The GLBTRT has been reviewing books and movies in its newsletter since the early 1990s. Trace the evolution of queer publishing through these historic reviews. This review was originally published in Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer 1992.

Castro Street Memories. By N.A. Diaman. Persona Press, 1988. Paper. $14.95. (ISBN 0-931906-05-9)

George Pappas, fresh out of NYU, is having dinner with his lover when a telegram arrives telling of his father’s death. Leaving immediately, George returns to the family home in Los Angeles for the funeral and finds that he has inherited $50,000 in early ’70’s dollars. With money in hand, George heads for San Francisco and Castro Street.

There he settles and through his eyes we see the growth of Gay Liberation in the’70’s to the beginnings of AIDS in the early ’80’s. But only from the sidelines, because throughout it all, George treats all of life very casually, never allowing anything or anyone to really come close. Never getting involved, never truly caring. Until AIDS. And even then, the larger personal issues concern a future lack of money and his apartment being sold, not the deaths of some of his friends.

The story is quite fascinating. I never came to ‘like” George, but then I didn’t “dislike” him either. He is not your nonnal protagonist. He isn’t championing issues. He isn’t delving deeply into his soul. George is a nice guy who happens to be a bit shallow. This is his story. And ours. Reported from the fringe.

Only two things detract from the overall effectiveness of the novel. One, the complete lack of quotation marks made it nearly impossible to separate random thoughts from conversations. The second is the difficulty in judging the passage of time. Years and dates are rarely mentioned, though several important events (Harvey Milk’s assassination) help.

Recommended for libraries with an active Gay literature following; not for those just starting to build one.

Reviewed by T.R. Salvadori
Margaret E. Heggan Free Public Library
Glassboro, NJ