Customer Reviews

The Young and Evil

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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 Saying all that, I found the book fascinating as a historical document of gay life in New York of the early 30's. Village Bohemia, gay bars, the drag balls, cruising on Riverside Drive, gay bashing, rent parties are all here, and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.

I read this book during a binge of early 20th century gay fiction and I wouldn't say it was 'dreadful.' If you're talking esoterics, Ronald Firbanks is the bloke you want! Wyndham Lewis was equally unrewarding. There was at least some humor in The Young and Evil, when the protag pukes on the straight woman! I laughed. The copy they interlibrary loaned me was printed in Paris on handmade paper--you probably won't find anything so opulent on Amazon . . . I digress, I caught more of a Joycean feeling than Stein but I can't stand that woman!