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Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of '70s New York
An evocative coming of age memoir—the story of the education of a wayward wild child and acidhead who, searching for meaning and purpose, found refuge in the demi-monde of the ruined but magical metropolis that was New York City in the 1970s.
Born in the Bronx, Guy Trebay was raised in an atmosphere of privilege on Long Island’s North shore after his entrepreneurial father struck business gold with Hawaiian Surf, a wildly successful cologne company that capitalized on the optimism of the 1960s as marketed to “an adventurous new breed of men.’’ But behind the facade of material prosperity lay the emotional disarray of a household dominated by a charismatic con artist father, a glamorous yet lost and careless mother, a family haunted by tragedy. By the time Trebay established a foothold at the fringes of Andy Warhol’s Factory and the diverse artistic tribes that thrived in Manhattan in that pre-digital era, his father had lost his fortune, his younger sister had been arrested for armed robbery and fled underground, the family house was in ashes, and his mother was dead.
Unschooled and on his own, Trebay became a striver, wending his way through a seemingly apocalyptic landscape populated by a vibrant cast of characters, including washed-up Hollywood screenwriters of the 30s; Warhol superstars like Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling; fashion geniuses like Charles James; and emerging artists, filmmakers, writers, designers, photographers and deejays who would powerfully influence mainstream culture in the decades to come.
Born in the Bronx, Guy Trebay was raised in an atmosphere of privilege on Long Island’s North shore after his entrepreneurial father struck business gold with Hawaiian Surf, a wildly successful cologne company that capitalized on the optimism of the 1960s as marketed to “an adventurous new breed of men.’’ But behind the facade of material prosperity lay the emotional disarray of a household dominated by a charismatic con artist father, a glamorous yet lost and careless mother, a family haunted by tragedy. By the time Trebay established a foothold at the fringes of Andy Warhol’s Factory and the diverse artistic tribes that thrived in Manhattan in that pre-digital era, his father had lost his fortune, his younger sister had been arrested for armed robbery and fled underground, the family house was in ashes, and his mother was dead.
Unschooled and on his own, Trebay became a striver, wending his way through a seemingly apocalyptic landscape populated by a vibrant cast of characters, including washed-up Hollywood screenwriters of the 30s; Warhol superstars like Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling; fashion geniuses like Charles James; and emerging artists, filmmakers, writers, designers, photographers and deejays who would powerfully influence mainstream culture in the decades to come.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published July 9, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
September 15, 2024
“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” ― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
The problem for any memoirist—who am I. Whitman famously pointed out we are all many things. Different moments may call upon us to be one self or another. But at any given moment, we are mostly one thing. Otherwise we are madness—self contradicting. Reading DO SOMETHING I felt caught up in contradictions and frankly was somewhat mad about it. Mad because there is a lot of interest here that could have been quite compelling. Opportunity lost.
There are two books here. There is the family memoir of tragedy and pain and there is the search for selfhood in 1970’s New York amidst the “Glitter & Doom” alternative families centered around drag, fashion and art. The cover and promotional push of the book is focusing on the “Glitter & Doom” portion of the book—and admittedly why I entered and won my copy from a Goodreads Giveaway. The author’s heart however is clearly with the family memoir. The “Glitter & Doom” portion almost feels like bait to get the publisher interested—and it feels like there was pressure to push that part of the book closer to the beginning than it should have been. In the early part of the book the author foreshadows the trauma of his mother’s death and when she ultimately does die—we suddenly cut to another world without a moment to feel the loss. The whole book feels oddly cut and pasted like all the paragraphs fell on the floor and then were hurriedly put back on an available page. There are no chapters. Few natural transitions. The narrative felt like someone else writing your biography based on the random conversations you’ve had over time.
This structure is confusing enough—then throw multitudes of dizzying run-on sentences and constant throw backs and forwards (WHAT I DIDN’T KNOW THEN, LATER WE WOULD KNOW, BUT THAT’S A STORY FOR LATER) and it all starts to blur. People come and go with some getting mini biographies but many barely remarked upon. I still don’t know who Paula was and he apparently lived with her for many years (was it one or two or ten who knows). I had a similar experience where I left a family that had kind of just dissolved and transitioned to a new diverse found family. I knew at the time and certainly know now in retrospect what was happening. This may have been referenced once late in the book as a throwaway but certainly is not the spine of the book as it could/should have been. I loved meeting all his glam friends and feeling the world they lived in but it all felt episodic and disconnected.
