Customer Reviews

How Long Has This Been Going On (Stonewall Inn Editions)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This novel is an epic in every sense of the word. I forced myself to stop at 30-40 pages a day, just to savor the story and reflect on the characters. Over a period of 30+ years, the panorama of lives and events, and how they are all interrelated is breathtaking. Under no circumstances should one read the final chapter before digesting the entire book; I've never had a book affect me as much as this one, primarily because it is a series of GAY love stories, and I still get wet-eyed about the ending scene.

When I first finished reading this book, my reaction was simply, "Wow." Ethan Mordden manages to take five very different decades of gay history and distill them into a compelling story that shows where we've been, where we're going, and how we've changed over the years. The cast of characters is ever-changing yet constant, and his finale, in which his original 50's twink drag artiste is now the old man comforting the modern-day victim of a fag bashing is both encouraging and devastating at the same time.

"How Long Has This Been Going On" is that rare epic that manages to be very intimate and yet sweeping, and Mordden's keen eye for detail combined with his ability to create believeable characters makes this a real page-turner. Whether you're an old queen who grew up in the severely closeted days, a former clone from the 70's, a Cha-Cha boy who got smacked in the face with the reality of AIDS early on or a 90's always Out and Proud ACT-UPper, this book has something for you. But, beyond that, if you're straight and interested in modern gay history, this novel is the education you need. Mordden presents a panoply of diverse faces of a community, sometimes touching, sometimes pathetic, often hopeful.

How long has this been going on? Forever -- and yet the stories Mordden present here are timeless. This novel is definitely a don't miss read.

A wonderfully broad account of the modern gay movement, told in a thoroughly engaging way. The characters seem real...all of them, even the minor ones. I cried several times reading the novel...sometimes with happiness, sometimes with sadness. A thoroughly enjoyable (and educational) book. Highly recommended.

This was the first piece of gay fiction I ever bought, and I don't think I could have made a better choice. I love this book. It took me through so many emotions, and I get very nostalgic when thinking about it. Perhaps my only problem with the book is that I was always waiting to see what would happen to one set of characters when the narrative switched to other events and places...like a soap opera that leaves you hanging, waiting for the next tidbit. But I think this book deftly explores first love, old love and true love in a deeply moving manner.

One literary work that I have read recently which touched me deeply, but, morevover, which surprised me, too, is this lively one by an author, Ethan Mordden, whose writings I always have enjoyed, whether fiction or about film, music, or whatever. "How Long Has This Been Going on?" is only one of the many literary and music-oriented works by this multi-talented writer that I have read and savoured, then re-read again and again, in full or in part. Some of Mordden's other fiction is even better than this novel, but I was impressed at how Mordden sustains the epic style of this 590 page "brick" of a book. Mordden's other works of fiction tend to be episodic, essentially amounting to interweaved short stories, but this massive work shows the author's unanticipated skill in creating a work of such panoramic scale.

The book comprises the accounts of a series of fictional characters whose lives eventually (and ingeniously) come seemlessly to intersect, being tales of the lives of gay men and lesbians from 1949 to 1991 and of the American society of those changing times. This is really is an huge accomplishment, never flagging in interest or in coherence. The characters are very sympathetic, for all their peculiarities and failings, which Mordden does not flinch from recounting. My favourite two characters are Blue, a kind-hearted, rustic Southern guy (of the variety so often denigrated as "poor white trash"), who also happens to be of irresistible good looks and multi-orgasmic sexual potency, turned loose in New York City (and parts beyond), and Walt, a very cute and lovably quirky musician from the Midwest, whom fate brings together with Blue, then separates, and finally reunites, amidst the adventures of many other fascinating boys, men (some of them those boys grown older), and women.

