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Dancing in the Dark
Set against the glitter of Manhattan society is "one of the most acute and serious novels on the theme of modern relationships in the last decade...Hobshouse has leapt into a rare class of novelist-as-social historian that was the metier of Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf."-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 20, 2023
A type of novel I have a deep fondness for: intimate, extremely specific character pieces less about any "plot" per se than a microscopic examination of human relationships, behaviors, & emotional entanglements. This one is particularly good at capturing the type of (relatively) minor silences & obfuscations that occur within all relationships, both romantic & platonic, that can quickly calcify with unintentionally devastating effect. It also made me realize how few books—or at least how few I've encountered—from the perspective of what we affectionately call a f*g h*g or fruit fly, providing an interesting slant on perhaps the otherwise familiar literary terrain of pre-AIDS gay New York City in the 1970s/early 80s.
Hobhouse is an exquisite prose stylist, but it also has the effect of creating a certain stasis; chapters often feel like they kind of lay there instead of move. Also comes perilously close to imploding in the last third—it's been a while since I felt so angry by a narrative turn of events—but it manages to save itself at nearly the last moment & I had to admire the risk Hobhouse mostly pulls off. "Minor" in a way that I mean as the highest compliment.
"Yet it was heroic somehow to live as though life were no more than this; impressive to be able to say, casually, stoically, that the things which the world values—monogamy, mortgages, family, 'job satisfaction' and social approval—are worth no more than this was: the ability to recognize the splendor of just such a green tie"
Hobhouse is an exquisite prose stylist, but it also has the effect of creating a certain stasis; chapters often feel like they kind of lay there instead of move. Also comes perilously close to imploding in the last third—it's been a while since I felt so angry by a narrative turn of events—but it manages to save itself at nearly the last moment & I had to admire the risk Hobhouse mostly pulls off. "Minor" in a way that I mean as the highest compliment.
"Yet it was heroic somehow to live as though life were no more than this; impressive to be able to say, casually, stoically, that the things which the world values—monogamy, mortgages, family, 'job satisfaction' and social approval—are worth no more than this was: the ability to recognize the splendor of just such a green tie"
June 25, 2021
This curious relic from the early 1980s really got me thinking.. about relationships and marriage. It centers on a very particular (sort of) broken one and concerns itself with seeing what makes it tick or tock. You see the world in which they live but you don’t really feel that world. You meet the people (especially a “band” of merry gay men) in their life but you don’t understand them. You’re lost in your head without getting into their heads. It’s all very sophisticated and smart.
It also really got me thinking.. about fruit flies (yknow women who enjoy the company of gay men) and the gay men who love them back. It made me remember this place called The Men’s Room—a men’s only backroom hidden inside a mega-club called Gay 90s—downstairs in the techno room there was a men’s bathroom and inside there was a stall without a toilet but with a door that led to The Men’s Room where.. you can imagine what went on in there.
For some reason or another this book really got me thinking.. about going in and out of The Men’s Room and what it felt like going from one very secret world and returning into another one, which itself was inside the actual or real world. That journey into and out of that room taught me as much about my friends, straight and otherwise, as it did about myself. This book took me back to The Men’s Room, through that stall, down the hall, into the club, past the dancers, past the bouncers, through the entrance, out of the 90s and back into their world.
It also really got me thinking.. about fruit flies (yknow women who enjoy the company of gay men) and the gay men who love them back. It made me remember this place called The Men’s Room—a men’s only backroom hidden inside a mega-club called Gay 90s—downstairs in the techno room there was a men’s bathroom and inside there was a stall without a toilet but with a door that led to The Men’s Room where.. you can imagine what went on in there.
For some reason or another this book really got me thinking.. about going in and out of The Men’s Room and what it felt like going from one very secret world and returning into another one, which itself was inside the actual or real world. That journey into and out of that room taught me as much about my friends, straight and otherwise, as it did about myself. This book took me back to The Men’s Room, through that stall, down the hall, into the club, past the dancers, past the bouncers, through the entrance, out of the 90s and back into their world.
September 8, 2023
Would prefer 3 and a half stars but I can roll with the punches and give the benefit of the doubt to optimism.
Finished very shortly , the last 120 pages I read on the Amtrak and at home in my bed.