Maybe this book was whittled down to its slim 240 pages. That would explain passages like his discussion of working at Andy Warhol’s InterView magazine and saying he never became close to Warhol but of course he wanted to. This made me scream, “what do you mean of course?” He had barely spoken of Warhol specifically before that or after so there is no context for such a statement. I know there is a certain flightiness of youth—flitting from one thing to the next but that shouldn’t be reflected in the narrative discussing that youth.
At the beginning of the book a lot of time is put into setting up the recovery of some family photos as if these would be referred to throughout the book. There are photos throughout the book, would have loved more, but only a couple are from this cache. One more disjointed aspect of the book. It’s as if the stories are stones that the author is skimming on the water from the shore. Some stories go straight into the water never gaining air. Others skip along the surface, some for quite a while, taking the reader along but all ultimately sink at the hands of a sudden transition or confusing dead end.
The problem for any memoirist—who am I. Whitman famously pointed out we are all many things. Different moments may call upon us to be one self or another. But at any given moment, we are mostly one thing. Otherwise we are madness—self contradicting. Reading DO SOMETHING I felt caught up in contradictions and frankly was somewhat mad about it. Mad because there is a lot of interest here that could have been quite compelling. Opportunity lost.
There are two books here. There is the family memoir of tragedy and pain and there is the search for selfhood in 1970’s New York amidst the “Glitter & Doom” alternative families centered around drag, fashion and art. The cover and promotional push of the book is focusing on the “Glitter & Doom” portion of the book—and admittedly why I entered and won my copy from a Goodreads Giveaway. The author’s heart however is clearly with the family memoir. The “Glitter & Doom” portion almost feels like bait to get the publisher interested—and it feels like there was pressure to push that part of the book closer to the beginning than it should have been. In the early part of the book the author foreshadows the trauma of his mother’s death and when she ultimately does die—we suddenly cut to another world without a moment to feel the loss. The whole book feels oddly cut and pasted like all the paragraphs fell on the floor and then were hurriedly put back on an available page. There are no chapters. Few natural transitions. The narrative felt like someone else writing your biography based on the random conversations you’ve had over time.
This structure is confusing enough—then throw multitudes of dizzying run-on sentences and constant throw backs and forwards (WHAT I DIDN’T KNOW THEN, LATER WE WOULD KNOW, BUT THAT’S A STORY FOR LATER) and it all starts to blur. People come and go with some getting mini biographies but many barely remarked upon. I still don’t know who Paula was and he apparently lived with her for many years (was it one or two or ten who knows). I had a similar experience where I left a family that had kind of just dissolved and transitioned to a new diverse found family. I knew at the time and certainly know now in retrospect what was happening. This may have been referenced once late in the book as a throwaway but certainly is not the spine of the book as it could/should have been. I loved meeting all his glam friends and feeling the world they lived in but it all felt episodic and disconnected.
Maybe this book was whittled down to its slim 240 pages. That would explain passages like his discussion of working at Andy Warhol’s InterView magazine and saying he never became close to Warhol but of course he wanted to. This made me scream, “what do you mean of course?” He had barely spoken of Warhol specifically before that or after so there is no context for such a statement. I know there is a certain flightiness of youth—flitting from one thing to the next but that shouldn’t be reflected in the narrative discussing that youth.
At the beginning of the book a lot of time is put into setting up the recovery of some family photos as if these would be referred to throughout the book. There are photos throughout the book, would have loved more, but only a couple are from this cache. One more disjointed aspect of the book. It’s as if the stories are stones that the author is skimming on the water from the shore. Some stories go straight into the water never gaining air. Others skip along the surface, some for quite a while, taking the reader along but all ultimately sink at the hands of a sudden transition or confusing dead end.
August 22, 2024
No chapter breaks. Non chronological. Felt like a run on sentence and I was constantly lost on how we went from here to there. Finished it because I hate to start and not finish.
September 19, 2024
Wound up a bit disappointed, in part because my first experience of NY was enriched by Trebay's writing in the Village Voice. The title suggests a book primarily about 70s New York and the parts that focus there worked pretty well. But the memoir's at least as much about Trebay's family history and that part never came to a point where it rose above fairly generic. Still, there was some very nice passages on the NYC I first came to know. Among them, this about the legendary figure of Candy Darling: "That was how Candy told it, and it never occurred to me at the time to question whether this scenario occurred. What mattered was that it could have. Or, rather, it had to have happend because that was the imaginative, cinematic way in which people like Candy Darling experienced themselves in the specific New York I am describing, at a time when it was not at all unusual for people to shop around for the reality best suited to whatever story they happened to be telling themselves at the time."
Wish there'd been more of the stories showing why that's such a great insight--Trebay wrote hundreds of them in the papers and magazines but only a sprinkling are in the book.
Wish there'd been more of the stories showing why that's such a great insight--Trebay wrote hundreds of them in the papers and magazines but only a sprinkling are in the book.
December 6, 2024
Sort of interesting in the way a conversation with a stranger might be interesting, until the stranger won’t stop talking and name dropping and trying to impress you to the point of exhaustion. The author claims to have run in a million circles of the time including Warhol (and his Factory), actors, intellectuals, fashion designers, artists, etc. but he really wasn’t a part of and didn’t have any significant involvement with any of these groups. It’s more like he ran into a few celebrity-adjacent wannabees and wants that to mean something to the reader.
Also there’s no way anyone could possibly remember an entire lifetime of events so vividly unless they had spent their whole life documenting every minute of every day, making me wonder how much of this memoir is real and how much of it was imagined or fabricated.
Also there’s no way anyone could possibly remember an entire lifetime of events so vividly unless they had spent their whole life documenting every minute of every day, making me wonder how much of this memoir is real and how much of it was imagined or fabricated.
November 9, 2024
I really enjoyed this memoir, about a time I lived through, but about a place and culture that I was somewhat aware of but not a part of.
June 29, 2024
It's almost a miraculous story and it's all true. Guy Trebay is an accomplished writer which it seems he has been all his life. He grew up in straitened circumstances in Long Island, then his father invented a cologne for men which sold well, and Guy escaped to the Bronx and then Manhattan where he wrote for Interview and the Village Voice while also running the juice bar at the Twelfth Floor disco (the one slightly fictionalized in Dancer from the Dance). We don't find out how he arrived at the New York Times but it all seems pre-ordained.
March 24, 2025
I picked this up because I vaguely recalled the authors name and could not place it. Well into the book I realized that he wrote for the Village Voice. I love reading non-fictional accounts of life in NYC in the early 70's. Same territory and social cliques as Lucy Sante, artists, musicians, clubs, writers et al. I missed thattime in Manhattan by two or three years.
It's been many years since I was an avid reader of the Voice. I was impressed that despite Guy's limited education, his vocabulary is fabulous.
It's been many years since I was an avid reader of the Voice. I was impressed that despite Guy's limited education, his vocabulary is fabulous.
June 21, 2024
“Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of ‘70s New York” by Guy Trebay opens with a fire engulfing his childhood home and looks back on the memories that takes place there.
Pigeon pirates, funky hippie handbags, and night clubs, this memoir bounces around New York in the age of glamour. During a time when people entered each other’s lives without the benefit of algorithms, Guy meets a cast of off-the wall people.
This feels less of a memoir and more of an exploration of 70s New York and its revolving door of characters. The book started off really good and then lost me in its ramblings. I would have liked chapters or better breaks in scenes and less run on sentences. I may be the wrong audience for this and feel like those that grew up during the 70s would appreciate it a lot.
Thanks @knopf for the physical ARC (6/25/24)!
Pigeon pirates, funky hippie handbags, and night clubs, this memoir bounces around New York in the age of glamour. During a time when people entered each other’s lives without the benefit of algorithms, Guy meets a cast of off-the wall people.
This feels less of a memoir and more of an exploration of 70s New York and its revolving door of characters. The book started off really good and then lost me in its ramblings. I would have liked chapters or better breaks in scenes and less run on sentences. I may be the wrong audience for this and feel like those that grew up during the 70s would appreciate it a lot.
Thanks @knopf for the physical ARC (6/25/24)!
