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Lädt ... Vulgarian Rhapsodyvon Alvin Orloff
  
Keine Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch.  xenoglossy | Mar 8, 2024 |    Diese Rezension wurde für LibraryThing Early Reviewers geschrieben.1  wevans | Nov 16, 2023 | Diese Rezension wurde für LibraryThing Early Reviewers geschrieben. sjbb0123 | Nov 15, 2023 | Diese Rezension wurde für LibraryThing Early Reviewers geschrieben.The story follows Harris, an unsettled, unhappy, and unrealistic person who, in the end, never changes. He says he must get away because the people around him are monsters, but he will never leave and his friends are not the problem. Harris is his own problem. Orloff writes convincingly, capturing the personalities, the quirks, the voices, the concerns and delights, and the unique feel of that time and place. But more than anything else, he conveys a sense of end of times that permeates the whole story, through the person of Harris, who has not aged well and who only survives by leaching off of his friends. As the lyrics to the Queen song go, “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” The short answer is yes. The longer answer is, for Harris, that “Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth” will never happen. For me Vulgarian Rhapsody started out as great fun, but ended up a sad tale, indeed. "Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters" is Harris' story. (  )1 fasterhorses | Nov 11, 2023 | Diese Rezension wurde für LibraryThing Early Reviewers geschrieben.I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the title intrigued me. This is the tale of Harris, a complex person with many facets. He can be seen around town day or night in department stores sampling colognes, high-end haberdasheries critiquing clothing, dive bars and house parties offering up his cynical opinions and partaking of the free food and booze. Harris is an overly opinionated and annoying gay barfly. But there is something about Harris that keeps people interested in him. The narrator tells of the lives and times of the citizens in San Francisco’s gay neighbourhood around in 1999. Things are changing in the area. Cheap apartments are no more as the dot com bubble is growing. Techie types with increasing income are taking over and the rents are rising at a rapid rate. Harris earns his income doing phone surveys, when he shows up to work. Harris rents the couch of a friend for a place to live. When she gives him notice to move, due to his sporadic rent payments, Harris is in a bind for a place to live. An apartment of his own is out of budget. The various people in Harris’ world and the style of the narrator and his additional comments on the changes of their world, make for an entertaining read! (  )1 ChazziFrazz | Nov 8, 2023 | keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
A whirlwind tour of San Francisco's fabled queer bohemia in the waning days of the 20th century, as the city's budget bon vivants work to save their eccentric lifestyles in the face of tech gentrification by LAMBDA award finalist Alvin Orloff. Harris, San Francisco's most annoying gay barfly, doesn't mean to be bitchy, passive aggressive, or insulting. But he's so bedazzled by his own critical brilliance he feels morally obliged to share his scathing opinions with the world at any and every opportunity. This irritates no one more than his roommate, Maxine, an avant-garde transsexual cabaret singer. When she overhears him badmouthing her on the phone she flies into a rage and expels him from their apartment. This crisis couldn't come at a worse time. The year is 1999 and the "dot com" boom has rendered cheap housing nonexistent, and Harris, who works as a part-time telemarketer, is--as usual--low on funds. Will he be able to convince one of his eccentric, semi-dysfunctional friends with a rent-controlled apartment to let him move in? Vulgarian Rhapsody immerses readers in a fading bohemia of queer dive bars, drag clubs, and countercultural cafes. The book's narrator (a longtime frenemy of Harris who's every bit as snarky and annoying as he is) tells the story with sadistic relish and an ironist's eye for the absurd. Anyone feeling sickly from too many uplifting stories of personal empowerment, precious coming-of-age tales, or sugarcoated romances will find the perfect antidote in this hilariously acidic comedy of manners. A must-read for fans of Brontez Purnell, Phillippe Besson, and Ryan O'Connell. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
LibraryThing Early Reviewers-AutorAlvin Orloffs Buch Vulgarian Rhapsody wurde im Frührezensenten-Programm LibraryThing Early Reviewers angeboten.  Aktuelle DiskussionenKeineBeliebte Umschlagbilder
 Google Books — Lädt ...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyBewertungDurchschnitt: (4.31)
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1
The book is zippy and funny, with a touch of Austen pastiche to the narrative voice. It's firmly in the school of comedy where the point is to watch terrible and somewhat pathetic people be hoist by their own petards, but it's not without a certain wistful affection for its now-vanished milieu. It has no plot to speak of, and its sense of humor won't be for everybody, but it's an enjoyable afternoon's worth of reading for anyone who does enjoy watching self-absorbed people self-sabotage, especially if you also have an interest in recent LGBTQ history. (