Customer Reviews

The Winter of Our Discotheque

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The cover of this book is what first grabbed my attention but what was between the cover is what really kept me glued to my chair. This was one of the best books I've read in a long time. In one word, this book is FUN! It doesn't take itself seriously and it provides a good time. I'm recommending WINTER to all my friends!

I brought "Winter" on vacation with me because I loved the title so much, and I was captured immediately by the beautifully written first line. Although I'm at a point in my life where I often fall asleep reading a few pages, this book kept me up until midnight--and I got up at 6 am the next morning to finish it! The story is well-paced, absorbing and evocative of the 70s; the characters are totally believable and sympathetic; and the subtle word play is witty and hilarious. Often when I read first novels I find myself getting sort of anxious on behalf of the novelist, but in this case I was completely confident that the author wouldn't betray my trust. I was rewarded with a great, satisfying read and the only thing I regret is that I no longer have the anticipation of discovering the pleasure this book gave me.

Any novel that takes as its title an allusion to one of Shakespeare's most famous lines is making a promise to readers that may be impossible to keep, but this book delivers, admirably, on almost all counts. Intelligent and darkly funny, it is an engaging and fast-paced (sometimes breathlessly so) summer read that ultimately is far more satisfying than most books in its genre. At the heart of its well-developed, fully realized cast of characters are Tony Alexamenos, a young surfer whose beauty proves to be as much a curse as a blessing, and Dallas Eden, the obese, scheming, but ultimately benevolent Machiavelli, who is instantly besotted with him and transforms him from a grease monkey at his father's gas station into a pioneering superstar male model, though at considerable emotional cost. Tony's lovers include an aging child prodigy, a thoroughly evil athlete/dancer, and a married, disabled Vietnam veteran and father of twin boys. These characters drive the story until the last 100 or so pages, when the complex plot really kicks in and pulls the reader relentlessly forward to a terrifying climax and an ultimately poignant resolution.

But there is more than just character and plot to this book. The author creates a world in which the reader can live and get lost in. The descriptions of Florida (where I live) and New York City locations are vivid and sensual (in that they arouse many senses, including sight, sound, even smell). The period detail (the 1970s) and the cultural context (references to such things as Patty Hearst's kidnapping, the Vietnam war, and the comatose Karen Ann Quinlan) seem accurate and well researched. (The icing on the cake is the cameo appearances of movie and TV stars from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, who are friends of Dallas, who is a comedian and B-movie star: among them Bob Hope, Barbara Billingsley (Beaver Cleaver's mom), and the entire cast of Gilligan's Island! There is a scene between Liberace and Sonny Bono you'll never forget.)

There also are plenty of hot, hot men, and lots of romance and sex (though not really explicit stuff).

If anything, this book may be a little too ambitious in its scope. It covers ten years, during which Tony is transformed from poor white trash to a wealthy and sophisticated male model. He also starts out naïve and ends up pretty worldly, maybe even jaded. Sometimes these transitions seem a little rushed, and there are a couple of places where the events of six months or a year are compressed into a sentence or two. The author gives us "road signs" to explain these things, and it's not really confusing, just a bit disconcerting at times. My advice to readers is to slow down and savor the details of plot and character.

It may sound like a cliché, but this is one of those books I didn't want to end, even though, as I said, I raced to the finish to see how it turned out.

Many times gay writers who fancy themselves "brutally honest" in their observations of gay male life are really just annoyingly bitter. Not Beierle. He reports factual observations with just the right touch. Enough seasoning to be tasty but not too much to make the reader gag. I enjoyed this book immensely and thought the characters were richly painted, all deeply flawed, but likable -- the type I would want as friends. (except Devlin and we all know at least one person just like him). Another great aspect of this book is that it is set in the seventies, but a different portrait of the seventies than is usually presented. Okay, Andrew, where's the sequel?

I stumbled on this book by accident, and was pleasantly surprised. This was truly a great read, and I am looking forward to another by this author.

I ordered this book on a whim and wound up enjoying it -- in the sense that there is so little truly worthwhile contemporary gay fiction to begin with. This book starts on the longest day of the year in the last summer of the 1960s, and from there becomes a "pilgrim's progress" -- or more properly a "rake's progress" -- for a young, impossibly attractive Florida teen, taking him through the 1970s and 1980s. The shallowness, humor, and plot contrivances of this novel are, curiously, part of its appeal.

Mr. Beierle has written a masterful novel. The characterization was so terrific that each time I read the book I don't want for it to end. I have e-mailed the author and he responded with a thank you and also reported that his next novel was in the works. "Andrew, I can't wait any longer!" Whether it is a sequel or not I am anxious to read more from this most talented writer. Highly recommend this one!

Guy De Rosa

Los Angeles, California

There's something about a soap opera that just hooks you. And this book uses all the tricks of the genre...from characters (naïve, innocent, loving, plotting, conniving, deceitful and dastardly) to plot twists (love found, love rejected, love discovered, love abandoned and love triumphant)...to keep you flipping through its near four hundred pages without pause as it asks and answers the question - can a surfer stud/grease-monkey from the wrong side of a south Florida island find happiness in a world of the rich and beautiful gays.

Our surfer stud/grease-monkey is 17-year old Anthony Alexamenos who toils in his drunken father's service station pumping gas and finding a new meaning to the word "service" as he discovers his first gay love which is soon lost. With pure naiveté, Tony is plucked from the station, cleaned up and awarded a scholarship to a drama school with the behind-the-scene string pulling of wealthy Dallas Eden, who is addicted to beautiful boys. Unfortunately, Tony falls for a very closeted professor and is whisked off to New York City, where he ends up stripping as a cast member in a new Broadway musical called Hair.

From there the book takes us through all the twists and turns in ten years of the life and loves of our hero. Be prepared to meet some unusual and very interesting characters along the way. In true soap opera fashion, you'll love some and hate others. And in case you missed it first hand, you also are able to discover the wild and wanton world of New York City that existed in the period between Stonewall and onset of AIDS.

Personally, I enjoyed the book because Tony's life in New York coincided with a time period when I regularly visited New York on business. Back then, I had the opportunity to visit all of the historically famous and infamous gay points of interest (including Phillip Rose dancing on the bar of the Anvil in his full Native American regalia long before he became the first member of the Village People). As I followed Tony's adventures, it was like revisiting a period of my past.

So if you're looking for a book to help you pass a long winter's night, you might want to give this one a try.

The cover says nothing at all for what is really in the book. the flow of the book pushes all the emotions right out of you. I picked it up and could never walk away for more that a few seconds before I had to pick it up again. It was so good i read it twice just to make sure i diden't miss anything. Very good! I can only hope that Mr. Beierle will write another. The only thing you need know is don't read the last page because you will mess the hole thing up. Everyone needs to get it and just alow the ocean spray to cover your face. I would only hope that all of you have lots of love and life........... boomer.

The Winter of Our Discotheque is not only a smart and witty book, but it is also compelling reading - a book that is hard to put down. The story is woven around interesting characters, who make it easy for the reader to see the humanity, compassion and wisdom of people with a different lifestyle, in another time period. Disbelief suspended, one is entertained, amused and enlightened, and looking around for a sequel...