October 17, 2024
An interesting memoir by a man of my time. With no chapters or headings, Do Something has a stream of consciousness style that sometimes seems fragmented but succeeds in delivering a very personal account. He knew (knows) dozens of celebrities but doesn’t engage in name dropping. Almost none of his colleagues at the Voice are named though their joking and reporting methods and even their desks are described. The Voice itself is just mentioned in passing. He describes his own work with modesty as it’s merely one aspect of his varied and stimulating years in NYC. The city emerges as his sidekick as he finds his way inside it. It makes him as much as did his family. You won’t get much dish here, but you’ll know a pretty thoughtful person.
September 19, 2024
Guy Trebay is a miracle, in part because he managed to learn to write brilliantly and to build a career as a journalist, notwithstanding his lack of a college education, but mostly because he managed to live through so much and not die over the course of his childhood and young adulthood in New York in the 1970s. In his high school years he drugged and stole and took crazy chances. A lot of us did risky things at that age, since all teenagers act like they are immortal, but his edgy behavior was an order of magnitude more dangerous than anything that I did. Then he moved to pre-gentrified Manahattan and hung out as an underage clubber and party boy on the fringes of the Warhol set, living in sketchy places and scraping by in a decadant drug, crime and sex filled world without two nickels to rub together. In the process, he seems to have met and hung out with everybody who made New York a happening place to live at that time, when it was filled with outsized personalities redefining themselves in the most outrageous ways possible. It's a time when I was going to college and law school and was vaguely aware of what was going on in hipster New York, but it was so far away from my life that I might as well have been on another planet. Even after becoming a modestly successful journalist working for The Village Voice, Mr. Trebay still did crazy things, like going to Romania in the weeks after the fall of communism, searching for a revolutionary clergyman, dodging the secret police and driving around in a countryside dominated by armed and aggressive militias while not speaking the language. He lived to tell the tale and it's a story worth reading.
July 24, 2024
Guy Trebay’s early life was marked by the fleeting success of his father’s Hawaiian Surf cologne and the subsequent collapse of their affluent Long Island life, overshadowed by familial strife and personal tragedies. Against this backdrop, Trebay navigated the vibrant artistic scene of Manhattan, where he encountered a diverse array of influential figures, shaping his own path amidst the cultural upheaval of the pre-digital era.
This memoir was not on my radar, but I happened to see it on Libby and put it on hold. It was a different look at a lot of the artists, icons, and life in NYC in the 70s pre-AIDS epidemic.
It did go further to present day, and some of the most interesting stories surround Guy’s memories of his family and run-ins with New York elite underground icons and artists. I really enjoyed it, and it was a quick read.
I did like hearing about his family, and how he grew up. You start to see how his life was shaped by his circumstances and why Guy made the decisions he did.
The last bits of the memoir are especially moving.
This memoir was not on my radar, but I happened to see it on Libby and put it on hold. It was a different look at a lot of the artists, icons, and life in NYC in the 70s pre-AIDS epidemic.
It did go further to present day, and some of the most interesting stories surround Guy’s memories of his family and run-ins with New York elite underground icons and artists. I really enjoyed it, and it was a quick read.
I did like hearing about his family, and how he grew up. You start to see how his life was shaped by his circumstances and why Guy made the decisions he did.
The last bits of the memoir are especially moving.
March 4, 2025
Leaving Story Avenue: My Journey From the Projects to the Front PageMe and the writer are just about the same age and grew up in the same city and both became print reporters but, wow, we've led different lives. Why? Simple: I'm was raised a good Catholic School boy and Trebay was raised an out of control hedonist. If you want a real hoot, read out memoirs side by side. Mine is called "Leaving Story Avenue....my journey from the projects to the front page." I suspect he had a lot more fun than I did but, honestly, I did okay and wouldn't trade my life for his. Still, it's fascinating to see all the similarities but, at the same time, all the very large differences. New York's a big town I guess. Room for everyone.
September 1, 2025
There are two books here. One is a story of the author's family. The other is about the gritty New York world of the 70's and 80's that centers on the downtown scene, the Andy Warhol tribe, drag queens, drug use, AIDS, poverty, the underground art world, the Village Voice among other things. I thought the family story was fantastic and deeply moving. I found the New York part "all over the place" and hard to get emotionally connected with.
I particularly loved the setup to the family piece: the author going through the fire ravaged family home in search of photos and artifacts. I was hoping for more from this (including more than the few photos from the found suitcase). Alas, the story moves to NYC midway in the book. I found myself skimming until Trebay, again, returns to telling more of his family history. All that said, Trebay is a wonderful writer who I always enjoy reading in the NYT!
