Customer Reviews

Skydiving on Christopher Street

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Stan Leventhal's novel gives a fairly accurate depiction of what it was like to be a gay man of the Baby Boomer/Sexual Revolution generation in Manhattan in the early 1990s. Stuck in a going-nowhere relationship and living in a tiny apartment in the West Village, the narrator (whose name is never mentioned, or at least it is not mentioned often) has to come to terms with being HIV+, after having lost many close friends himself. The book is an interesting glimpse that should have been a lot longer. But, it is the last writing Leventhal did before his own death. Some aspects of the story seem awfully abbreviated, especially the narrators very quick acceptance of his HIV+ status (there are many other better books on that topic). But, Leventhal touches on a lot of challenges facing a gay New Yorker of his generation in the early 1990s: bad bosses, alienation from heterosexual siblings, issues with parents, gentrification, and losses on many levels. The writing styles change from one chapter to the next, but it's a quick read and not unworthwhile, as the protagonist faces his problems and manages to keep optimism in sight.

Leventhal's legacy to gay fiction: helping found the Pat Parker/Vito Russo Library at the Lesbian and Gay Community Service Center in NYC.