Title: How Long Has This Been Going On? Author: Ethan Mordden Published by: Villard Books, 1994 ISBN: 0-679-41529-7 [hardcover, 590 pages]
From 1949 to the present, from the city to the heartland, this epic novel brings together a rich cast of characters as, bit by bit, men and women come out of hiding to create America's trendiest yet most revolutionary subculture: gay life.Ethan Mordden gives us a truly sweeping saga, moving from the seedy bars and "meat racks" of the post-World War II gay underworld, through the history-making stonewall Riots of 1969, and on to the era of Gay Pride and triumphant marches down the Main Streets of urban America. Along the way, the author seeks out heroes and heroines to entertain and inspire us: the Mistress of Thriller Jill's, a delightfully acerbic lesbian bar owner; the Saint of Christopher Street, a devastatingly handsome policeman who becomes a legendary porn star; and the Green Goddess, a drag queen who, we eventually learn, is the novel's true narrator, spinning out his comic, touching, and at times shockingly erotic tale.
Among the rest of the cast crowding this sprawling stage: a pair of gay high-school jocks and their closest friend, a straight woman; a young southern hustler prowling Manhattan's mean streets; a stifled housewife whose life takes an irrevocable turn the day a woman stops to help her change a flat tire; a he-man movie star with a penchant for dangerous encounters; a serial killer; an enchanting child forced to confront the shadow of AIDS; and countless others, growing in confidence and self-esteem as the gay political movement blossoms.
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