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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A Financial Times listicle is perhaps an unlikely place to be recommended Dancer from the Dance.
This book made me think and feel a lot of things. I've read books about the mid-century NY gay scene of the sociological variety. But this book - as fiction can - captured both the aesthetic and affect of that world, but also the philosophical and moral demands it made on (some of) its denizens.
It was also a life of such comprehensive renunciation of societal norms to be almost baffling. Bizarrely, however, the logic of capitalism remained, though operating on the currency of beauty (among other physical qualities...) instead of financial capital.
Besides all that, perhaps the funniest, most outrageous drag queen I've ever encountered in literature. Sutherland is an absolute riot.
This book made me think and feel a lot of things. I've read books about the mid-century NY gay scene of the sociological variety. But this book - as fiction can - captured both the aesthetic and affect of that world, but also the philosophical and moral demands it made on (some of) its denizens.
It was also a life of such comprehensive renunciation of societal norms to be almost baffling. Bizarrely, however, the logic of capitalism remained, though operating on the currency of beauty (among other physical qualities...) instead of financial capital.
Besides all that, perhaps the funniest, most outrageous drag queen I've ever encountered in literature. Sutherland is an absolute riot.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book is a poignant and haunting depiction of the gay circuit scene in New York, post-liberation but pre-AIDS.
Malone's character development is not told through a central plot, but unfolds with his various experiences in the scene. He arrives in the city as a romantic, driven by the desire to find love.
The novel perfectly conveys the melancholy and loneliness Malone experiences, narrated through the perspective of bystanders or others in his circle of friends.
One of the most compelling aspects of the book is the contrast between Malone and Sutherland: Malone is sentimental, idealistic and romantic, while Sutherland is cynical, grounded and aware of the disillusioning reality they live in.
The depiction of that society's shallowness and obsession with beauty is bleak, and shows how all of them, to a certain degree, are trying to escape reality.
The long, lyrical descriptions deepen this emotional effect, though at times I found myself a little lost in them.
Malone's character development is not told through a central plot, but unfolds with his various experiences in the scene. He arrives in the city as a romantic, driven by the desire to find love.
The novel perfectly conveys the melancholy and loneliness Malone experiences, narrated through the perspective of bystanders or others in his circle of friends.
One of the most compelling aspects of the book is the contrast between Malone and Sutherland: Malone is sentimental, idealistic and romantic, while Sutherland is cynical, grounded and aware of the disillusioning reality they live in.
The depiction of that society's shallowness and obsession with beauty is bleak, and shows how all of them, to a certain degree, are trying to escape reality.
The long, lyrical descriptions deepen this emotional effect, though at times I found myself a little lost in them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Book club. Felt totally mediocre to negative about this— at first I thought I was just being homophobic (lmao) but after reading that this was released around the same time as Faggots I realized: This book is also catty, vicious and cruel; it turns an eye towards gay culture not as a loving cataloguer but as a disillusioned heckler. Reading it in tandem with The End of the Novel of Love was illuminating— Love cannot drive a plot any more, but lack of love can’t, either.
I liked this book, but it was really too much! Too many words, too much repetition, too much very descriptive sex. I found the structure, POV, and the voice especially interesting. Also, I had quite an education on the topic.
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Touching without being too verbose, DANCER FROM THE DANCE is sophisticatedly sentimental, capturing language and behaviours so fresh you’ll be left wondering how such a glorious product of its time can read as so outrageously anachronistic.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pre-AIDS, pre-Grindr, and pre so many other modern day issues that shape LGBT life, and yet still so prescient and insightful. As well as hilarious.
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
6/11/25: This book is a vibe. I really appreciated this book for being such a time capsule of the times it was writing about. It’s unapologetically queer and offers no clear way to read the book. It expects the reader to be the one to fill in gaps, both in the plot but also in what to make of our characters’ motivations.
I did struggle a bit with the campiness of the writing and the super voicey narration. This is not a criticism of the book, but rather another point of illumination for my own taste. I think it does what it sets out to do - illustrate gay life in the ‘70s without any need to cater to the straights - and does it extremely well. 3.5 stars
7/7/25: I never do this, but I reread the book just a few weeks after finishing it and I’m so happy I did. I went to a Fiction Matters book club discussion about this book yesterday and there was so much enthusiasm for the book and such rich discussion that I knew I needed to try again with a shift in my mindset. I listened to the whole thing on audio this time which really helped. For whatever, reason, it clicked for me this time and I really loved it. I think what made me appreciate this most was the idea that the gay men were telling their own stories by subverting the religious stories and practices they grew up with. I think the discussion about the structural choices really helped too. 4.5 stars.
I did struggle a bit with the campiness of the writing and the super voicey narration. This is not a criticism of the book, but rather another point of illumination for my own taste. I think it does what it sets out to do - illustrate gay life in the ‘70s without any need to cater to the straights - and does it extremely well. 3.5 stars
7/7/25: I never do this, but I reread the book just a few weeks after finishing it and I’m so happy I did. I went to a Fiction Matters book club discussion about this book yesterday and there was so much enthusiasm for the book and such rich discussion that I knew I needed to try again with a shift in my mindset. I listened to the whole thing on audio this time which really helped. For whatever, reason, it clicked for me this time and I really loved it. I think what made me appreciate this most was the idea that the gay men were telling their own stories by subverting the religious stories and practices they grew up with. I think the discussion about the structural choices really helped too. 4.5 stars.
this was good but i do not have very much to say about it
it was a very similar reading experience to Rona Jaffe's the best of everything and how I imagine the valley of the dolls would be except the focus is obviously very different. just in the way it felt like reading gossip
it was a very similar reading experience to Rona Jaffe's the best of everything and how I imagine the valley of the dolls would be except the focus is obviously very different. just in the way it felt like reading gossip
Set in the gay circuit of post-liberation, pre-AIDS New York, Dancer from the Dance reads like a dream from a bygone era, a melancholy history lesson of sorts for younger generations of queer men. The prose is stunning, poetic, elegiac. And though I’ll never step foot in that golden age, facets of Malone’s story — the yearning for a perfect lover, the wistfulness of getting older — are all too familiar.
Update 10/15/23: “We're all in love with the sadness of life-that wistful, grave, forlorn rue that suffuses his eyes like a perfume of Guerlain whose name I can't recall.”
Update 10/15/23: “We're all in love with the sadness of life-that wistful, grave, forlorn rue that suffuses his eyes like a perfume of Guerlain whose name I can't recall.”