Gutterboys

by Alvin Orloff

A twisted gay tale of unrequited love in Lower Manhattan in the early 1980s filled with scenes of humorous debauchery. Jeremy, a shy 19-year-old, falls madly in love with Colin, a disturbed yet well-read older hustler. Though Colin rejects Jeremy as a lover, he takes him on as a protégé, introducing him to the hilariously depraved world of new wave nightclubs and gay bars in the days before AIDS and the war on drugs. Innocent Jeremy, protected by the guardian spirits of his beloved dead grandmothers - one a fiery Jewish socialist, the other a proper British matron - becomes increasingly unstable under the strain of his unanswered devotion. When Jeremy finally snaps, he reaches an understanding with Colin that he never anticipated.

Genres: Queer, Gay

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Alvin Orloff began writing in 1977 as the teenage lyricist for The Blowdryers, an early San Francisco Punk band. He spent the 1980s dabbling in avant garde theater, underground cabaret, performance art, and nightclub DJing before remembering all he ever wanted to be was a writer. His memoir, "Disasterama!: Adventures in the Queer Underground 1977 - 1997," an alternately hilarious and heartbreaking coming-of-age-story set during a time when youthful exuberance and flippancy collided with the deadly seriousness of homophobia and AIDS, was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award in gay memoir. He is also the author of four novels: I Married an Earthling, Gutter Boys, Why Aren't You Smiling? and most recently, Vulgarian Rhapsody.

Reviews

[I. Merey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-reading this AGAIN. The reference to Charlie Chaplin made me go watch City Lights. Chaplin is suchh a little trans dude icon. I never thought of it. The movie was so good and soooo fkn sad. Jeremy was right. The positive ambiguous heartache ending on Chaplin's face fits this book perfectly.

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I'm just going through and re-reading all my classics now.

I read this book almost ten years ago for the first time, and I remember it really struck me then. I may have even written the author some mania-infused letter at 2 am, after having spent most of the night reading his book. He even responded and I was star-struck. Now, that remains a bit of an embarrassing memory.

If you fancy yourself a non-self-absorbed person, you may get frustrated with this book. I personally will admit a certain modicum of self-centeredness and could relate to both main characters.

The protag is a bright-eyed naive slightly prudish Jewish gay boy who goes on a BPDesque magic carpet ride with a gorgeous, disturbed, jaded older hustler. They both use each other: the older guy pumps Jeremy for cash and puts him to work when it suits him, keeping him in check with rather broad, obvious emotional manipulation. The younger in a more insidious way, fuckzones Colin, hoping that his help will sooner (not later) result in a sexual or romantic relationship between them and sees him a bit as a sentient party-drug. Seeing this from a mile off, Colin 'befriends' Jeremy, but keeps what he actually wants, always out of reach. Or does he, in his own broke-glass way, actually love him?

Glitzy, New-Wave-y, dancefloory-y, raunchy, funny and often sad nanigans ensue. The book kept me on a soundtrack, which I enjoyed, and Orloff's writing was as fresh as I remembered. Depressed, fake-woke queers looking for the next party while the world around them burns. Yes, maybe they should've been out facilitating the revolution; but maybe sometimes, it really is the party that must be the revolution. The thread of Reagan and his wife ('the Eva Braun of the White House') weaving through the background, was an interesting, ominous echo of present day US...

[Douglas Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gutterboys- by Alvin Orloff- this was my favorite read of the month, but it turns out it is not a YA book, it is just a book with 18 year old protagonists. If you are my age, I highly recommend this one! The title and jacket art are deliberately salacious and unfortunately very misleading. The book is written in 2004 but is set in New York City in the 80’s and romanticizes and glamourizes that time period in all the wonderful ways you want to believe that time and place really were. The author is clearly no fan of Reagan. Our protagonist, Collin follows his unrequited love to the Big Apple to pine after him and the first part of the book is sad but familiar to those who have suffered from a love unreturned. After a while the pattern became a little tedious and I was ready to wrap this one up. I’m still not sure how I feel about the ending.

[Daniel Morrical · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The cover is not a great first impression but it was a great read about two friends, Jeremy (the narrator) and Colin, both gay, living in New York during the the early 80's Punk and New Wave Era. Jeremy is in love with his friend, Colin, but it's not reciprocated and his conscience comes in the form of his two beloved and deceased grandmothers. He's constantly hearing and responding to their constant reactions to how he's living his life and the decisions he is making. The music references throughout the book make it solidly authentic and I really loved Jeremy's voice and sense of humor.

[Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but despite the three star rating it is more 3.5 stars at parts and five stars in other parts. I lived during the decade the author describes it was not all the way he describes it. Had it been published in 1984 and I had read it then instead of being published in 2004 and reading it in 2023, I probably would have loved this book and given it five stars.

It isn't bad for a first novel, was a bit too sentimental or the characters were not realistic, and it did drag on and was boring at times. How many times can you write about prostitution/pimping, boring generic sex hook ups, sex bars, sex clubs, tiresome stereotypes about gay men/LGBT people, gay ghettos in SF/NYC, drugs of course, vapid fashion, and very little if anything about punk or new wave music or about SF or NYC at all besides name dropping a few bands or local musicians?

My main complaint was that it was full of bad tiresome stereotypes about gay men, bad stereotypes about Italians, about Jews, East Asians, blacks, drag queens, blue collar workers, Puerto Rican, gay men living in New England, gay men who did not go to the ghettos of NYC/SF, etc. It was not done out of satire but the author or his characters seem to think everyone can be very easily put into tiresome stereotypes based on their ethnicity, sexuality, race, etc. Bisexual men and women were basically ignored, drag queens were all of course drugged out messes, Italians all worked making pizza, East Asians either worked in restaurants or were genius students, blacks and Puerto Ricans or Latino teens and men were of course criminals, etc.

A reviewer on Amazon claimed the book was "pre-AIDS" this is not true at all. HIV/AIDS was around in the late 1970s and for certain before 1984; but nobody knew what it was, and it was thought to be a rare lethal "pneumonia" spead amongst IV drug users, or a rare "cancer" spread sexually. Medical experts had no idea what HIV/AIDS was and what was a risk factor and what was considered safe sex kept changing and until the late 1980s there were no tests for it and no medications.

There were also major outbreaks of Hepatitis, herpes, and all other types of STDs. Even the experts at the time did not always know what they all were at times.

The ghostly grandmothers were by far the most interesting characters; but they showed up way too often and the one who was from the USSR was very Soviet and full of false revisionist history, propaganda, and was a very interesting character but the main character unfortunately stopped refuting her, and they started out as minor characters but were taking up way too much of the novel and I found myself just skimming their rants and the rants of the main character.

There was some really weird and pointless political protest in the middle of the book, it was long before ACT-UP or any protest about HIV/AIDs, LGB rights, etc. It served no other purpose other than a political rant as seen by the characters on drugs.

I don't fault either the main character or his friend as they were at the stage of life as young adults when teens, young adults, or college freshmen think they know everything and how the world works, when in reality they do not at all. I did not like their narcissistic personalities or their egos the size of the Titanic where they both thought they were better than everyone else. The lack of self-awareness of the main character was just odd, despite the other character being a liar and thief, the "love" interest getting him involved being a hooker, and the novel just ended with no real reason or any resolution, and despite the introduction, the novel just ends with it all in the air despite either or both characters becoming HIV+ and getting Hepatitis B and C from unsafe sex.

I did not like how the characters were super self-absorbed and how the main character was being used by a male prostitute who became his pimp and got him into sex for pay. There's nothing to celebrate about this and if you actually know any prostitutes or ex-prostitutes: bisexual, gay, heterosexual, men, women, or transsexual it is not anything they want to do and it is not a good life and yes it is always dangerous even in countries and places were prostitution and all 'sex work' are legally tolerated in certain areas such as massage places, brothels, strip clubs, decriminalized, or completely legal.

I loved all of the music references and the bar and sex club scene was not like the author describes but he wrote about it many decades later, not when it was very new to him or new to a very newly out gay man.

The literary references were not really necessary and were basically akin to name-dropping, bragging, or filling up space with lists, as it's not as though the characters actually ever really talked about various novels, authors, films, or artists that were referenced besides Andy Warhol.

The political rants got super old very fast. Neither party in the USA really is that good or has the best interests of everyone in the USA outside of Washington DC; but the author or his character seem to believe that Democrats are somehow without any fault at all. The rants about Capitalism were silly. If the author meant to joke or write satire about how colleges, universities, and high schools indoctrinate the ultra-wealthy, Upper class, middle class, and blue collar, and lower middle class students that despite living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world the USA, and not being in a third world country that they are somehow "poor" or "Oppressed" by Capitalism, well it was a success. Does the author actually really know anyone who unfortunately had to live in the USSR or under Communism? It was horrible, and anyone who could emigrate or go to the Western world did.

[Dara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dead grandmas are great, but the mooning over a guy who takes advantage of him gets old. And the ending is somewhat disappointing, though part of me thinks it’s apt.

[Damien · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book, one that I would probably recommend to a lot of people for one reason or another. However, my rating seemed to fluctuate from page to page, precariously balanced on the 3 stars I ultimately gave it. Quite often it would sink into 2 stars, but then something would bring it back up, and on rare occasion I read a paragraph that I really liked. After reading "War Boy", I was looking forward to reading more books about a prevalent but seriously under-represented queer subculture. "Gutterboys" is NOT a book I'd include in that vein... I'd have liked it a lot better if I read it 15 years ago.
Jeremy reminds me of the most annoying type of person I have ever met (and I have in fact met way too many gay boys like him), and Colin is almost just as bad. Unfortunately, there are too many of them in the trendy queer scene, who are basically the exact same as the gay mainstream except they think that they are "alternative" or "rebellious" because they pick up on what is all the rage in Europe 5-10 years before the rest of America buys it in places like Hot Topic. Oh, and because they have crushes on political and philosophy majors in college, they are suddenly experts of subversive thinking. The whole novel is one big art party with lots of whine and cheeze, meaning that no matter how ridiculous and shallow it can get, there is still a lot of fun to be had.
The Guardian Grandma Ghosts got old really quick, until they started arguing with each other. Then it was funny for awhile. Still, the communist Nana started to get on my nerves, which I suspect was actually the writer's intention.
But all in all, I liked the book. It's a start...

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite of Alvin's books. It's set in the queer punk scene of the late 70s, which I always fetishize because it was just before my time. His characters are totally heartbreaking and memorable, and his writing is funny without being cynical.

[Dan Saniski · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of the clubland fun of Dancer from the Dance or Disco Bloodbath without their extreme sadness.