The Young and the Evil [Paperback]

Charles Henri-Ford (Author), Parker Tyler (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 13, 2009

A stunning work, first published in 1933 by Obelisk Press (Jack Kahane's legacy), The Young and the Evil is a non-judgmental depiction of gay life and men who earn their living there, told through characters like Julian (modeled on Ford) and Karel (based on Tyler). With the added interracial connotations (book was set in Harlem and Greenwich), err, anyone surprised that this title didn't clear customs across the Channel or the Pond? Girodias later republished this work as part of the Traveller's Companion series. Authors such as Djuna Barnes and Gertrude Stein praised it unflinchingly.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Olympia Press (August 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596541350
• ISBN-13: 978-1596541351
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,403,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Young, yes. Evil? Naaaah., January 14, 2007

By 

krebsman (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Young and the Evil (Paperback)

By this time, there's a fairly sizeable American sub-genre of "Bohemian" novels that deal with young artists and their sex-drug-and-alcohol-crazed friends. This is the fourth of this sub-genre that I have read. The others are Kerouac's THE SUBTERRANEANS (1950s San Francisco), Viva's SUPERSTAR (the Warhol crowd in the late 60s) and of course, Henry Miller's Parisian classic TROPIC OF CANCER. Several years ago I was showing some visiting German friends around New York and they asked me, "When did Greenwich Village become a gay neighborhood?" After a little thought, I said that I didn't know, but would guess after World War II when the young men came home from the war. Well, Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler's THE YOUNG AND EVIL shows that I was wrong. This book was published in 1933 and depicts a Greenwich Village with a well-established gay scene, so the Village must have gone gay decades before then. Like the other books I mentioned, this one is virtually plotless and an obvious roman-a-clef, with false names attached to real people. Like THE SUBTERRANEANS, it is written in the present tense. Unlike any of the others, this one has been influenced by Gertrude Stein, much to the book's detriment. One pretentious sentence treads upon another's heels. Most of the time this oblique way of storytelling just gets in the way. However, there's in an interesting sequence of non-sequiturs jumbled together from about a dozen simultaneous conversations at a drag ball that struck me as rather exhilarating. But most of the time the book is a gay soap opera about the tangled emotional lives of mascara-wearing poet boys and the masculine ethnic youth of the neighborhood. Some of it is quite funny. But toward the end, there's a shocking scene in which the boys are attacked and beaten by sailors. Fortunately they are all arrested and taken to jail before they can be too badly beaten, but the episode does bring home vividly the terrors that could be in store for those whose only crime was being effeminate. Fortunately, the book is brief. As literature, I'd say this book's value is minimal. But as an historical artifact I found it quite worthwhile. I'll give it two and a half stars rounded up to three.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Banal and the Fascinating, January 19, 2005

By 

Charlus "charlus" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Young and the Evil (Paperback)

A dreadful novel, pretentious, arty and clearly indebted to Gertrude Stein in its alliterative passages of nonsensical phrases. The characters are cardboard, the plot non-existent and good chunks are completely unintelligible. Saying all that, I found the book fascinating as a historical document of gay life in New York of the early 30's. Village Bohemia, gay bars, the drag balls, cruising on Riverside Drive, gay bashing, rent parties are all here, and written by those who lived it. Those looking for sex scenes will be deeply disappointed because none exist...just the fact that the male characters went to bed or paired off with each other was risqué enough to put terror in the hearts of potential publishers. But as an illustration of George Chauncey's Gay New York none better could be found, an authentic document of the times. Worth every affected paragraph.