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84th out of 693 books
—
848 voters
Faggots
Larry Kramer's Faggots has been in print since its original publication in 1978 and has become one of the best-selling novels about gay life ever written. The book is a fierce satire of the gay ghetto and a touching story of one man's desperate search for love there, and reading it today is a fascinating look at how much, and how little, has changed.
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
June 1st 2000
by Grove Press
(first published November 17th 1978)
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This book presents a satire of 1970s gay life. Through its overly complicated writing style, confusingly large cast of characters, and melodramatic and unrealistic dialog, it boils down to one impotent criticism: gay men make poor life decisions because they have daddy issues.
The book is poor quality literature even if your view of books falls into the Wilde/Nabokov school that what determines the quality of the book is the quality of the writing and not the content of its message. "Message" asi...more
The book is poor quality literature even if your view of books falls into the Wilde/Nabokov school that what determines the quality of the book is the quality of the writing and not the content of its message. "Message" asi...more
4 likes · like · see review
So, I couldn't keep an interest for more than 30 or so pages. I decided to read this book because Randy Shilts praised Larry Kramer as a revolutionary gay (and later AIDS) activist who broke through all of these boundaries and really garnered a lot of heat from all angles with the publication of this work of fiction.
However, I was ultimately disappointed. The writing was not entirely easy to follow, the prose was poorly written, and the characters were either flat or just plain un-memorable.
Perh...more
However, I was ultimately disappointed. The writing was not entirely easy to follow, the prose was poorly written, and the characters were either flat or just plain un-memorable.
Perh...more
Typical Larry Kramer. Bring your own iconic "cachet" to the table, mix in plenty of defiant f-you attitude, and adopt the posture of creating "a brutally frank document of a unique time and circumstance" and presto, you are free to verbally fetishize all the astounding self-indulgence and destruction of your past, and have it called literature.
Get off the pedestal you put yourself on Larry, and remove your homemade hero medals. You're not a rebel. You're a grouchy old bipedal hard-on with a good...more
Get off the pedestal you put yourself on Larry, and remove your homemade hero medals. You're not a rebel. You're a grouchy old bipedal hard-on with a good...more
I think that this was a very good book that was overlooked by the gay community because it was written so intensly and passionately that the community didnt want the world to percieve us this way. I think that it was very much this way at the time it was written esp in NYC. Larry Kramer is an activist/aids survivor and politician. People either really like him or hate him. I like him and think that he has many sides that people dont always see. A lot of reasons that I like him can be found in hi...more
Omar Gámez, fotógrafo mexicano, realizó una serie de fotografías que publicó el año pasado en un libro titulado The Dark Book. Las imágenes recogen impresiones de aquellos sitios sórdidos, apelmazados de oscuridad y tentación, en que individuos anónimos buscan sexo, una caricia rápida, el contacto físico sin mayores consecuencias emocionales: Dark Rooms.
Las fotografías son reveladoras a pesar de la poca luz que las ilumina. Los cuartos oscuros, los cuerpos esperando como obstáculos, los ojos en...more
Las fotografías son reveladoras a pesar de la poca luz que las ilumina. Los cuartos oscuros, los cuerpos esperando como obstáculos, los ojos en...more
Whoa, this book definitely lived up to both its title and its cover art. I first became interested in this book after reading "And the Band Played On," where Larry Kramer emerges as an unsung hero of the early AIDS crisis in New York. “Faggots” is mentioned in that work as a divisive manifesto that enraged members of the gay community for its portrayal of gay men as sex maniacs incapable of monogamy. There’s certainly some truth to that argument and it’s easy to see why the book has its decriers...more
However lost on critics, not to mention members of the gay establishment at the time, "Faggots" is a brilliant Mepinnean satire that takes as the object of its satire the intellectual conceit of gay sexual liberation, and the notion that gay culture would occupy a leadership position in showing America how to overcome its sexual prudery and commitment to values such as fidelity, monogamy, and true love. In fact, Kramer explores a subculture is which nothing is taboo except for the concept of mo...more
Simultaneously filthy and a lot of fun. As a kind of loving and angry document of what would turn out to be the last days of the pre-AIDS/pre-Ed Koch NYC bathhouse/Fire-Island gay scene, the book works very well, but only if you're willing to take Kramer's criticisms as his own. Obviously a lot of people were really pissed off about the book when it came out and I can see why they might have been, but it's not my place to side for or against. The book is consistently well-written (with plenty of...more
This book was okay. It was very graphic and is not for everyone. I did find it hard to follow. There are a lot of different characters and it is hard to keep up with the story line. Kramer did do an exceptional job portraying himself as the main character, and his views on homosexuality in the city lifestyle. I would recommend this book to anyone who is not squeamish or offended by graphic sexual content. But I would recommend that one would read it when they have a lot of time on their hands. B...more
Oh fuck me, this is bad. Assigned by a gay book group I was expecting something pretty good as it was labelled as a gay classic. Lordy it is dreadful. Paragraphs are likely to be one sentence with about 50 commas. You think I'm exaggerating? The one that made me (almost) hurl my kindle across the room I've just counted out: 219 words, 36 commas. One sentence that took 2 1/2 pages and I have no clue what the hell it was on about.
It does have lots of sex, so if you like flicking through unintelli...more
It does have lots of sex, so if you like flicking through unintelli...more
It just gets it right. Fine, it's pessimistic in ways and even maybe a somewhat self-hating or at least reductive portrayal of a marginalized group in 1970s NYC. But it's compelling, funny as all hell and its indictments should perhaps--given their author--be regarded as efforts to rile up the community enough to claim their rights and not bind themselves to, well, marginalization. Kramer is the man who asked, "Where is your anger?" 30 years after this book was published. He's been asking his wh...more
Funny. Shocking. Sad. A cry in the dark.
Fred Lemish is the perfect narrator to me. Neurotic, faulted, well-meaning, sentimental, awkward, determined, analytic, and goodhearted, he took me on quite a ride through the Summer of His Life.
The characters are many and it takes a bit of reading to figure out who's who, but with names like Dinky, and Dom Dom, and Winnie, and Rolla, and Boo Boo...Well, enough said. I think I enjoyed The Winston Man the most, him and Abe, the poor, clueless Abe.
There's...more
Fred Lemish is the perfect narrator to me. Neurotic, faulted, well-meaning, sentimental, awkward, determined, analytic, and goodhearted, he took me on quite a ride through the Summer of His Life.
The characters are many and it takes a bit of reading to figure out who's who, but with names like Dinky, and Dom Dom, and Winnie, and Rolla, and Boo Boo...Well, enough said. I think I enjoyed The Winston Man the most, him and Abe, the poor, clueless Abe.
There's...more
Parts of this book bothered me, but it wouldn't be satire if it didn't. I usually have an ambivalent feeling towards most satire, as satire is basically the passive-aggressive friend of literature, like that person everyone knew in high school who would needle people relentlessly and would then insist "it was just a joke-don't get so defensive" when someone finally snapped and told them to stop. This book is Kramer's satirical take on the club/bath house/Fire Island gay New York scene of the 70s...more
"Yes, sex and love were different items when he wanted them in one, and yes, having so much sex made having love impossible, and yes, sadism was only a way to keep people away from us and masochism only a way to clutch them close, and yes, we are sadists with some guys and masochists with other guys and sometimes both with both, and yes, we're all out of the closet but we're still in the ghetto and all I see is guys hurting each other and themselves. But how to get out! And yes, the world is giv...more
So far this book as been true to form on what transpires in the gay community. Whether its was back in the 70's or present day. We have all experienced or been privy to the ramped drugs scene at all the clubs as well as those curcuit parties. What I still to this day don't understand is when gay men who spend hours and hours in the gym to develop the supposed perfect body to attact only the same type of guy (if they are lucky). But then some of those same men that only work on their outer-shells...more
I wonder why I never reviewed Faggots before? Oh, that's right, I was scared to! Because if I recommend it very strongly, which I would very much like to do, and people here actually give it a go, I might end up with swathes of people defriending me on the spot and writing rude comments on my profile. So : don't read this if you have a nervous disposition. Please! Because Larry Kramer will discombobulate your psychosexual equilibrium. He will make you boggle, along the lines of do guys really do...more
9 likes · like · see review
Larry Kramer's voice is an important one and he has a lot to say. Unfortunately his strengths as a polemicist are not matched by his writing skills. This novel is unfocused and features some pretty crappy prose. Still, there's enough entertaining and thought-provoking material to make this worth a read. Today it reads more as a time capsule of the political and social upheavals that fundamentally altered gay life in the late 70s/80s, and the book is more enjoyable when seen on these terms.
