Out of print, but buy it from abebooks.co.uk
I found myself somewhat lost in the layers of this novel, the dual setting of the unreality of 1980s West Berlin and Chicago’s South Side and the rich cast of characters providing a lot to keep track on.
The way Jed’s identity as gay and Black plays with different ideas of respectability is central, and those around him are also wrestling to the identities they wish to have, the identities those that others give to them, and the gap between the two.
He begins with a rosy picture of gay bar ChiChi, but increasingly there is a darkness within the dynamics of its patrons – which often is the case if you scratch the surface of nostalgia for the tight knit gay spaces of the last century.
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