Temple Slave tells the story of the Espresso Buono, the archetypal alternative performance space, and the wildly talented misfits who called it home in the 60s. The Buono became the birthplace of underground theaterand the personal and social consciousness that would lead to Stonewall and the modern gay and lesbian movement. Temple Slave is a page from gay historya riotous tour de force peppered with the verbal fireworks and insight that are the hallmark of Patricks work.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The author of the play Kennedy's Children and long a presence in New York theatre, Patrick's autobiographical first novel delves into the outlaw history of Off-Off Broadway and the simultaneous dawning of gay liberation. Ground zero is a cafe in New York City's Greenwich Village called Espresso Buono, where, in the early '60s, writers, actors and directors are nurtured in almost fatherly fashion by the cafe's owner, Joe Buono. The narrator, Bob Patrick, acts as the cafe's court stenographer, recording each moment as it unfolds. The events, whether they happened precisely as Patrick indicates or not, ring true, and his characters are humorously, even fatally, human. They are by turns arrogant and humorous, and confronted alternately by promises of a sexual paradise and by visions of an abyss. Part and parcel of Temple Slave is its gay pedigree and courage to reconstruct the erotic nature of those times. The sheer quantity of the recollections make the book lengthy, but it is still compelling. From the conformist '50s to the first shrill yowls of the AIDS era, Temple Slave fills the gap between Jeb and Dash and And the Band Played On and characterizes the time as heady, nihilistic, experimental and, above all, worthy of nostalgia.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Genuinely original, a story of triumph. -- Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I've given this book 4 times as a gift...,
By
This review is from: Temple Slave (Paperback)
Usually books that know how smart they are get on my nerves. As a reader, I'm all non-fiction and fluffy-escapist summer novels. Maybe that's why I love this book -- it's something in between, with humor, wit, and images so vivid, I read and re-read passages. It's never overdrawn, always genuine, and a glimpse into a time in the world that I'd known nothing about (having been born about a two decades too late to enjoy it) from other than an intellectual perspective. But Patrick's novel makes me wish I were there...
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anger in its proper place,
By
This review is from: Temple Slave (Richard Kasak Books) (Paperback)
I was totally taken with this story of the birth of performance art and off-off Broadway. Robert Patrick appears to be writing a novel in Temple Slave (the names have been changed to protect the innocent, so to speak) but in fact gives a wonderfully angry, sweet, sad, touching, detailed and often thrilling account of his experiences as a writer, performer and gay man in New York in the 60s. There's also tons of sex but so what, if Edmund White can do it (re: THE FAREWELL SYMPHONY) why can't Robert Patrick? And if you've ever questioned the value of Warhol and Pop Art you will be as tickled as I was to find that you are not alone.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hysterical Historical Novel,
By Andy (Andykrist@aol.com) (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Temple Slave (Paperback)
"Simon, set the way-back machine for the Sixties." But unlike so many nostalgic wallows, Robert Patrick's coy fictionalization of life at "Cafe Buono" based on his very real life experiences at the grounbreaking Cafe Cino delightfully recapture tumultous, hilarious and touching times. Written in the form of a correspondence to a compatriot in the Off-Off Broadway theatrical revolution he co-founded, its a love letter to us all, gay and straight and every wonderful shade in between. Think of what a "This Is Your Life" segment would be like if Oscar Wilde hosted it....
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
