Reviewed by Tidal
TITLE: Sex Drugs & Disco: San Francisco Diaries from the Pre-AIDS Era
AUTHOR: Mark Abramson
PUBLISHER: Wilde City Press
LENGTH: 294 pages
BLURB:
In the 1970s, thousands of young gay men flocked to San Francisco. Mark Abramson, author of the best-selling “Beach Reading” mystery series and the AIDS memoir “For My Brothers,” was one of them. In a time and place where sex was free, drugs were cheap, and the driving disco beat felt like it would go on forever, he landed in the great gay Mecca fresh out of college, reconnected with his old friend, the writer John Preston and soon encountered such interesting people as Harvey Milk, Sylvester, Rock Hudson, Natalie Wood and Vincent Price. These are his raw, uncensored diaries.
REVIEW:
If you are not old enough to remember the Pre-AIDS days of San Francisco, jump on and take a magick carpet ride. If you are, you will find that Mark Abramson is not only telling his story but also telling our stories.
I love this book. It is a memoir of life in San Francisco in the 1970’s from Mark Abramson’s personal diary. Reading his private memories you are quickly reminded that the gay community has a wonderful rich history, and it is fading. It needs to be preserved and he has made an amazing offering in doing so with this book.
We revisit a wonderful place in time now melted into history and the memories of those who were there. Back then having a “Dick of Death” meant something entirely different than it does today. Sex was not dirty, but one big celebration. Men and women came from all over to Gay Mecca to explore themselves and each other. That was before people had access to porn on demand on their computer, or DVD or VCR. People went to the theaters both gay and straight to see porn movies. The bars had playrooms. There were sex clubs and bathhouses, sex was very important then but that was only part of what life was like.
Reading the diary account of the murder of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, by Dan White is chilling. I remember feeling the exact same degree of anger, helplessness, outrage, and the riots.
That is what makes this book special because it connects the threads and how those places, experiences and events changed us forever. Experiencing these memories is like sitting down with an old friend who still remembers, Liberty Baths, Bull Dog Baths, the 1808 Club, hustlers, The Riots, Lady Di, Harvey Milk, the Star Pharmacy, Polk Street, South of Market, the Tenderloin, Drag Queens.
I have not read many books written in dated journal format style. I did not feel voyeuristic while reading it and that did surprised me. I think writing in that powerful style offers a special point of view. It gives the facts just as they happened in a neat chronological order coupled with the personal impact on the writer’s life. I enjoyed watching his life change and seeing him evolve, and meeting the wonderful friends, some famous, some not, that he introduced us to throughout the book. Observing how that blended with the other events of the time offers the readers so much more than a snapshot but a full tapestry of what life was like in that era.
The stories of sex are fun because I remember those places very well. I love the tales of the celebrities. We witness the written record of the different people who came together to make it a rainbow of diversity, ideas by heroic people and actions that shaped who we are as a GLTB community. Many wonderful books have been written to tell the history, of who we are, who we were, and who we are. This book definitely belongs there.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: