outinprint.net

Buy it direct from Wildside Books.

When reading this, it’s possible many will think “Hey, this seems a lot like Faggots by Larry Kramer or Tales from the City by Armistead Maupin.”  The soap-operatic multitude of characters, the anchoring of gay life around bars or parties, and the surface frivolity that often disguises a deep-seated loneliness are motifs in all three.

However, The Why Not was published twelve years earlier than those other books.  The recent re-release of this title as an e-book will allow new generations to read the work.  One important difference between the world of 1966 and the world of 1978 (a year that also saw the release of Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran and Nocturnes for the King of Naples by Edmund White) apparently was a marked level of danger.  The threat from the police that was mostly absent from the latter books was one of the most saddening and disturbing aspects of The Why Not.  It should be mentioned that Banis’ book is set in Los Angeles where police brutality seems be something the city can’t get away from. 

The Why Not is more a series of vignettes than a novel with a clear story arc and, in fact, the bar, called The Why Not, could often be seen as the most developed character in the narrative.  What’s interesting is the cover the book seems kind of fun—a cartoonish font in front suggests a light tone, and the depiction of crowd at a bar suggests there’s probably camaraderie, laughter, and alcohol-assisted cheer.  The fact that the book’s contents depict a largely troubled, cynical and sad world mirrors the concept of “happy and gay on the outside, but if you can see beneath the surface, there’s a different picture.”

Despite the bashings, the fear of raids, and the predation by thieves who know gay men can’t go to the police, probably the saddest aspect of this book is how cruel gay men can be to each other.  For example, one handsome young man, an African-American, builds his own self-esteem by claiming he has a long distance relationship with someone very wealthy.  The travel this allows him and his apparent happiness with his life make him both enviable and desirable.  It’s upsetting, but quite believable, to see how much mean-spirited glee comes from his exposure as a fraud. 

The frequent jumping to new scenarios with new characters will probably make reading this a bit more difficult for a generation with an internet and television-weakened ability to concentrate, and there’s bound to be something of a disconnect between the fears of everyday gay life before Stonewall and the relative freedoms the LGBT community has now.  However, this book is not only important as a time piece (especially when considering how popular the book was when it was first released), but, sadly, is still relevant today for at least one reason.  That aforementioned cruelty to one other generally stems from self-hatred, and that self-hatred often comes from unaccepting parents, bullying classmates, and the unbelievably open prejudice from politicians, pundits and religious leaders.  Perhaps reading this book could instill in younger generations the sense of pride in how far the LGBT community has come, and that may give them greater confidence when it comes to the battles that are still left to fight.   

Reviewed by Gavin Atlas