Hard: A Novel [Paperback]

Wayne Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2006

Taking place over the course of a single year, Hard periodically stops the action to delve into the sexual psyche of its main characters, exploring what motivates them, what turns them on, what defines their identity — what makes them hard. As Faggots explored the 1970s sexual universe of gay men in New York, Hard takes a serious look a generation later, taking readers into adult theaters, online chat rooms, bedrooms, and into the minds of the gay men who have sex there. But while Faggots was written before AIDS, the characters in Hard are very much affected by the epidemic: Frank lost his lover to the disease, Gene is HIV-positive, Aaron's lover unwittingly puts them both in danger, and Moe's sexual politics are deeply informed by AIDS. There's nobody in Hard who hasn't had his sexuality and politics shaped by the epidemic. There's also a motley crew of activists and sex partners, co-workers and family members, porn stars and B-list celebrities. The complex web of characters and subplots create a rich portrait of New York in the 1990s. And, like Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, Hard does it with edgy humor, snappy dialogue, and a scene-driven episodic structure.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sexual politics—both public and private—play out against the cityscape of mid-1990s Manhattan in Hoffman's absorbing year-in-the-life of a group of gay men. Amid a citywide crackdown on public sex venues, the editors of two gay newspapers take opposing sides. One editor, Moe Pearlman—the 26-year-old grad-school dropout at the heart of the novel—is a founding member of the Alliance to Save Sex (get it?) who participates in civil disobedience more Candace Bushnell than Thoreau: with promiscuous oral sex, he "tak[es] a stand on his knees." The other editor, Frank DeSoto, remembers the AIDS epidemic of the '80s—when he lost his lover— and sees the crackdown as a matter of public health. Humanizing the story are the characters occupying the space between: aspiring photographer Kevin, who makes ends meet turning an occasional trick, endangering both himself and his lover, Aaron; and Gene, who must learn to give up his only fetish—control—when he's diagnosed with HIV. Though shallow characters initially stunt the narrative, the larger issues of sexual rights and AIDS add depth to their voices, making this sexually explicit debut novel an intriguing exploration of politics and psyche. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Although Hard is his first novel, Wayne Hoffman has been a writer and editor for 15 years. By day, he’s a journalist: He is currently managing editor of the Forward, America’s national Jewish newspaper. Previously, he was senior editor at Billboard, the bible of the music industry, and a founding editor of the New York Blade, the largest gay newspaper in the country. His cultural reporting has appeared in more than 50 publications, including the Washington Post, the Village Voice, The Nation, The Advocate, the Boston Phoenix, and the Chicago Sun-Times.

He has also worked on a number of books. He co-edited the award-winning anthology Policing Public Sex: Queer Politics and the Future of AIDS Activism (South End Press). He penned short stories and personal essays for several more collections, including an homage to his ex-lover in Boy Meets Boy (St. Martin’s), a tale about intergenerational sex in Generation Q (Alyson), a conversation with his mother in Mama’s Boy (Painted Leaf), and a story about Princess Diana in Bar Stories (Alyson). He is also a travel writer; in addition to contributing to several guides, he authored the 2003 book Fodor’s How to Take a Road Trip.

In his spare time, Wayne has marched with Queer Nation, lobbied Capitol Hill with the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and organized demonstrations with Sex Panic. He served as associate producer for the AIDS documentary “Our Brothers, Our Sons,” in which he also appeared. He modeled for the 1998 “Kissing” calendar by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. In 1998, Wayne was named one of the country’s “Best and Brightest Under 30” by the Advocate, the national gay newsmagazine.

A native of Silver Spring, Maryland, Wayne has lived in Greenwich Village for the past 10 years. He received his bachelor’s degree from Tufts University in social politics, and his master’s degree from New York University in American studies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 345 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (April 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786716606
• ISBN-13: 978-0786716609
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,230,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book, and then tell a friend about it!, October 6, 2006

By 

J. Baxter (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hard: A Novel (Paperback)

This extraordinary novel arrived on the scene with too little fanfare, and although it comes from a mainstream publisher, it was (and is) relegated to the "Gay fiction" section at Barnes and Noble, wedged in between the beach reads.

"Hard" could be a beach read, it's funny and sexy enough for that. And it lacks the Violet Quill stylistic pretensions of an earlier generation of gay novelists.

But Hoffman's first novel is so much more. Let me backtrack a second and say that I almost never read fiction anymore, especially not gay fiction. One more tortured coming out story and I will explode.

But this novel had me from the first page, and I read it one night. I couldn't put it down until I had finished it, and it must have been 3 or 4 in the morning by then.

While the book is often laugh-out-loud funny, it deals with serious and important themes that are not talked about in our community -- at least not in a productive way. Perhaps a novel was the only way to address them.

I urge you to read this book. Hoffman has captured his generation in these pages.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sexy, thought-provoking, and fun!, May 23, 2006

By 

korper (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hard: A Novel (Paperback)

It's the rare gay-themed novel that trusts its readers to be educated grown-ups, and I'm happy to report that Wayne Hoffman's Hard is part of that small club. This zippy read could ostensibly be dismissed as another potboiler in the tradition of Tales of the City, but it has a subversive undercurrent that elevates it to another level. The likeable characters span the spectrum of comfort with their sexuality, from Moe, "the sweetest mouth in New York," to Frank, the repressed (and repressive) newspaper publisher. As they butt heads over what behavior is acceptable in the age of HIV, the dialogue veritably crackles, and I was swept up by the author's passion on the subject. Whether or not you have an opinion on the government's regulation of gay sex (and hopefully you do), you'll find this a great read. Gay life in late-90s NYC is evoked perfectly, and the sex scenes (of which there are many) are refreshingly trashy. Is it possible to end a review of this book without resorting to the cheap pun, get Hard? I guess not....

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book, May 23, 2006

By 

William W. Thomas "wwt" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hard: A Novel (Paperback)

Hard is a novel set in the "sex wars" around the subject of HIV prevention in New York City in the 1990s. The book pits Moe Pearlman, a young graduate student and sex-positive activist, against Frank DeSoto, one of the generation who lost almost all of his friends and lovers to HIV before protease inhibitors came along. DeSoto leads a crusade to shut down all of New York's bathhouses, sex clubs and adult theatres, and Moe spearheads a movement to fight back. Having lived through this era, as an HIV activist, though not in New York, it's amazing how Hoffman gets the details right. While Moe is clearly closer to Hoffman's heart, what's amazing is that Hoffman humanizes all sides of an incredibly contentious battle that was a matter of life and death for those who were fighting it, but was invisible to a lot of "mainstream" America at the time. Beyond painting a vivid picture of a fascinating era, Hoffman has created beautifully-rendered portraits of all of the novel's main characters, gay men trying to make their peace with how to have a love life and a sex life with the spectre of AIDS looming large. As a gay man in my midthirties now, I haven't seen many reflections of myself and my peer group in literature, and I'm grateful to Hoffman for capturing the voices of the kind of people I knew in the 90s. Definitely check this out.