Limits of a personalized egalitarianism and equal romantic loving. Best scene is when she thinks she’s Christ himself for sleeping with a gay man. Crazy
Definitely a bit homophobic however and the ending is sudden and falls flat.
A lovely find all the more so for the coincidental nature of its discovery. The vintage contemporaries version is far superior to whatever this is. This was the whit and blue binding that caught my eye in commonwealth books and with an upcoming New York trip I decided to rip through it.
Good find!
Finished very shortly , the last 120 pages I read on the Amtrak and at home in my bed.
Limits of a personalized egalitarianism and equal romantic loving. Best scene is when she thinks she’s Christ himself for sleeping with a gay man. Crazy
Definitely a bit homophobic however and the ending is sudden and falls flat.
A lovely find all the more so for the coincidental nature of its discovery. The vintage contemporaries version is far superior to whatever this is. This was the whit and blue binding that caught my eye in commonwealth books and with an upcoming New York trip I decided to rip through it.
Good find!
April 21, 2025
I found this book on the sidewalk in park slope a few weeks ago and instantly was drawn to the incognito queer radiation of it. I became so obsessed read it while walking home from the train. Janet Hobhouse is extremely sharp. Her words dissect the most minute details of her characters; chopping their actions, glances, thoughts into tiny little bits of information; until some essence of their soul is able to filter through the pages into your presence. I struggle to believe this novel was nonfiction because of how complicated the characters and relationships grew. They were refreshingly unique, painfully flawed, and completely unforgettable.
Other reviews called this a period piece, and I agree--I learned a lot about 80s Manhattan life. The primary focus is a mid/late 30s hetro couple (Isabella and Morgan) and how their relationship changes as they befriend a gay man (Claudio) and his friends. The reader intimately explores the (male) gay scene in the 80's, some "man to man" relationship advice, a woman's expectations of marriage with children, queer sex/loneliness pre-AIDS, cheating, and homophobia. It's like I time traveled and became close with some Manhattan people from 40+ years ago; complete with their attitudes and biases.
I believe Queerness is a threat to heterosexuality because it illuminates systems of domination and control disguised as "how men and women love each other". As Isabella spends more time with Claudio, she becomes more critical of the systems of her life. She begins to question what fulfills her; critiquing her job, friendships, and marriage. She becomes fascinated with her own satisfaction. This sudden sense of self-interest jars Morgan; who finds her distance both unbearable and a relief. Their relationship is complicated, but best detailed "as a marriage between two only children that cling to each other as refuge from the rest of the world" (loosely quoted). The threads of their tether unwind as Isabella becomes a "fruit fly" for nights spent dancing at gay clubs.
Like many dualistic themes in the novel, Isabella both adores and abhors the gay scene. She loves the closeness, the admiration, the beauty, and freedom. She adores wading in the surface. Then some nights she stays out too late, catching glimpses the darker sides of her environment. She becomes hyperaware that she's the only woman in the room, or encroaches on a gay leather BDSM space. She describes those parts of gayness as "harsh", and as the novel progresses she discovers that same harshness in her queer friends as well.
I find it interesting that what breaks Isabella's fascination with independence from Morgan is a natural disaster that literally shakes her back into a state of total surrender to his control. Once she "snapped out of it" she then views Claudio with total disgust. She goes from adoring him entirely to being completely repulsed. I've never read such an intimate breakdown of what goes through someone's head as they interact with a flamboyant queer they're disgusted by. It was interesting to me in the same way serial killers are.
Other reviews called this a period piece, and I agree--I learned a lot about 80s Manhattan life. The primary focus is a mid/late 30s hetro couple (Isabella and Morgan) and how their relationship changes as they befriend a gay man (Claudio) and his friends. The reader intimately explores the (male) gay scene in the 80's, some "man to man" relationship advice, a woman's expectations of marriage with children, queer sex/loneliness pre-AIDS, cheating, and homophobia. It's like I time traveled and became close with some Manhattan people from 40+ years ago; complete with their attitudes and biases.
