41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, if ultimately sad, story of fabulous Ptown, September 23, 2002
This review is from: Ptown: Art, Sex and Money on the Outer Cape (Hardcover)
I first visited Ptown just after the mid-Sixties when two gay artist friends of mine bought a house there and turned it into a very barebones B&B with a gallery attached. Ptown was a great place, and I have returned there many times since.
I found Manso's book to be well written and entertaining, despite a minority of Amazon reviewers who found it quite otherwise. His style is straightforward, and the narrative is a combination of history, storytelling and gossip interwoven in a very deft manner. He develops various topics in the story of Ptown and does an excellent job of weaving in the life stories of a wide spectrum of Ptown's inhabitants. If you have a problem reading Manso's book, then "walk/don't walk" signs must be daily life threatening situations.
The author sketches in the pre-colonial and 19th century history of Ptown with interesting anecdotes; however it is in his presentations of the development of the Portuguese fishing community, the beginning of the arts colony and the arrival of the earlier gay settlers in the 60s and 70s - and their battles, cominglings and final integration - where he excells. The lives of many people are explored and they weave in and out of the Ptown story over the years so that one gets a real feel for the community.
There were three reviewers who claimed that the book is homophobic, though one of those reviews has now disappeared. As a gay man, I really feel compelled to comment on those claims. And my response is "{crud}!" One of these complainers after making that assertion, then goes on to also complain that certain topics are treated at too great a length - one of them being a gay man who has been at the center of Ptown's life for decades, and has been involved in many of community service projects. Maybe she read so fast she didn't realize he was gay.
Several members of the established gay community are featured repeatedly, prominently and positively in the book. Manso has certainly balanced his attentions very fairly among the Portuguese, artistic, and gay communities of Ptown, and he has done a great job showing how the town various elements could pull together when faced with crises.
However, in the end this is not just the story of the life, but the death by strangulation of an old diverse - get that word, "diverse" - rock 'em, sock 'em town funky old place. The impact in the Nineties of luxury real estate development aimed overwhelmingly at wealthy gay people and a flashy commercial environment for gay visitors has all but killed the town. The powerful arts and business conglomerates - very heavily gay in their makeup - are advocating more and more economic development and centralization; however, failing to point out that it will primarily benefit them, and not the old long time communities of Ptown.
The Portuguese, the artists and the old time gay residents are not only being pushed out by the sky-high costs of life in Ptown, they are not wanted by the wave of gay arrivistes who are indifferent, when not antagonistic, to Ptown's past history and traditions - and the new arrivals make no bones about. It is ironic that we gay people who make so much - in our political campaigning - about diversity are actively and with malice destroying it in Ptown. Manso is not homophobic on this score even, from my own personal experience I would say he's been, if anything, extremely lighthanded.
I had decided in the 90's to investigate Ptown as a place to settle in year around. I was fortunate enough to have enough money to consider purchasing an apartment there and felt that if it were well enough situated I could deal with the hordes of summer visitors that almost suffocate Ptown. However, I wanted to get a picture of the all-year residents, and, therefore, stayed for three off-season months with two gay friends who lived in Ptown. During that time they seemed to be constantly and unwillingly sucked into "us against them" conversations. Twice they were visited by recent gay female residents who proceeded to instruct them on what their attitudes should be on local issues, and in each case departed with a shameless warning that "If you don't support us, you'll be sorry you live here." I was stunned - my friends were established gay residents in town. I left convinced - and Manso's book confirms the rightness of my decision - that the new Ptown was not run by the kind of people I would want for neighbors. Ultimately I found that Europe offered more congenially integrated gay-straight society.
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27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very special achievement, July 10, 2002
This review is from: Ptown: Art, Sex and Money on the Outer Cape (Hardcover)
Not at all the gossip-ridden quick-read i had been led to expect--but a really tragic story of the destruction of one of America's most special and historic towns--a place where innovative art has been created for decades, a place where everyone was welcome, but a place that now is being erased from the face of the earth by big money and political correctness. There's a lesson here for every community.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
REQUIEM FOR TOLERANCE AND A UNIQUE TOWN, October 12, 2004
This review is from: Ptown: Art, Sex and Money on the Outer Cape (Hardcover)
I do not know nor have I ever met Mr. Manso. I think he has written a better than average book that is entertaining, enlightening and sadly disturbing. Let me first point out that the negative reviews here have no substance. They more resemble hysterical reactions of bratty children caught misbehaving than book reviews written by intelligent adults. They do not cite examples from the book itself to take issue with but rather rely on emotional name-calling and imaginary conclusions arrived at without any support. Manso wrote a fine book the facts of which are mostly in the public domain and independently verifiable to anyone taking real issue.
Peter Manso discusses Provincetown's history, evolution and devolution of one of the most exciting and interesting cities of the world. As a straight man that has fallen in love with Provincetown over 15 years ago, I am very grateful to Mr. Manso for pointing out some of Provincetown's current problems. I have considered buying a house there and living in it year round. But after reading it and some of the reviews here on Amazon, Manso's critique has been thoroughly confirmed. It seems that there are people who hate the idea of tolerance even while pretending to be "politically correct." They seem to reject heterosexuals and homosexuals living, working and playing side by side.
Tolerance is for me an extremely important quality in the town I wish to live in for the rest of my life. However, it seems to be undesirable to some. According to at least one reviewer, paranoid militant lesbians have launched an attack on not just heterosexuals who have the audacity to want to live or even just visit P-town, but even on homosexuals who don't pledge allegiance to the party line. The reviewer is a male homosexual.
One of Provincetown's most endearing qualities to me has been its tolerance and willingness to live and let live. I have loved its rejection of mindless mainstream mores. That may sadly be going the way of most other American towns that have an "us against them mentality." It is ironic that gays and lesbians that have been on the receiving end of the discrimination stick would now turn into reverse bigots. What a great way to insure more fear and hate! Bravo! You have thrown down the gauntlet to those homophobes for whom your exclusivity fulfills their prophecies.
On my last visit to Provincetown I stopped into a real estate office and confirmed Manso's allegations of property values driving out the very people that have been born there and who welcomed the wealthy gays who now seem set on throwing out the poor Portuguese, painters, writers and anyone else who can't afford the rent they are now setting.
My wife and I have a number of gay and lesbian friends. One of them has told me a number of times how he dislikes many gays and lesbians that want contact with only homosexuals. I didn't really believe that many homosexuals were like that. I couldn't understand how he believed that let alone that it might be true. After reading Manso's book and the reviews it has inspired I have come to see what my friend is talking about. Perhaps some gays and lesbians do want a town exclusively homosexual. All I can say to them is beware what you wish for! Segregation has never produced anything good thing.
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