Larry Kramer- is he worth reading?

Faggot is a book of fiction. He doesn’t insult—he points out how destructive hyper sexuality can be

I go through phases where I love to read plays: I've never seen "The Normal Heart" (1985) on stage, but it's a powerful and well-written drama.

He's not a great writer, no. "Faggots"and "The Normal Heart" are interesting and even important because of their historical relevance, but in aesthetic terms they are just not very good. In his fiction he veers between hypersentimentality (almost always extended towards whichever character is supposed to be him, and to nameless and voiceless young gay men) and shrieking rage. His latest work, "The American People," is just about unreadable both as a work of fiction or as a work of historical excavation.

He is a very interesting historical figure, and all American gay men alive today owe him quite a lot for his political work during the AIDS crisis. But that does not make him a good writer.

The Normal Heart is searing on stage. One of the last revivals (with Raul Esparza at the Public) was fantastic.

Sadly the movie version sapped so much of the power away

Faggots was an important book for me. But agree, it’s value is its exposition of late 70s hedonism.

Judgemental. Curious what gay men at the time thought of Faggots. It was critical of the lifestyle. He was a prototype of the classic DL poster.

R4 I agree re: Normal Heart. I always thought it was just a clunky piece of political agitprop until I saw that revival with Esparza and Joanna Gleason at the Public. It's actually a very good play.

R5, I was around when 'Faggots' was published. I didn't read it, but I know some regarded it as an expression of envy and bitterness by a man who was already too old and plain to be part of the scene he complained of. Others, I think, saw it as cautionary. I reached adulthood in hedonistic 1977, and by 1980 I had a strange suspicion that we were pushing the envelope too far with obsessive sex, drugs and disco all night ... as though we might be dancing toward the edge of a cliff. And so we were! I wonder if one of Kramer's best works was the Oscar-nominated screenplay for 'Women in Love' back in 1969. I wondered too if he was influential in the filming of a naked wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed that showed explicit full-frontal nudity. It was way before its time in that regard, and yet it was released with an 'R' rating. Fifty years later, male full-frontal nudity remains very rare in mainstream film.

I read faggots- he satirizes and jays bare the fast lane gay life her maintains was so destructive time gay men. I think it’s a depressing hatchet job and pretty ironic because Larry practically killed himself trying to be part of it. I know- I was around him at parties etc and believe me when the 3rd or 4th hot guy rebuffed him it never stopped him. He always struck me as mad as hell that he was no beauty and “left out.”. I think it drove him and was the source of his palpable anger. He was the kind of. An who came on to you like gang busters and and if politely rebuffed would give you a long lecture on what a creep you were. Not very endearing. Faggots is a bitter screed. .

Normal Heart is brilliant

I agree, Normal Heart is good- but not remotely about his own experience as he claimed. It’s a well told fantasy of his own experience. Sorry about the typos above. Posted by mistake before I could reread- but you get the idea. I don’t like him at all, but his anger was just what was needed as an effective advocate during the HIV crisis. Would be nice if he acknowledged the good others did. He doesn’t have a nice word for anyone except himself.

How did he make a name for himself? He must have blown somebody or was someone’s relative.

R8 - perfect description - exactly who I would imagine him to be. The overly aggressive nebbish guy who wont take no for an answer.. he would have made a good lawyer - like his brother. As a person, he seems horrible.

never will I know what he has seen