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Faggots
First published 1978 · 384 pages
A frantic, sweat-soaked descent into 1970s gay hedonism that masks a desperate, aching plea for true love.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like being dragged through a chaotic, strobe-lit nightclub at three in the morning—it is loud, unapologetically explicit, and overwhelmingly frantic. The prose mirrors the drug-fueled, hedonistic excess of 1970s New York and Fire Island, moving at a brisk, breathless pace that leaves you dizzy. Yet beneath the biting satire and the relentless parade of anonymous encounters lies a profound, aching vulnerability. It is a sweat-soaked, claustrophobic atmosphere that slowly reveals a desperate yearning for permanence and genuine connection in a world obsessed with the superficial. It will captivate readers who crave unflinching, historically significant queer fiction, offering a fierce, polemical experience that challenges its audience while ultimately breaking its own heart.
- Mood
- hedonistic
- chaotic
- desperate
- sweat-soaked
- claustrophobic
- Tone
- satirical
- biting
- frantic
- yearning
- polemical
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the search for authentic connection · the emptiness of hedonism · gay community and culture · aging and loneliness · the desire for permanence
- The writing
- Frenetic, explicit, and unapologetically loud, blending stream-of-consciousness chaos with sharp, biting social critique.
- The arc
- Moves from a frantic, drug-fueled immersion in hedonistic excess to a sobering, desperate plea for genuine love and commitment.
- Who it's for
- Readers interested in queer history who appreciate fierce, controversial satire and unflinching explorations of community, excess, and the search for meaning.
Content notes
- graphic sexual content
- drug use
- homophobia
- internalized homophobia
- slurs
About the book
It is a portrayal of 1970s New York's very visible gay community in a time before AIDS. Graphically sexual and one of the best-selling gay novels of all time, Faggots is the story of Fred Lemish, who at thirty-nine has built up his body into a fatless state of being in Great Shape. Finally he is ready to find Mr. Right. But from the Everhard Baths, to the Pines on Fire Island, to that place of myth and legend, The Meat Rack, Lemish is looking for his dream lover in all the wrong places. Faggots is a fierce satire of the gay ghetto and a touching story of one man’s desperate search for permanence, commitment, and love.
Description from Open Library.
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