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A review by djrezzyrez
Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran
4.0
I really relate to the review by someone named Mark also on this page. “I waffled between liking it and appreciating it.”
I’m glad that this book exists as a text describing what life felt like for a certain group of queer people in New York at a certain time, how it depicted without definitive judgment what it meant to indulge so deeply in sex, drugs, and dancing as a means to assuage (or in spite of) a feeling that they would be alone forever, and perhaps uniquely alone as queer men.
I found parts of it relatable, and I’ve seen people play on the edges of the spiral that the narrator describes characters teeter on the edge of, but I also know so many other queer people who exist outside of that scene/interact with said scene differently.
In that sense, I really appreciated the last few pages, for how they zoom out and remind the reader how many other queer folks there are, and how many ways in which we can be connected to each other.
I’m glad that this book exists as a text describing what life felt like for a certain group of queer people in New York at a certain time, how it depicted without definitive judgment what it meant to indulge so deeply in sex, drugs, and dancing as a means to assuage (or in spite of) a feeling that they would be alone forever, and perhaps uniquely alone as queer men.
I found parts of it relatable, and I’ve seen people play on the edges of the spiral that the narrator describes characters teeter on the edge of, but I also know so many other queer people who exist outside of that scene/interact with said scene differently.
In that sense, I really appreciated the last few pages, for how they zoom out and remind the reader how many other queer folks there are, and how many ways in which we can be connected to each other.