Some Dance to Remember Audiobook By Jack Fritscher cover art

Some Dance to Remember

A Memoir-Novel of San Francisco 1970-1982

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Some Dance to Remember

By: Jack Fritscher
Narrated by: David Allen Vargo
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About this listen

Some Dance to Remember has been reviewed as the gay Gone with the Wind. But such popular praise does not do literary justice to this eyewitness classic of that first golden decade after Stonewall.

This best-selling epic of San Francisco's Castro seethes with sex, drugs, panic, and passionate characters: a gay writer, a drop-dead gorgeous bodybuilder, a cabaret singer, a Vietnam vet, a Hollywood bitch, and a rough-trade porn mogul. Narrator Magnus Bishop channels Ryan O'Hara, a writer pioneering a tell-all voice in the emerging subculture of gay magazines. When Ryan meets Quentin Crisp's "perfect man" in Kick Sorenson, lust and politics collide.

Steroids rule Castro Street. Gender fascism divides queens versus clones into gay civil war over correct queer identity. White assassinates Milk. Gay rioters burn City Hall. Ryan, romancing the morphing trickster Kick, cruises through nightclubs, ecstatic sex, and leather rituals in legendary bathhouses. Sprung from Isherwood's Cabaret, 1970s San Francisco mirrored 1930s Berlin: decadent, dazzling, diverse, doomed. It's all here. A city. A murder. A plague. A lost civilization. A love story. Some Dance to Remember is dedicated to Jack Fritscher's 1970s bicoastal lover, Robert Mapplethorpe.

Winner! Foreword Magazine Gay/lesbian Fiction Book of the Year Award

©1984 Jack Fritscher (P)2020 David Vargo
Fiction Historical Historical Fiction San Francisco City
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Ahh memories!

So forcefully narrated! The passion was there and it was beyond real! Bravo!!! More more more!

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Great recording of this LGBT classic!

SOME DANCE TO REMEMBER is a classic of gay literature. I read it a long time ago when it was first published and have been waiting for many years, hoping that an audio book would eventually be made. I was delighted when I heard through the 'gay grapevine' that Jack Fritscher's classic memoir novel of San Francisco during the golden age of gay liberation 1970-1982 was now available as an audio book. And I have to say WOW...it's amazing. You never know what you're going to get with audio book narrators when they attempt your favorite works. But this guy is unbelievable. Every character has their own voice and temperament. The book isn't just being read or narrated. He's acting it out for us. I could really see this becoming a movie or limited Netflix series. Reading it by yourself is one thing, but hearing it come to life is a whole other matter. The best character in the whole book, in my opinion, is a porn movie mogul named Solly Blue. The character is so well written and so well acted by the narrator. It's mind-blowing how many different voices he can use, from drag queens to football jocks, from West Coast elites to a Midwest Vietnam Vet. Settle in for the long haul. It's 21 hours of listening. It will utterly transport you to another time and place. A place you may not want to come back from.

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Excellent revival of the authors popular novel!

A sequel to "What they did to the kid" by Jack Fritscher, and one I read many years ago. I have to say, the recordings give the characters more life and reinvigorate my past enjoyment of this work. This sequel provides some of the most significant insight into the lives of gay men in the SF area in a snapshot of time wrapped in a cover. For anyone wanting to peek into the past and glimpse the cultural activity of one of the mega gay capitals in modern times, this is the book to do it. Tragedy, laughter, and many enjoyable attitudes, I think that Mr. Vargo provides perspective and enjoyment of these characters that past readers never had before.

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Life can be stranger than fiction

Masterful reading brings the vividly acidic, acerbic dialogue and seductive prose to life in a story of self-actualization and aging during an era of evolving gay iconography when the Castro district of San Francisco was becoming the gay Eden mecca for expressive freedom, raw sexuality, and the search for perfection and possession in the game of queer love. Keep the tissues handy!

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Excellent!

Superb book, Suprising like nothing you read or hear everyday! And the awesome narration by Actor David Allen Vargo brings EVERY WORD to Life! Bravo, 5 Platinum Stars! I'm looking forward to more! Thank you this was totally awesome, Unexpected and quite marvelous indeed! You won't be sorry with this selection! 💜

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A Wonderful Narration of a Classic Novel

Some Dance to Remember is a classic gay novel, now available as an audiobook voiced by David Vargo. Given the numerous reviews already available about the novel itself, I will focus instead on the audiobook’s narration, which is superb.

The novel is more a character study than an action thriller. Given that, it is important that the narrator give each person a distinct voice that captures that character’s essence. Mr. Vargo does that to a T. Whether its Kick, the Alabama-born bodybuilder, Ryan, our intellectual protagonist, or Sully, the porn-producer whose acerbic wit pierces the starry-eyed passions of his best friend, Ryan, Vargo brings them to life. If you like the novel, this audio rendition brings an added dimension to the characters that you won’t soon forget.

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