Gutter Boys is a twisted tale of unrequited love and sexual debauchery in the early 1980s. Jeremy, a shy, neurotic 19-year-old, falls madly in love with Colin, a disturbed yet brilliant older hustler, who leads him on a romp through the hilariously depraved world of New Wave nightclubs and gay bars in the days before AIDS and the war on drugs. Innocent Jeremy, protected by the spirits of his departed grandmothers - a fiery Jewish radical and a proper British matron - finally reconciles with Colin, but in a manner he never anticipated.

Available from Manic D Press.

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Quirky, insightful . . . glam as hell. . . might become the iconic '80s new-wave novel. -The Bay Area Reporter

Highly Enjoyable - The San Francisco Bay Guardian

A rollicking send-up that doubles as a piece de resistance, a strangely tender book about love and redemption. - Kevin Killian, author of Little Men, Shy, Arctic Summer, Bedrooms Have Windows

Many gay novels from the late '70s and early '80s . . . explore the affluent, Fire Island side of gay debauchery; Gutter boys is about the people who cleaned their towels. - New York Press

Wonderfully whimsical yet astutely political . . . Strangely and defiantly cheerful without being trite or sentimental. - Trebor Healey, author of Through It Came Bright Colors.

Q & A with Alvin Orloff, author of Gutter Boys

The characters and environments portrayed are extremely vivid. How much of the novel is autobiographically based?

The storyÕs rough outline was taken directly from my life. I followed a brilliant older friend to Manhattan in 1981and did my best to win his heart by co-dependently attaching myself to him as he dove into the debauched world of gay bars and trendy New Wave nightclubs. I felt it was important to present a realistic snapshot of the gay early '80s because the era has largely been eclipsed in popular culture by feel-good nostalgia for the '70s and feel-bad horror stories from the AIDS era.

Musical styles are a big part of the charactersÕ identity, what's that all about?

In the late '70s there was a huge antagonism between those who liked punk and those who liked disco. I liked punk because I identified with the anger and believed in the do-it-yourself ethos, which promoted creativity and self-expression. Disco people irritated me because they were into this politically apathetic hedonism, just obsessed with sex appeal and money. Unfortunately, gay men loved disco while punks, even leather-jacketed anarchists, were often homophobic. Then, in the early '80s, synth-pop came along (adopting the term "New Wave," which had originally been synonymous with punk) and created a middle ground. The New Wave scene had room for do-it-yourself upstarts as well as big label acts, it was danceable as well as political, and it was chock full of gays. It was the best of all possible worlds.

Is the gay scene depicted in Gutter Boys still around?

Nope. AIDS killed that world dead in its tracks. The sexual revolution had been getting more and more extreme all through the '70s. By 1981, when Gutter Boys takes place, the level of depravity was phenomenal. Zillions of gay men spent every night in a frenzy of dancing, drinking, drugs, and SEX. Castro and Christopher Streets (along with innumerable bars, bathhouses, and discos) were perpetually full of Village People types standing around like macho mannequins, cruising as if their lives depended on it. It was hilariously compulsive.

The protagonist's moral conscience manifests itself in the form of his two dead grandmothers. Are the grandmother characters based on your actual grandmas? Were they advice-givers in real life?

Actually, the grandmothers in the book are symbolic caricatures rather than realistic personalities. My own grandmothers never gave me much advice, let alone visited from The Beyond. Still, they gave me a link with some antiquated (and conflicting!) Old World values and sensibilities. My English grandmother (born in England during the reign of Queen Victoria) gave me an appreciation of formality that sharply contrasts with modern America's casual ethos. Thanks to her, I never took up the use of profane language or gum chewing, was positively overjoyed when New Wave brought the tie back in fashion, and developed an Anglomania so extreme it had (actually, still has) me convinced Swinging London was the apotheosis of Western Civilization. My Jewish grandmother (born in Russia under the reign of Czar Nicholas II) gave me an interest in political radicalism sharply at odds with modern America's conservatism. Thanks to her, I've never voted Republican or crossed a picket line, and though I've never been beholden to a particular political dogma as she was, still hope for a drastic reorganization of government and economy that will produce a more equitable and humane society (which I think of as Swinging London for everybody).

Why is now an important time to release this novel?

I see a lot of parallels between what was happening in the early '80s and now. Treatments for HIV are giving people a false sense of security and gay ghettos are sliding back into the wild hedonism last seen in the early '80s. (The difference is that gays are no longer social outcasts, so the modern hedonism is consumerist rather than existentially defiant.) Still, I suspect readers will recognize the subculture's deification of pleasure. Also, as in the early '80s, we now have a dastardly Republican president being ineffectually opposed by a fragmented, and occasionally loony, left. Gutter Boys isn't a political novel but it does explore the emotional implications of living in a state of utter political alienation. Topicality aside, Gutter Boys is a timeless and universally relevant coming-of-age story. The protagonist, like many gay kids growing up in a homophobic world, has been bullied into a timid and insecure creature. Drawing on his ethnic heritage and subversive, coded messages from popular culture, he's able to develop a slyly defiant flippancy that allows him to stand up for himself despite his lack of confidence.

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