cover image This Every Night

This Every Night

Patrick Moore. Amethyst Books, $8.95 (120pp) ISBN 978-0-927200-06-6

``I must continually degrade myself,'' confesses the narrator at the opening of this expose of the life and times of a sex-obsessed gay man. When he's not at his trendy job (``I work as an artist . . . as a slave in a second-rate club where I present the mess called Performance Art''), he's prowling the streets of New York City, hunting desperately for opportunities to have sex with anonymous lovers. In a diary of sorts, he proceeds to chronicle with relish his nightly sorties into peep shows and gay sex clubs, precisely cataloging the humiliation he endures, the violence he encounters and the unsatisfying nature of his sexual exploits. Unfortunately, though the self-destructive lifestyle is credible, its graceless portrayal is overkill, the redemptive ending at an ACT-UP demonstration is glib, and the narrator's antics and mind-set are not probed but only linked superficially to the depravity and indifference of planet Earth as we know it and see it on the nightly news. This first novel may appeal to a specialized audience, but those seeking insight into New York's homosexual community won't find it here. (Oct.)