I believe Queerness is a threat to heterosexuality because it illuminates systems of domination and control disguised as "how men and women love each other". As Isabella spends more time with Claudio, she becomes more critical of the systems of her life. She begins to question what fulfills her; critiquing her job, friendships, and marriage. She becomes fascinated with her own satisfaction. This sudden sense of self-interest jars Morgan; who finds her distance both unbearable and a relief. Their relationship is complicated, but best detailed "as a marriage between two only children that cling to each other as refuge from the rest of the world" (loosely quoted). The threads of their tether unwind as Isabella becomes a "fruit fly" for nights spent dancing at gay clubs.
Like many dualistic themes in the novel, Isabella both adores and abhors the gay scene. She loves the closeness, the admiration, the beauty, and freedom. She adores wading in the surface. Then some nights she stays out too late, catching glimpses the darker sides of her environment. She becomes hyperaware that she's the only woman in the room, or encroaches on a gay leather BDSM space. She describes those parts of gayness as "harsh", and as the novel progresses she discovers that same harshness in her queer friends as well.
I find it interesting that what breaks Isabella's fascination with independence from Morgan is a natural disaster that literally shakes her back into a state of total surrender to his control. Once she "snapped out of it" she then views Claudio with total disgust. She goes from adoring him entirely to being completely repulsed. I've never read such an intimate breakdown of what goes through someone's head as they interact with a flamboyant queer they're disgusted by. It was interesting to me in the same way serial killers are.
August 31, 2018
I'm a little more than halfway through and don't really feel like continuing. It kind of feels like I'm watching a soap opera or something. It was likely somewhat avant garde at the time it was written but it just feels dated. True people are still debating how to navigate thier own marriages, but no one with any sense is still talking about the importance of marriage as an institution and what it all means.
October 29, 2022
This was an excellent book about a couple whose marriage is in trouble and the wife latches on to a group of gay men and starts going out with them. The plot is not major but the richness here is reading about urban relationships in the world in the early 1980s and there is a lot to think about. It is unfortunate that the writer passed away in 1991. An interesting sequel would have been the effect of AIDS on this merry group of party people.
November 27, 2023
A nice treat. Randomly picked it up looking for vintage contemporaries/'literary brat pack' books (although I don't think Hobhouse was tecnically grouped with them).
Is this The Beautiful and The Damned updated for the 80s?
Not sure. Never read that particular Fitzgerald.
Probably more like Rosamond Lehmann for 80s New York instead of 50s London. Very interior, detailing the vicissitudes of attraction and un-attraction.
One of the children of Elective Affinities.
Is this The Beautiful and The Damned updated for the 80s?
Not sure. Never read that particular Fitzgerald.
Probably more like Rosamond Lehmann for 80s New York instead of 50s London. Very interior, detailing the vicissitudes of attraction and un-attraction.
One of the children of Elective Affinities.
December 30, 2011
This book is definitely a product of its time and should be read in its 80s context to be enjoyed. The central focus of this novel is a marriage between Isabella and Morgan that has welcomed a third party; homosexual Claudio into their everyday domestic life. Hobhouse’s writing style is unusual but not exactly in a good way, coming off as a reporter describing a scene rather than a writer creating one. This seems to give her characters a lack of depth and she uses racial and limp-wrist stereotypes a little more than necessary. That said the book does a fair job of chronicling the social change of the 80s that saw homosexuals become more accepted in general society (albeit with lingering unease for some) as well as the perceptions of sexual freedom in the gay community. The nightclub/gaybar scenes are pure 80s and make me wish this got filmed as a movie..even a telemovie (except maybe the gay-fucking room part).
July 11, 2014
Dancing in the Dark is very well written; it's clear that Janet Hobhouse is a very talented writer. However, it seems to be more of a period work, something that's not relatable to today's social norms. If I had read it in the 80's I'm sure I would have been more interested, though as someone who is living out their youth in the 21st century the whole homosexual theme does not seem very taboo. I also felt that the ending did not do justice for the rest of the book, the explanations for the couples diminished relationship and subsequent renewal felt weak and non-identifiable. Overall I enjoyed her style of writing, though the actual story would not interest most people from this current generation.
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January 15, 2022It's like Ann Beattie's Love Always mixed with Chuck Kinder's Honeymooners plus Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco but way more lingering and poetic. Read it on a lot of lunch breaks slow as it felt intended.
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February 8, 2015i think i'm going to hold off reading this until i can read it over a weekend.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews