"The Abbey was on Robertson, just below Santa Monica, on the edge of Boys' Town. Low brick buildings housed cafes, clothing stores, coffee houses and watch repair shops that rubbed elbows with gay clubs and sex shops. These establishments catered to hordes of the beautiful young gay men who lived in the big apartment complexes that lined the side streets or who drove in from all over Southern California on weekend nights. I seldom ventured there, because it reminded me of San Francisco in the '70s, when I was a boy just coming out and how out of place I'd felt among the big-muscled boys who cruised each other with cold assessment. Twenty years later, only the faces and the clothes had changed; the air was still charged with the brutal calculation of lust. And beneath that was the claustrophobia of a ghetto, of fearful people looking out at the world from behind invisible fences."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Novelists from the United StatesLawyers from the United StatesDetective fiction authorsGay novelistsPeople from Sacramento
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p.60
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Nava
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Michael Nava
144 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Michael Nava →
Related Quotes
"[Henry Rios, with Raymond Reynolds, therapist] "Somewhere along the line, I had died." "What does that mean, Henry?" …"
"[Henry, to the therapist] "You people always end up wanting to talk about mommy and daddy," I said, intending a joke,…"
"[Chuck Sweeny] "Times change, we change with 'em.""
"I walked over to the railing and watched the traffic stream up and down the boulevard. A blond in a Jeep cruised by s…"
"It was sometimes easier to read the future from the entrails of a cat than get a fix on what a judge was thinking, an…"
"[Zack Bowen] "Damn, it's tough being a fag. People hate you who don't even know you, and the ones who know you, they'…"
"[Alicia] "What is false does not become true simply because people shout it. What is right does not change because it…"
"[Josh Mandel] "Most things people care about are silly. They don't think about the ones that matter.""
"It was not quiet in my head."
"[Josh] "Just listen to me. I don't want to die, Henry. I want to be like everyone else. I want my seventy-five years …"