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Bezig met laden... De danser en de dans (The Dancer from the Dance) (1978)door Andrew Holleran
Top Five Books of 2013 (196) Best LGBT Fiction (21) Books Read in 2013 (55) » 16 meer Urban Fiction (8) Five star books (354) 1970s (124) Books Set on Islands (70) Swinging Seventies (185) 5 Best 5 Years (48) Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Don't give up on this novel halfway through, as I almost did. Even though in the middle stretches the characters become tiresome and the prose tries too hard to charm the reader, it all picks up again in the final quarter. The queens age and the death mentioned at the beginning approaches and the story derives some direction from both of these elements. There are a couple of quotable passages, too, so all in all reading this somewhat flawed book is an experience I'm glad I've had. ( ) It took me a while to get into it, the language can be a bit overwrought (especially at the beginning -- it cools down quite a bit after like the first 30 pages). But also the book primarily concerns itself with a man so beautiful, everyone in NYC desires him. Unfortunately, beauty doesn't come across on the page, and he's a bit dull as a character. However, he has a best friend who is an impeccably fabulous queen, and that's the real heart of the book. But every time the friend disappears for a chapter or two, the book becomes a bit tiresome again. But it's all a great document of gay life and culture in NYC in the 70s. Park cruising, bath houses, flop houses, speed and poppers, and endless dance parties... https://donut-donut.dreamwidth.org/850324.html I read this book for a 20th Century Queer project, where I am reading 100 books for 100 years, one for each year in the 20th century. I adored this novel. Which, I realise now, at the end of lots of period-accurate racism and fetishisation, is a position of privilege. This project has taught me that although reading 100 books from 100 years of LGBTQ history seems like a great idea and a wonderful exploration of my ancestors, uh, a lot of the people published during that time were cis, white, able-bodied, gay and for the most part racist, transphobic, biphobic and ableist. And whether it's the characters or the author, it hurt then, and it hurts now. (Hence why I am determined to read, purchase and support LGBTQ living authors as well, but this is a train of thought you're not here for, you're here for the review). Behold, Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran. Dancer from the Dance begins with two letters between friends. One, still living in New York City, is updating his friend on the drama, the gossip and the hook ups and break ups. On page 12, it reads: "I am in fact so depressed that last night while Bob Cjaneovic was sitting on my face, I began to think how futile life is, no matter what you do - it all ends in Death, we are given such a short time, and everything truly is, as Ecclesiastes says, Vanity, Vanity, Vanity. Of course, that only made be burrow deeper, but still - to have the thought!" And from page 12, I was hooked. So many readers these days are tired of New York City as a setting for a book, and that I understand, but listen. Holleran brings New York to life in this novel. Few authors have so artfully rendered New York as the hot and heaving beast of my memory. This long, sprawling book goes on and on and on about men shirtless in the summer, sleeping in parks because it's too hot to sleep in their apartment. Fire hydrants spewing water out into the street, and soda cans cooling in fridges of bodegas. There's something Proustian about Holleran's writing, which feels odd to say, but he writes in such a worshipful way, going over every detail again and again with such care and attention that you can really feel the craft of it all. “The greatest drug of all, my dear, was not one of those pills in so many colours that you took over the years, was not the opium, the hash you smoked in houses at the beach, or the speed or smack you shot up in Sutherland's apartment, no, it wasn't any of these. It was the city, darling, it was the city, the city itself. And do you see why I had to leave? As Santayana said, dear, artists are unhappy because they are not interested in happiness; they live for beauty. God, was that steaming, loathsome city beautiful!!! And why finally no human lover was possible, because I was in love with all men, with the city itself.” The book certainly has its flaws. A lot of it sounds the same. The racism, the sex, and the characters just go on and on and ON. Sometimes it feels a little bit self-important, but somehow still satirical. It's a hard book to recommend, because either you'd love it or you wouldn't. That is to say, this book is not a fast read, but a slow, meandering one. Complete with a nameless narrator in the style of Daphne du Maurier and I have to say it reminds me more of Henry James or any other great American author, perhaps a little like F Scott for all the excessive drinking, drugs and beautiful parties surrounded by beautiful people. Glittering, gluttonous, how will we ever tell the dancer from the dance? tw: racism, fetishisation, suicide (p. 220 or so) Lovely, echoes of 'Gatsby', and a much better reading companion for a trip to and from NYC than 'The Glass Key'. A little self-indulgent, but only in the best ways. Besides, the beauty of the writing and the humor more than make up for it. I was hooked on this book from the beginning. The exchange of letters where a former Manhattanite expounds on the glories of country life is responded to with a rich and gross description of the filth of New York City in the summertime. The odor of piss wafting off the subway lingers with me still.
One of the most important works of gay literature, this haunting, brilliant novel is a seriocomic remembrance of things past -- and still poignantly present. It depicts the adventures of Malone, a beautiful young man searching for love amid New York's emerging gay scene. From Manhattan's Everard Baths and after-hours discos to Fire Island's deserted parks and lavish orgies, Malone looks high and low for meaningful companionship. The person he finds is Sutherland, a campy quintessential queen -- and one of the most memorable literary creations of contemporary fiction. Hilarious, witty, and ultimately heartbreaking, Dancer from the Dance is truthful, provocative, outrageous fiction told in a voice as close to laughter as to tears. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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