I really don't think this book is for everyone--for example, I would never pass this one along to my father to read. The descriptions Self gives of drug use and homosexual acts are vivid and unapologetic. It doesn't matter if you feel uncomfortable reading them; in fact, that might be the point.

I don't know much of anything about the gay community of the 1980s and 90s, so my critique of those pieces would be shallow to say the least. I do think that Self made some interesting points about the state of art itself, though. ( )

bawdy, queer rolicking parody
8.03

Self's re-styling of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray moves on a heavy under-current of shock, but considering the treatment, that might be appropriate. Full of grotesques and satire, along with plenty of descriptions just as dark as they are humorous, the novel rewrites the idea of Dorian onto a society already punctured by overindulgence in drugs, alcohol, and sex. Played out in the years when AIDS is just becoming known, the novel's focus becomes a trajectory of declining grotesques who either struggle against attaining any moral code, or suffer slowly under the lack thereof. Self's humor and (insane) descriptions keep the novel moving quickly, even with such a serious backdrop as it finds, but the crudeness and plays on moral violence will turn off a lot of readers before the novel is done. For what it is, however, it's an interesting re-write of Wilde's novel, and one which wouldn't have had anywhere near so much power if Self had chosen to set the novel in an earlier (or later) time--as it turns out, the novel becomes a surprisingly introspective condemnation, showing a destruction that was in many ways far too realistic once AIDS took hold in the eighties.

In the end, this certainly isn't for every reader, and even though I read horror regularly, I was tempted to put the book down in disgust on more than one occasion. If nothing else, this speaks to the shock value that Self so often seeks out as the book moves along. But, all that said, many aspects of the book were frighteningly clever and humorous. ( )

generally my feeling is: don't mess with the original. i liked wilde's better but this was good too. ( )

I kind of feel bad giving this two stars. I can appreciate what he did with the story, I just didn't particularly enjoy it. ( )