the hustler

The Hustler: The Story of a Nameless Love from Friedrichstrasse by John Henry Mackay (translated by Hubert Kennedy, Alyson Press, 1985)

This book was originally published in 1926 (in German) and only translated and published in English in 1985. Because it deals with controversial subjects — not only homosexuality but also man/boy love, it was originally published under a pseudonym.

It’s an engaging and engrossing novel about two young men — well, a young man (22) and a teenaged boy (16) — in Berlin. Gunther, the boy, comes to Berlin to escape a miserable life in the provinces because he hears that attractive boys can easily make money. He quickly finds out how this is done, and embarks upon a life of prostitution. But then he meets Hermann, an intelligent and sensitive young man of modest means who has come to Berlin for a job with a publisher.

Hermann is immediately beguiled by Gunther and quickly convinces himself that he is in love with the boy. Unfortunately this kind of love is of no interest or use to Gunther, and most of the book is dedicated to Hermann’s long, expensive, and ultimately tragic courtship of Gunther, which results in a brief happiness that cannot be sustained, for their worlds are too incongruous to allow for any safe or common ground.

The portraits of both Hermann and Gunther are complex, interesting, and the two would-be lovers are surrounded by a gallery of vivid characters from all strata of Berlin society. Mackay (who was born in Scotland with a Scottish father and German mother and raised in Germany) seems unable or uninterested to conceive of a version of homosexuality that does not depend upon pedophilia, and this shortcoming seriously limits the book’s effect and appeal. The final introduction of a long-lost aunt of Hermann’s who was married to a pedophile and sympathetically understands and condone’s Hermann’s condition (to the extent that she leaves him a legacy) only makes the underlying premise of the book that much more disturbing.