I particularly loved the setup to the family piece: the author going through the fire ravaged family home in search of photos and artifacts. I was hoping for more from this (including more than the few photos from the found suitcase). Alas, the story moves to NYC midway in the book. I found myself skimming until Trebay, again, returns to telling more of his family history. All that said, Trebay is a wonderful writer who I always enjoy reading in the NYT!
July 7, 2024
Early in his picaresque tale, author Guy Trebay confesses to a lifelong sense of detachment toward sex, not unlike his general feeling of standing just outside in all situations, observing. It's the honing of that ability that's the focus of this writer's memoir. Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of '70s New York is an elegant and riveting account of his metamorphosis from wild, tripping, shoplifting teen to celebrated cultural essayist, a journey that coalesced in gritty, quirky, '70s New York. Young Trebay's a collector of vintage rags, abandoned objects, books, and characters like Jackie Curtis, Sylva Thin, Holly Woodlawn, ballroom drag queen Dorian Corey, and a host of nascent designers and artists. Woven through the narrative is the story of the disintegration of his immediate family and his forensic scrutiny of those events. It's a fascinating read.
June 20, 2025
This is such a melancholy read, and one I hugely enjoyed.
I can see the points that others have made, that what is marketed as a look inside the gritty world of 70s NYC isn't really about that so much as the writer's family life and ruminations on such.
I also felt to some extent that even though it was HIS memoir, we don't really learn that much about Guy Trebay himself. He hints at a career in writing but doesn't really go into such, we don't learn if he had any significant relationships, with either sex. We don't even really see him grapple with his complicated family relationships.
But there's no denying he's a brilliant writer and I was thoroughly happy to go where he took me, I just wish we'd perhaps stayed in some places along the way.
I can see the points that others have made, that what is marketed as a look inside the gritty world of 70s NYC isn't really about that so much as the writer's family life and ruminations on such.
I also felt to some extent that even though it was HIS memoir, we don't really learn that much about Guy Trebay himself. He hints at a career in writing but doesn't really go into such, we don't learn if he had any significant relationships, with either sex. We don't even really see him grapple with his complicated family relationships.
But there's no denying he's a brilliant writer and I was thoroughly happy to go where he took me, I just wish we'd perhaps stayed in some places along the way.
December 15, 2024
A warm melancholy memoir, a Village voice observant writer by fate who gree up in Nassau county Long Island but from age 18 onwards was in NYC at various errant jobs until fate having its way, he ended up at the Village voice.
His reflections and experiences focus on 1960-1980’s of New York, often stories of counter culture misfits and show people of the streets, pre and post AIDS epidemic and family histories and death.
Surprisingly not a word of his personal romances, all stories of his romance with New York the city, they say wisdom starts in wonder and Guy was a true wonderer of NYC with in the 1970’s.
His reflections and experiences focus on 1960-1980’s of New York, often stories of counter culture misfits and show people of the streets, pre and post AIDS epidemic and family histories and death.
Surprisingly not a word of his personal romances, all stories of his romance with New York the city, they say wisdom starts in wonder and Guy was a true wonderer of NYC with in the 1970’s.
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July 20, 2025I felt like this was a story within a story, within a story. It was hard to follow, maybe because it didn’t unfold in chronological order and it jumped around, maybe because the metaphors and deeply descriptive language was too literary for me. His life is fascinating, I was just left feeling more curious about his family. I really enjoyed reading about his sister and his grandfather, and how he described his mother and father at the beginning. I was left wanting more about the family dynamic and how the relationships evolved over the decades.
It’s almost as if Guy was writing two different memoirs: his social life linking to the culture of the 70s, and his family.
It’s almost as if Guy was writing two different memoirs: his social life linking to the culture of the 70s, and his family.
July 9, 2024
You don't have to know anything about Trebay, or even have any grounding interest in the era / milieux he covers (70s-80s NYC by way of Long Island), to get a thrill from this memoir. Evocative, even Nabokovian prose that reveals and conceals; cameos from the famous and obscure; family secrets and tragedies; the evolution of a style and a livelihood; wry humor; a highly refined sense of time. You will wonder about the title until the moment comes. A singular read,
August 7, 2024
I got this book because I felt it might be somewhat relatable. I remember the seventies and thought it would bring back memories. It went way beyond that. Our personal lives seemed to have parallel. I had to deal with a death of a parent at age twelve and it seems that lately I have found so many of my friends have passed.