This book was written a few years ago, and at the time I am sure it was ground breaking writing. But reading it now just did not do it for me. I did not finish the book. It was well written but I just felt I had heard it all before, or read it all before, or seen it in a movie before. It reminded me of the movie The Boys in the Band. The book is about the Gay lifestyle circa 1980's NYC and Fire Island era. I do feel it is a good book, I just couldn't bring myself to finish it.
This was a pretty fun and satirical read. The style was free spirited, casual, and light-hearted which suits the subject of a promiscuous 39 year-old gay man who wrestles with settling down very well. Kramer jumps from shallow relationship to shallow relationship, describes a lot of orgies, and everyone seems to be pleasure-seeking drug abusers. Although, he takes a lot of characters and words to teach a pretty simple lesson to not abuse drugs and that sex does not mean love it is pretty engagin...more
Not exactly what I expected, but it is an intersting look at gay life in New York during the late 70s. There are moments of just pure surface, but some substance peaks through and is a bit insightful. Some might argue with the authors views, but I would say it makes for greater discussion of and exploration into current gay issues.
A substantial amount of time has passed since I completed a full read of FAGGOTS. I admit, my memory of the material has weakened, and only increases so the further I distance myself from the scripture and the closer my appointment with death approaches. There for, I would have to say, it would be unrealistic for me to give it a fair review at this point. However, my recollected feelings towards this literature can, and have been, expressed in my rating of the book. If, by chance, I find the des...more
No wonder gay men wouldn't talk to Larry Kramer after this was written. I have no doubt the story is accurate, but it's not a very nice portrayal of the gay men's community in late 1970's NYC. What is startling is to read this book now and understand that 2 years later, these same characters started dying of AIDS. Very sad.
larry kramer sure had problems with his fellow queers! a depressing and desperately unfunny read, written by someone who needed to let the love in a little. but hey, he went on to found act-up, so maybe this was a useful exorcism of sorts.
Aug 23, 2009
Tom
added it
This book was the "must read" in the 80's, and gave "slice of life" perspective on a part of the pre-AIDS gay world that most people would never experience. It's definitely dated, but also definitely well worth readin.
A bit cliche, it was still one of the first books I read about gay lifestyle, and it was more direct and to the point than others.
I first read this in 1980 in one day and loved it! Have read it a number of times since and it still dazzles.
Wow, I read this book way back when and it certainly opened my eyes to certain technical aspects. Yeah.
Mar 26, 2010
Valerie Sherman
marked it as to-read
Mentioned numerous times by Randy Schiltz in "And the Band Played On." Figured I'd give it a whirl.
A corageous book for its time, it left me somewhat untouched throughout most of it, even though I was aware of this as a very faithful document of homosexuality in the pre-AIDS days. The ending, however, did touch me and why else would I read books if not to be touched? Every book is, or should be, a self-help book in a way that it HELPS us see something we haven't seen before, identify ourselves with something, learn something, think differently. In this way, Faggots wasn't extraordinary, but i...more
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Larry Kramer (born June 25, 1935) is an American playwright, author, public health advocate and gay rights activist. He was nominated for an Academy Award, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and was twice a recipient of an Obie Award. In response to the AIDS crisis he founded Gay Men's Health Crisis, which became the largest organization of its kind in the world. He wrote The Normal Heart, the...more
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“Holy shit," somebody muttered in the dark.
"A virgin," sputtered another.
"I didn't know they still made them."
"He just did.”
—
2 people liked it
"A virgin," sputtered another.
"I didn't know they still made them."
"He just did.”
“Of the 2,639,857 faggots in the New York city area, 2,639,857 think primarily with their cocks.
You didn't know that the cock was a thinking organ?
Well, by this time, you should know that it is.”
—
2 people liked it
More quotes…
You didn't know that the cock was a thinking organ?
Well, by this time, you should know that it is.”
Dec 16, 2008 08:32am