A House on the Ocean, a House on the Bay: A Memoir [Paperback]

Felice Picano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1998

A House on the Ocean, A House on the Bay spans the heyday of Picano's life in the Pines and Manhattan during the 1960s and 1970s. He chronicles his love affairs and the tortuous intricacies of a longtime love triangle, his hilarious misadventures as a bookstore employee (arranging a book party hosted by Jackie Onassis, lunchtime rendezvous in secret tunnels below Grand Central Station, getting framed for embezzlement!), and the thrills and agonies involved in the writing and publishing of his first novels, including Smart as the Devil and Eyes. Picano also regales us with stories about the legendary "Class of 1975, " the "Gay 2,000" - hip, political, talented, beautiful young men who formed and molded gay culture as it exists today. AIDS eventually spread through the Pines like wildfire and about 98 percent of the "Gay 2,000" are now dead, but Felice Picano has lived through it all, and he gives voice to those times with humor, candor, and wistfulness.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A leading light in the gay literary world, Picano won last year's Ferro-Grumley Award for the best gay novel for Like People in History (LJ 6/15/95). Here the versatile author turns his novelist's eye on his own life in what is officially dubbed the third volume of his memoirs?though in some citations the previous two "memoirs" turn up as fiction. He divides this work into two "books," like neatly matched, summery novellas. The first takes place in late 1969 and 1970, as his writing career evolves; the second moves ahead four years as his first novels are published. There is the standard name-dropping (Bette Midler, Rose Kennedy, and Arnold Schwarzenegger) and the usual settings. The post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS New York gay scene of Greenwich Village bars and Fire Island summer sublets is not completely realized here. But Picano brings honesty and intimacy to the story with such details as a shadowy triad love affair, a cancer scare, and the conflict between writing and publishing. His glints of flashing wit and subtle hints of dark decadence transcend cliches. Recommended for academic and gay studies collections and for large public libraries.?Richard Violette, Social Law Lib., Boston, Mass.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Picano's memoirs already have quite a following among gay culture mavens. Given the success of his novel Like People in History (1995), this third volume of recollections may prove even more popular than its predecessors. It begins in Manhattan during the semicloseted 1960s and proceeds through flaming Fire Island in the pre-AIDS 1970s. Although his literary and artistic allusions still smack a little of pretension (who but Picano, for example, would metaphorically link the infamous paths through Fire Island's pines and paths in a Proust novel?), Picano is well able to make his growth as a writer, his struggles to establish relationships, and his Greenwich Village tales into arresting autobiography. He may never have Armistead Maupin's literary flair, but Picano is definitely gifted enough to ensure this book's popularity with lesbian and gay readers everywhere. Charles Harmon --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571199364
• ISBN-13: 978-0571199365
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,099,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of Picano's memoirs to date. Absolutely compelling., September 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A House on the Ocean, a House on the Bay: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Frankly, when I got to the final 100 pages, on Gay Pride Night, no less, I was so compelled to finish the book that I stayed up all night to finish it and then pack for a business trip to London.

Picking up his life in the mid-1970s, Picano gives an account of post-liberation, book store jobs, love affairs, friendships, and the wisdom of time and difference.

Once again, it is split in parts. The first details a tortured menage a trois in which Felice is the one wanted "for his mind." He works as a book store manager and plans a career as a writer.

In the second part, he discusses the Fire Island scene, the "Gay 2000" who influenced gay culture and the broader culture at large, and his job at a fancier bookstore--unnamed by recognizable as Rizzoli.

Picano, more here than elsewhere, comes into contact with more recognizable celebrities--wide-ranging from Rose Kennedy to Bette Midler (in her bathhouse singer days).

Picano also reflects on his position as a survivor--the remaining 2% left after the AIDS crisis devestates the Gay 2000, and his role now as a witness.

Also apparent is Picano's fine education, cultural appreciation, love of writing, determined confidence, and perceptive mind. This is the book that sent me into a summer of reading whatever Picano books I could find. It's hard to imagine anyone--gay or straight--not getting something out of this memoir. Truly a voice of his generation, and for future ones as well

Yeah, I liked the book. :-))

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Picano's Finest Hour, April 24, 2001

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A House on the Ocean, a House on the Bay: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Although I have read most all of Felice Picano's books, I find myself returning to A HOUSE ON THE OCEAN, A HOUSE ON THE BAY most frequently - sometimes just for recalling his atmospheric descriptions of places with and without people, sometimes just to re-visit Fire Island - a place I've never been but that has become for me a solid symbol of East Coast escape. Picano's memoirs at times are overwhelming: how could one man have experienced life so richly and tranposed it to words for us, the voyeur readers? Perhaps the places and people he so succinctly describes are bathed in poetic license, but that only makes the moments in between interpersonal encounters pregnant pauses. Picano has managed to keep us entertained book after book and I eagerly await the release of ONYX.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So far this volume remains my favorite, April 22, 2001

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A House on the Ocean, a House on the Bay: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Checking as to when the next novel by Felice Picano is due out, I realized that though I have read all his books I have never written about them in this forum. Strange, but understandable when I look back over all the experiences of reading his work. Picano writes in the manner of long nighttime walks with a close friend: he shares quips and bedazzling escapades and memories of lost friends like few others. His stories are at once funny, tender, bitchy (in a way that few can imitate), and just plain good stories. In A HOUSE ON THE OCEAN, A HOUSE ON THE BAY he seems to have paused in the midst of memories very special to him...or at least his characters are so acutely drawn that they seem like pages from a diary. If you've ever wondered what Fire Island was like at its peak, here it is. Wonderful tales populated by people you'd like to know....or at least have observed! Felice Picano keeps treating us to fine writing and I eagerly await ONYX!