Perhaps not since The Boys in the Band
has there been such an assembly of self-hating, masochistic homosexuals as in Hinton's debut. Developers are planning to rebuild Cathedral City, a crumbling town near Palm Springs, Calif., by razing the land and getting rid of the Mexican immigrants and gay businesses "blighting" the potentially lucrative real estate. Although the neighborhood brings all inhabitants nothing but misery, neither immigrants nor gay business owners are willing or able to relocate. Instead of creating an alliance between these two groups, the threat of development only escalates tensions. Kenny, still smarting from the Catholic church's rejection of him two decades ago, has saddled himself with Nick, an alcoholic with whom he refuses to have sex. Nick's restaurant is barely able to survive, and the financial strain is making their relationship even worse. Kenny's libido returns when he meets illegal immigrant Maria—that she ends up pregnant with his child is one of the novel's string of plotting improbabilities. Along for the ride are Ruthie, a washed-up lounge singer; Sam, her husband and Nick's landlord; and Pablo, a hunky Mexican hustler. Throw in a daisy chain of HIV transmissions, gay-bashings, abandoned orphans, botched abortions, a trip to the Betty Ford Clinic, a rape—or as Thelma Ritter said in All About Eve, "Everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." Amid the bathos, Hinton, a producer and screenwriter whose film credits include It's My Party
and Circuit, displays considerable empathy for and knowledge of the situation of Mexican immigrants in Southern California. However, most of the book's targeted gay readers will be put off by the unsympathetic and archaic representation of modern gay life. This is a gay novel only Dr. Laura could love. Agent, Fred Morris. National advertising in gay periodicals. (June)