Some readers have complained of the artificial and overly highbrow dialogue, but, for the most part, I disagree with this caveat. It is, usually, the more intellectual and politically activist personalities who express themselves in this way, in their own cerebrally "naturally unnatural" way of speech, as it were. The more earthier and more direct characters usually express themselves in vocabulary and diction that are natural and quite believable. The variety of the ways in which each converses abets Mordden's strongly individualised portrayals of them. I find it amazing that a writer from the Mid-Atlantic states (the part of the U. S. of A. from which Mordden hails) is able to capture with such authenticity the folkways and speech patterns of the rural, Southern character from the backwoods that Blue so quintessentially is, conveying with such rightness the slang, accent, regional archaisms, word order, and all the rest of Blue's very Dixified way of expressing himself, with utter believability, yet without any sense of artificiality or of literary condescension whatsoever.

Despite the length of the novel, I was sorry when I arrived at the end of this immense piece of fiction. I wanted it to go on and on, to over the years following the 1990s and the later lives and adventures of the intensely interesting people who populate its pages. Perhaps fate already has given Mordden the wisdom and opportunity to write a sequel that is awaiting publication, of the kind that he has produced so often in his delightful "Buddies" series of novels.

Recently a friend of mine was elected head of a GLBT political organization. I gave him a copy of this book, and inscribed it to the effect that if he wished to fight for our rights than he should know whom he is fighting for.

Mordden has the ability to cross the boundries of our omnipresent GLBT community. He also follows society's, and our own, perceptions of who we are. There is no niche in which to place us, no place where we cannot be found and no commonality in our community other than our sexual orientation.

It has been a few years since I first read How long has this been going on? and I have read it again since. You can not truly read this novel; you can only re-read it (ok, so I am borrowing a bit ). If a novel can not capture time, place, and character, then I am not impressed. Mordden's overwhelming control of the classical elements is on the order of Vidal, Williams, Michener, Hemmingway...just to name a few of my other favorites.

But, just as I could not rely on a comparison of Capote to Salinger to explain how an author works, I could not possibly identify Mordden in this way. Perhaps in another time Mordden would have achieved the critical and public acclaim he so rightfully deserves and has certainly earned. The characters are so fully developed and so vivid that you become friends or foe with them. You feel a personal interest in their future. And if any effort has been put forth from the author I was never aware of it. I did not feel the drag of managing the subplots or the excrutiating attention to detail paid to each era. The move from generation to generation is seemless. Mordden's style is readable and flowing. The events pull you along. Never are you hastened away and pushed along from one jumpy event to the next. I felt that I grew with the characters and I fawned over them, felt pride in their accomplishments, shamed them when they were bad, and loved them and cried for them when they could not love themselves and knew not when to cry.

I am no critic. I am just an average guy who happens to be well read. Ethan Mordden is a formidable novelist. Check out his Buddies trilogy to confirm that statement. My favorite, by far, is Some men are lookers.

Mordden writes very believable novels that evoke emotion and never betray the reader.

The first time I read this book I found the large cast of characters distracting. The weaving in and about among their stories made it confusing to keep them clear. I was, nevertheless, engaged with the progression of plot events and the march of time. I later gave it to my partner to read and found myself reading over his shoulder. I re-read the book and could this time appreciate the entwined plot details and especially the symbolizing of this era of our society in the characters' lives. This very difficult and challenging task has been handled well by the author. The book serves as both education and fiction. It is wonderful.

I had read the majority of Ethan Mordden's buddy series before I tackled this book. I think I have purchased it in about 5 different places and given it to friends. It is that important a work. I have an inordinate love of historical fiction, but this book is a the most beautiful tapestry of gay America...back to World War II, when public congregation of gays was illegal, through the beginnings of the Mattachine society on into the 60s and the beginnings of liberation...through the era of AIDS; your heart breaks as you lose one character after another. I felt my emotions had been played like a harp with this book. This work should be on the bookshelf of EVERY gay man and lesbian in America. I aint usually this effusve, folks. This was an incredible novel.

This is by far the best book I have ever read. I not only made me think, but it made me feel. It timelessly chronicles the gay experience. I completely related with the characters and saw much of myself in many. I was on an emotional rollercoaster with this book - one chapter required me to go to a friend's house for a hug.