Dancer From the Dance
A Novel

I'd heard about this book forever and finally got around to reading it. I waffled between liking it and appreciating it as I was reading it. The writing is unique and effective. But I felt like I was reading the same twenty pages over and over and over again. Which is, ultimately, the point. It's in......more

4.5, rounded up. There's a reason Holleran's debut novel was instantly declared a gay classic upon its publication back in 1978. I first read it a year or so later, and although its depiction of early '70's New York gay culture had no personal resonance for me (having been a more or less closeted te......more

A book I've read several times, although not lately. At one point in my life, when I was supposed to be studying for an exam, I would re-read this book instead. Now, I'm scared to read it again, in case it no longer lives up to what I remember. It was a cultural sensation at the time— you could buy......more

Absolutely loved this classic American novel: The lyrical, evocative writing, the sense of place and time post-Stonewall and pre-AIDS, the story and how Holleran plays with literary tropes. First published in 1978, "Dancer from the Dance" revolves around Anthony Malone, a blond young man born in the......more

Andrew Holleran's groundbreaking 1978 novel is a lyrical, funny and elegiac book about a certain segment of gay life in mid-to-late 70s New York City. The modern reader will appreciate the glimpse into post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS urban gay life, with its discos, tea dances and all-night parties. Some be......more