New York, New York — never to be
the same again
Mountain Climbing in Sheridan Square and Ground Zero
BY
J O E L
R E D O N
Mountain Climbing in Sheridan Square, by
Stan Leventhal (Banned Books, $8.95).
Ground Zero, by Andrew Holleran (William
Morrow, $16.95).
AIDS: “ Writers who dealt with homosexual
life before the plague — the manners and mores
of the homosexual community — have been
quite left behind by a change of circumstances
that blew the roof off the house they had been
living and writing in.” He believes that gay
writers can no longer successfully publish
books
which do not mention AIDS: “ How
rom his apartment overlooking Sheridan
could one write at all, in fact, when the only
Square in New York City — a microcosm
of the world— the narrator of Stan Leventhal’s work that mattered was that of the men
Mountain Climbing in Sheridan Square tells us organizing social services, taking care of
friends, trying to find a microbiological
who he is: Jewish, middle-class, a child of the
solution to a microbiological horror in
laboratories we could not see?”
Do all of us really want to read books about
AIDS?
“ It would not be too much to suggest that
much of a person’s reaction to the subject of
suburbs. He comes to the city, like many, to be
AIDS is directly related to his chances of getting
an artist — at first he’s a folksinger, and finally
it himself,” Holleran acknowledges.
a writer. Here he has a succession of lovers
The truth, whether we choose to accept it or
before he takes his final apartment and his most
not, is that AIDS affects all of us.
permanent lover. He works odd jobs, but learns
Holleran makes a serious plea to his readers:
to accept the fact that he is not yet successful as “ Guard your health. It is all you have. It is the
an artist. He is a people-watcher, a philosopher thin line that stands between you and hell. It is
and a thinker. His social life includes a small
your miraculous possession. Do nothing to
group of friends: Jennifer, who has a daughter
threaten it. Treat each other with kindness.
with whom he explores paternal tendencies;
Comfort your suffering friends. Help one
Donald, a friend from the old days; Max, his
another. Revere life. Do not throw it away for
drag-queen drug dealer.
the momentous pleasures of lust, or even the
The time is vague, but the narrator states
obliteration of loneliness.”
early on in a bar scene: “ Yes, the AIDS crisis
Holleran also asks the ultimate question:
was reaching the proportions of a holocaust.
What does AIDS really mean? He searches for
Yes, two of my best friends had died as a
an answer but finds none. “ For a certain
result... . No, I hadn’t had any affection or sex
segment of the American population,” he
for approximately ten months. No, I didn’t
writes, “ the plague has been a cram course in
think I could survive for another three minutes
death. . . . The longer one lives, the more
without them. . . . But all of the men I know — arbitrary, fragile, magical the world — with its
regardless of sexual preference — go crazy
islands and starry nights — seems; and, at the
after a few weeks of abstinence. I was in the
same time, the more brutal and unappeasable its
thick of the danger zone and knew that some
facts: the virus, the falling brick.” He concludes
thing had to happen soon or I’d become the
simply: “ Life’s a movie people leave at
grouchiest, most cranky man in the city.” The
different times; the ones who remain get to see a
little more of what happens next.”
narrator seems hardly affected by AIDS, except
for an occasional reference to it. And who are
Many of these essays will be familiar to
the two of his best friends who die? Nowhere in
readers of Christopher Street magazine, where
they first appeared. These clever vignettes
the book does one of his best friends die. It’s not
that simple, Leventhal. I wonder if the book
about gay life Before and After define the time
was written long before AIDS and then touched
in which we live (a time when “ obituaries have
up. Anyone who lived in New York in the ’80s
become a literary genre” ), they focus on the
would recognize Leventhal’s New York as that reconciliation of a life of sex to a life of no sex,
they are about a culture that’s changing and
of the late ’70s.
The biggest problem with this book is that the growing up (“ . . . from the joys of liberation to
the horrors of leprosy in one short decade” ).
narrator isn’t very interesting. He has nothing
Included as well are pieces that focus on friends
new to say; he’s typical. He writes: “ Some
times I wonder what keeps me going. And why who have died, artists who have inspired.
For all its exactness. Ground Zero may not
the direction seems so inevitable.” I felt the
be a book you’ll want to read twice, as
same way about his book. Mountain Climbing
Holleran himself points out: “ As admirable as
in Sheridan Square is in no way deep or
the writing or publishing of books about AIDS
profound; it asks little of the reader and takes no
may be, I really don’t know who reads them
risks. But it is an easy read.
with pleasure — because I suspect there is one
thing and one thing only everyone wants to read,
Ground Zero, by Andrew Holleran, first
•
explains the dilemma of people who write about and that is the headline cure found .”
F
troversial opera Young Caesar was composed
— lives up to its record of innovative
programming this season by commissioning the
creation of a new ballet to be danced by Ballet
Oregon.
joint concert with the New York City
Dennis Spaight will choreograph the
Gay Men's Chorus and an unusual
20-minute ballet to men’s choral music by
collaboration with Ballet Oregon highlight the romantic composer Franz Schubert. Costumes
ninth season of concerts by the Portland Gay
and lighting for the production will be under
Men’s Chorus. The 1988-89 season features
Ballet Oregon’s direction.
three subscription concerts with a balance of
Sign language artist Kevin Gallagher will
popular and classical music.
interpret the December and July concerts.
The holiday concert and the spring classical
The 1988-89 schedule:
concert will each have two performances in the
• 4 and 7:30 pm, Sunday, December 4,
Intermediate Theatre of the Portland Center for Intermediate Theatre, “ Strike the Haip and
the Performing Arts. The New York-Portland
Join the Chorus,” a traditional holiday concert
joint concert will have one performance only in with internationally known harpist Scott Grimes.
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
• 8 pm, Saturday, April 15, and 7 pm,
Now on an extensive European tour, the New Sunday, April 16, Intermediate Theatre, “ Song
York City Gay Men’s Chorus has been called
and Ballet,” a classical concert with Ballet
Oregon
“ the most famous gay chorus in the world.”
Under musical director Gary Miller, the 140-
• 8 pm, Saturday, July I, Arlene Schnitzer
member group has made successful com
Concert Hall, New York City Gay Men’s
Chorus and PGMC
mercial recordings and regularly books its
concerts in Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall
at Lincoln Center.
All the performances of the 1987-88
After the New York-Portland concert here on subscription series sold out, so season-ticket
July 1, both choruses will go to Seattle to
sales are expected to increase this year. Current
perform in GALA Festival III, the third
season-ticket holders have the opportunity to
triennial convention of gay and lesbian choruses renew. Season tickets are available at $39, $31
from across the United States and Canada.
and $20. Single tickets will be $15, $12 and $8,
David York, PGMC’s conductor for the past including city user-fee and box-office charge.
six years, will be at the podium throughout the
Ticket orders and requests for information
new season.
should be addressed to PGMC, PO Box 3223,
PGMC — the chorus that commissioned the Portland, OR 97208.
•
zany musical Zillions and for which the con
PGMC announces
1988-89 season
A
O ff to Esther’s Party...
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Portland C&44
Call 297-5 _
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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER I 1 th
DONATION $ I 5
DARCELLE XV SHOW BAR
IN N *
TAX M D U C T ItU
COCKTAILS S SO P.M — M N N tl * SO P M
— AUCTION
7 SO P M
Srd POP H A N D OUTGON
RESERVATIONS REQUESTED CALI — 223-1679.
*
ju st out • 21 • September I988