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A review by literarycrushes
Rat Bohemia by Sarah Schulman
4.0
Rat Bohemia by Sarah Schulman is an essential yet underrated novel in the LGBT+ literature canon. First published in 1995, it tells the story of three characters living in New York City during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Rita Mae is a rat exterminator employed by the city who grew up in Jackson Heights but was kicked out of the house after her father discovered her in bed with another girl at 16. Killer is a good-natured, perpetually broke lesbian who falls in love seemingly every other week, relying on the kindness of others to get by. David is a thirty-five-year-old HIV-positive man who knows his end is near but is sick and tired of talking about it.
I love a good New York novel, but so many authors have the tendency to romanticize the city or shed a false light on its margins, its grime, and grit. Schulman writes about the city like maybe only a native New Yorker can. She loves it because it’s home because it accepted her when no one else would (“Take me and Killer, for example. We are most comfortable living in neighborhoods where there are so many people walking around who would be locked up in institutions if they lived anywhere else.”), but she also kind of hates it because every corner feels a little bit haunted. Learning about pieces of NYC LGBT+ history was also a lot of fun (a gay male bar called Meat that has a lesbian night called Clit Club? Incredible.), and even the nuanced discussion surrounding AIDS from the perspective of a lesbian was something I don’t think I’ve encountered before in a novel.
I love a good New York novel, but so many authors have the tendency to romanticize the city or shed a false light on its margins, its grime, and grit. Schulman writes about the city like maybe only a native New Yorker can. She loves it because it’s home because it accepted her when no one else would (“Take me and Killer, for example. We are most comfortable living in neighborhoods where there are so many people walking around who would be locked up in institutions if they lived anywhere else.”), but she also kind of hates it because every corner feels a little bit haunted. Learning about pieces of NYC LGBT+ history was also a lot of fun (a gay male bar called Meat that has a lesbian night called Clit Club? Incredible.), and even the nuanced discussion surrounding AIDS from the perspective of a lesbian was something I don’t think I’ve encountered before in a novel.