Trebay tells his story so wonderfully. It's a great story to be told.
Trebay tells his story so wonderfully. It's a great story to be told.
August 13, 2024
This book is like the movie "Minority Report." It's obviously well-written, I think I might have liked some of it, and I had no clue what was ever happening. The author writes in epic run-on sentences that take up entire long paragraphs; he uses words that one would only know if they graduated from Oxford in the 1970s; and he talks about people who 99.9% of Americans born after 1980 have never heard of.
September 26, 2024
Trebay describes his unusual childhood against the backdrop of the 70s era with detailed panache and angst. Though I was raised just outside Baltimore and moved to the Chicago suburbs and he in upstate New York and then NYC, I related to the descriptions of the era and the pathos of that time. Beautiful language and writing, especially the opening scene where he arrives and walks through the remains of his family's mansion lying in ruins from a fire, as he hopes to rescue photos from his past.
December 19, 2024
I enjoyed this book. I’ve read a lot of stuff about the seedy New York City of the 70s and 80s, and while Trebay covers a lot of the same ground here, he is a genial companion whose sharp but fair minded observations are skilfully relayed, and often hilarious. He is curious about people in a fair minded way, which makes you trust his take. I especially enjoyed the stuff about the Village Voice, having read the recent oral history by Tricia Romano, The Freaks Came Out To Write.
January 3, 2025
This author has led a 5-star interesting life, but I found his writing style a little hard to get into. And the non-linear method he used was confusing (to me!). At one point I thought we were in the 1970s but it was the 1990s! I think he was going for conversational, but I just wanted the (extremely interesting) stories and gossip told more directly. I wish I could give half stars, as the section where he discusses working and dancing at the 1970s disco Tenth Floor is 4-star writing for sure.
September 23, 2025
3.5 This was an interesting read, on very various subjects. Don’t misunderstand the “‘70’s New-York” in the byline. The author also spends a lot of time on his Long Island youth. Stepping back and forth between subjects and era’s, it is an utterly personal book. The many names mentioned were sometimes confusing — if you don’t know any of those hundreds of shortly described characters. Still a decent read.
October 7, 2024
All over the place. Who edited this? Not much of an insight in to New York more a disjointed disinteresting family memoir. Repetition, telling us part of something only to say the rest will be revealed later. This memoir is too messy, not coherent…and you don’t need to show off how many English words you know. Feel duped by the title; read one of David Wojnarowicz’s brilliant memoirs instead.
January 26, 2025
A remarkable memoir of coming of age in 1970’s and early 80’s New York amid the cultures and subcultures of the talented, the artistic, and the avant-garde, and somehow becoming a chronicler of all that - a story of finding one’s way, luck, and, by some fortune, being one who would remember, record, and revivify what that era and its personalities were all about.
April 13, 2025
it's an expansive expedition into the world of alternate culture in NY. Lots of name dropping of people who emerged from that scene as 'celebrities'... there's no doubt that trebay had some pretty amazing experiences, but it seemed to start out on a personal level and then transformed into a travelogue of experiences. it was an interesting read but a slow one. i kept on putting it down and starting a new book. each time i returned to it i still felt the same level of lack of motivation to get through it. but i did!
June 19, 2025
Fantastic memoir kissed with New York City’s bygone cultural wunderkinds, infamous glitterati and the author’s own zany familial history. In some ways it’s the perfect work - tender reflections on youth, family and the poignant, inescapable features of life, commingled with a cultural history that can only be told by someone who was there when it all happened.
August 15, 2025
A vivid, photographic mosaic of a memoir. It weaves, serpentine through the personal life of the author, as well as the history of New York City of 1960 through today. The authors love of his people and his city really resonated with me. Having lost family to AIDS in the early days of the epidemic, I found myself connecting with his loss later in his story.
July 5, 2024
A quick read that was part coming-of-age memoir and part wistful look back at the gritty pre-hyper-gentrified NYC of the 1970s. In the end, Trebay's stream-of-conscious writing style came across as disjointed without successfully coming together to make any broader point.
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