Books › After Delores
After Delores
First published 1988 · 192 pages
A gritty, neon-lit descent into heartbreak and obsession set against the raw backdrop of 1980s queer New York.
What it feels like
Reading this feels like wandering the grimy, neon-lit streets of the 1980s Lower East Side at 3 AM with a broken heart and a chip on your shoulder. It is a brisk, feverish spin on the hardboiled noir, swapping the traditional cynical detective for a messy, heartbroken lesbian waitress spiraling through grief and obsession. The prose is sharp, unvarnished, and darkly funny, capturing the raw, chaotic energy of a marginalized subculture living on the edge. You are pulled into a claustrophobic, smoke-filled atmosphere where love is a wound and revenge feels like the only cure. It will deeply satisfy readers who crave subversive, gritty queer fiction featuring unapologetically flawed protagonists navigating the messy aftermath of toxic romance.
- Mood
- grimy
- neon-lit
- feverish
- melancholic
- Tone
- wry
- cynical
- obsessive
- darkly comic
- unvarnished
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- messy heartbreak · urban alienation · queer subculture · toxic obsession · subverted noir
- The writing
- Sharp, street-smart, and unapologetically raw, blending the staccato rhythms of hardboiled noir with deep emotional vulnerability.
- The arc
- The journey spirals from the paralyzing ache of a fresh breakup into a chaotic, violently cathartic quest for closure.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave gritty, atmospheric queer fiction and love spending time in the heads of messy, obsessive, and unapologetically flawed protagonists.
Content notes
- gun violence
- toxic relationships
- stalking and obsession
- substance use
- homophobia
About the book
Sarah Schulman's acclaimed 1988 novel is a noirish tale about a no-nonsense coffee-shop waitress in New York who is nursing a broken heart after her girlfriend Dolores leaves her; her attempts to find love again are funny, sexy, and ultimately even violent. After Delores is a fast-paced, electrifying chronicle of the Lower East Side's lesbian subculture in the 1980s.
Description from Open Library.
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