why we never danced the charleston

Why We Never Danced the Charleston by Harlan Greene (St. Martin’s/Marek, 1984)

A southern gothic tragic novel about a group of young gay men in Charleston.  They form the “Sons of Wisteria Society” and congregate nightly in Peacock Alley, a gay bar owned and managed by a dwarf.  They are all attracted to the preternaturally masculine and beautiful Hirsh Hess, whose tormented inability to accept his degenerate sexuality leads to inevitable violence and death.

Greene, in his first novel, writes with sensual ripeness about the dark, haunted world of Charleston, where so much is hidden, repressed or ignored.  Three of the men, including the narrator and Hess, work in the museum, which is run by Miss Wragg, a no-nonsense Yankee who seems intrigued by the gay boys surrounding her but also manipulates them.

I wasn’t entirely or consistently convinced by this world and these characters — Greene presents it all with a gothic voluptuousness  that is entertaining but often unsubtle and distorting.