Times Queer [Perfect Paperback]

Mykola Dementiuk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2008

A graphic dark,coming-of-age story set in New York's infamous Times Square during the 50s and 60s.Introduced to sexual feelings at an early age,protagonist Richard Kozlovsky continues on a path shared by many children who have been touched in a sexual way by an adult,a path of frequent masterbation,exhibitionism,and other precocious sexual behavior.Ricky grows up in spite oh his hard life in a Catholic school, teasing by his classmates,and trying to survive on the streets of Manhattan with sexual predators at every turn.Frequenting the Times Square movie theaters as a teen,Ricky finds a way to supplement his meager existence and later meets the women who will introduce him to the world of women,intimacy,and love.In between he questions his sexuality: is he a faggot?is he a whore?where does he fit in?

Editorial Reviews

Review

Gather 'round, little children, and listen to the story of the day when Times Square was all about sex, drugs, and cold spit. Mykola Dementiuk's hard-to-find chapbook, Times Queer, is about a boy coming of age inside the just-burgeoning hardcore movie houses and girlie shows of Times Square in the 1960s. It's... vivid. Harsh, real, and yes, erotic, in a stomach-churning way. Genuine whoreporn from a time when things were not talked about, at all, in the twilight zone. --Susie Brights Journal

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Synergy Press; first edition (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0975858114
• ISBN-13: 978-0975858110
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,423,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mykola Dementiuk was born in 1949 of Ukrainian parents in a West German DP camp, immigrating to America when he was two. After Catholic grade school & public high school in New York City, he graduated from Columbia University in 1986.

A writer with varied employment, from gyro seller at
Lollapalooza to roustabout at the Big Apple Circus, Mykola
helped create the magic of the Cirque du Soleil performances
of "Alegria" in Santa Monica, Chicago, Washington DC,
Boston, and New York with his electrical work.

After suffering a massive debilitating stroke in 1997, Mykola eventually returned to writing, using one finger to execute the fantasies and psycho-sexual stories of his mind.

Mykola's writing has appeared in issues of Paramour, EIDOS, Aphrodite Gone Berserk, Atom Mind, Jack & Jill Off, and the Hair anthology, Times Queer, Vienna Dolorosa, Holy Communion, Baby Doll, Selected Tales from Synergy Press. Online credits include Frequently Felt, Pink Pages and Velvet Mafia.

Mykola Dementiuk may be reached by regular mail through Synergy, POB 8, Flemington NJ 08822; or by e-mail at: [e-mail]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Times Queer by Mykola Dementiuk, May 9, 2009

By 

Elisa (Italy) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Times Queer (Perfect Paperback)

Times Queer is not for sure a light and sunny novel, it's instead cold and harsh as the neon lights of the Times Square (here Times Queer) of the title. At seven years old Richard Kozlowsky is going with his parents from the suburbs to central Manhattan to spend the sunday at the theater, as a lot of other people in the '50. Only that little Ricky is molested on the tram, and this episode will change forever his perspective on sex; he imprints in his mind the name "Times Queer", a place where you can find the forbidden, sex and easy money, and from that moment on for him sex will ever be something dirty and cheap, and in some strange twist of mind, to "do" in public.

Ricky is obsessed by women, from the curves of a woman's body, but the easy sex he finds with men; in the shadow of a theater, in the public men's room of the big Mananhattan parks, even with some of his friends. (...), Ricky is always the one to receive them, always repeating in his mind like a tantra the name of some dream girl; Ricky never once questions the loneliness of these men, or that maybe there is something more in sex with a man than an easy way to get off for free. The two times he is forced (really forced with a weapon on his head) to have sex with a man from the giving side, Ricky feels sick. And when he falls in love with a woman, she is someone like him, someone who has a very strange perspective on sex.

I don't know if Ricky is straight or gay or in between; when normally young people form their "sexual" mind, Ricky was exposed to the worst side of sex, and I don't believe he had the change to develop his sexuality; he is like a beast trapped in a cage and famished, and when he has the chance to reach for "food" (sex), he does it in a frenzy and without savoring it, gobbling bite after bite, act after act, almost fearing that someone will deprive him of the next bite. And when he is satiated, for a brief moment, he regrets what he has just done, only for soon after searching for another occasion to do it again and again.

Ricky is not a stable man, he is on the verge, but sincerely I feel more pity for him than aversion. The book covers Ricky's life from child to young man, still a teen, but don't judge Ricky's action with a "modern" eyes: the book is setting in the '50 and the beginning of the '60, and 16 years old in that time are not the same of today. It's even more sad to read of modern Ricky who still wanders around Times Square, no more the Times Queer he remembers: the city is changed, is grown, and instead Ricky is still trapped in his cage.