlessly so) summer read that ultimately is far more satisfying than most books in its genre. At the heart of its well-developed, fully realized cast of characters are Tony Alexamenos, a young surfer whose beauty proves to be as much a curse as a blessing, and Dallas Eden, the obese, scheming, but ultimately benevolent Machiavelli, who is instantly besotted with him and transforms him from a grease monkey at his father's gas station into a pioneering superstar male model, though at considerable emotional cost. Tony's lovers include an aging child prodigy, a thoroughly evil athlete/dancer, and a married, disabled Vietnam veteran and father of twin boys. These characters drive the story until the last 100 or so pages, when the complex plot really kicks in and pulls the reader relentlessly forward to a terrifying climax and an ultimately poignant resolution.But there is more than just character and plot to this book. The author creates a world in which the reader can live and get lost in. The descriptions of Florida (where I live) and New York City locations are vivid and sensual (in that they arouse many senses, including sight, sound, even smell). The period detail (the 1970s) and the cultural context (references to such things as Patty Hearst's kidnapping, the Vietnam war, and the comatose Karen Ann Quinlan) seem accurate and well researched. (The icing on the cake is the cameo appearances of movie and TV stars from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, who are friends of Dallas, who is a comedian and B-movie star: among them Bob Hope, Barbara Billingsley (Beaver Cleaver's mom), and the entire cast of Gilligan's Island! There is a scene between Liberace and Sonny Bono you'll never forget.) There also are plenty of hot, hot men, and lots of romance and sex (though not really explicit stuff). If anything, this book may be a little too ambitious in its scope. It covers ten years, during which Tony is transformed from poor white trash to a wealthy and sophisticated male model. He also starts out naïve and ends up pretty worldly, maybe even jaded. Sometimes these transitions seem a little rushed, and there are a couple of places where the events of six months or a year are compressed into a sentence or two. The author gives us "road signs" to explain these things, and it's not really confusing, just a bit disconcerting at times. My advice to readers is to slow down and savor the details of plot and character. It may sound like a cliché, but this is one of those books I didn't want to end, even though, as I said, I raced to the finish to see how it turned out.
Rating:
Summary: This book is good for all seasons
Review: I don't usually rate books online, I find it too time consuming but Winter of my Discotheque is without a doubt an exceptional book. It is one of the few gay novels that has an interesting plot, a very smooth storytelling writing style and is sexy without being trashy. The book is set in the 70's and centers on the life of Tony who is a remarkably handsome gay young man trapped in the slums of south beach with an abusive father. He is saved from this life by the most unlikely of people, Dallas Eden. Dallas is an extremely obese and even more obscenely rich middle aged man who decides that he is in love with Tony and manipulates Tony's life in order for them to be together. Thankfully this manipulation involves providing him a college education and a modeling career. The story takes us from South Beach to New York, from the 70's to the 80's and through a bevy of lovers for Tony. All the while he gets his heart smashed and throttled to eventually find love in the most unlikely of places...
Rating: 
Summary: With apologies to Shakespeare and Steinbeck
Review: I ordered this book on a whim and wound up enjoying it -- in the sense that there is so little truly worthwhile contemporary gay fiction to begin with. This book starts on the longest day of the year in the last summer of the 1960s, and from there becomes a "pilgrim's progress" -- or more properly a "rake's progress" -- for a young, impossibly attractive Florida teen, taking him through the 1970s and 1980s. The shallowness, humor, and plot contrivances of this novel are, curiously, part of its appeal.
Rating:
Summary: With apologies to Shakespeare and Steinbeck
Review: I ordered this book on a whim and wound up enjoying it -- in the sense that there is so little truly worthwhile contemporary gay fiction to begin with. This book starts on the longest day of the year in the last summer of the 1960s, and from there becomes a "pilgrim's progress" -- or more properly a "rake's progress" -- for a young, impossibly attractive Florida teen, taking him through the 1970s and 1980s. The shallowness, humor, and plot contrivances of this novel are, curiously, part of its appeal.
Rating:
Summary: The Winder Of Our Discotheque
Review: The cover says nothing at all for what is really in the book. the flow of the book pushes all the emotions right out of you. I picked it up and could never walk away for more that a few seconds before I had to pick it up again. It was so good i read it twice just to make sure i diden't miss anything. Very good! I can only hope that Mr. Beierle will write another. The only thing you need know is don't read the last page because you will mess the hole thing up. Everyone needs to get it and just alow the ocean spray to cover your face. I would only hope that all of you have lots of love and life........... boomer.
Rating:
Summary: As The Gay World Turns Through The Dawn And Death Of Disco!
Review: There's something about a soap opera that just hooks you. And this book uses all the tricks of the genre...from characters (naïve, innocent, loving, plotting, conniving, deceitful and dastardly) to plot twists (love found, love rejected, love discovered, love abandoned and love triumphant)...to keep you flipping through its near four hundred pages without pause as it asks and answers the question - can a surfer stud/grease-monkey from the wrong side of a south Florida island find happiness in a world of the rich and beautiful gays. Our surfer stud/grease-monkey is 17-year old Anthony Alexamenos who toils in his drunken father's service station pumping gas and finding a new meaning to the word "service" as he discovers his first gay love which is soon lost. With pure naiveté, Tony is plucked from the station, cleaned up and awarded a scholarship to a drama school with the behind-the-scene string pulling of wealthy Dallas Eden, who is addicted to beautiful boys. Unfortunately, Tony falls for a very closeted professor and is whisked off to New York City, where he ends up stripping as a cast member in a new Broadway musical called Hair. From there the book takes us through all the twists and turns in ten years of the life and loves of our hero. Be prepared to meet some unusual and very interesting characters along the way. In true soap opera fashion, you'll love some and hate others. And in case you missed it first hand, you also are able to discover the wild and wanton world of New York City that existed in the period between Stonewall and onset of AIDS. Personally, I enjoyed the book because Tony's life in New York coincided with a time period when I regularly visited New York on business. Back then, I had the opportunity to visit all of the historically famous and infamous gay points of interest (including Phillip Rose dancing on the bar of the Anvil in his full Native American regalia long before he became the first member of the Village People). As I followed Tony's adventures, it was like revisiting a period of my past.
So if you're looking for a book to help you pass a long winter's night, you might want to give this one a try.
Rating:
Summary: As The Gay World Turns Through The Dawn And Death Of Disco!
Review: There's something about a soap opera that just hooks you. And this book uses all the tricks of the genre...from characters (naïve, innocent, loving, plotting, conniving, deceitful and dastardly) to plot twists (love found, love rejected, love discovered, love abandoned and love triumphant)...to keep you flipping through its near four hundred pages without pause as it asks and answers the question - can a surfer stud/grease-monkey from the wrong side of a south Florida island find happiness in a world of the rich and beautiful gays. Our surfer stud/grease-monkey is 17-year old Anthony Alexamenos who toils in his drunken father's service station pumping gas and finding a new meaning to the word "service" as he discovers his first gay love which is soon lost. With pure naiveté, Tony is plucked from the station, cleaned up and awarded a scholarship to a drama school with the behind-the-scene string pulling of wealthy Dallas Eden, who is addicted to beautiful boys. Unfortunately, Tony falls for a very closeted professor and is whisked off to New York City, where he ends up stripping as a cast member in a new Broadway musical called Hair. From there the book takes us through all the twists and turns in ten years of the life and loves of our hero. Be prepared to meet some unusual and very interesting characters along the way. In true soap opera fashion, you'll love some and hate others. And in case you missed it first hand, you also are able to discover the wild and wanton world of New York City that existed in the period between Stonewall and onset of AIDS. Personally, I enjoyed the book because Tony's life in New York coincided with a time period when I regularly visited New York on business. Back then, I had the opportunity to visit all of the historically famous and infamous gay points of interest (including Phillip Rose dancing on the bar of the Anvil in his full Native American regalia long before he became the first member of the Village People). As I followed Tony's adventures, it was like revisiting a period of my past.
So if you're looking for a book to help you pass a long winter's night, you might want to give this one a try.
Rating:
Summary: A Real Page-Turner!
Review: This book is great - for what it is. In fact, it succeeds wildly in its genre of plain, entertaining gay novels. It is a LOT better than most of them, but not for those who only embrace the real literary stuff. Think Jackie Collins or Judith Krantz for the gay set. Characters are fun -- villains and heroes, both -- and all have detailed back histories (or baggage) to carry around. Occasionally its has an uncomfortable Gordon Merrick moment, but it comes back again. Highly recommended for a true entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping, well-written novel
Review: This book made me resent the daily duties that get in the way of my reading time. What a relief to finish necessary chores and get back to this novel, and what a vacuum when I finished _Winter_ and had none of Andrew Beierle's work left to read. This writer has a fine ear for dialogue, a delightful sense of humor and a talent for characterization. In fact, these characters seem so real that I was very disappointed when one exited the plot, and I fell hopelessly in love with another one. _Winter_ is a great mix of delicious wit, erotic tension, and gripping plot. Let's hope that Andrew Beierle has another novel out soon!
Rating:
Summary: Gripping, well-written novel
Review: This book made me resent the daily duties that get in the way of my reading time. What a relief to finish necessary chores and get back to this novel, and what a vacuum when I finished _Winter_ and had none of Andrew Beierle's work left to read. This writer has a fine ear for dialogue, a delightful sense of humor and a talent for characterization. In fact, these characters seem so real that I was very disappointed when one exited the plot, and I fell hopelessly in love with another one. _Winter_ is a great mix of delicious wit, erotic tension, and gripping plot. Let's hope that Andrew Beierle has another novel out soon!
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