Product Description

In Still Dancing acclaimed author Jameson Currier brings together twenty of his short stories that span three decades of the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the gay community. Along with stories from Currier s debut collection, Dancing on the Moon, praised by The Village Voice for their defiant tone, here are ten newly selected stories written by one of our era's preeminent writers of the short narrative.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #667387 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Review
Readers will likely find that several of these individuals (and their situations) remind them of someone they know in real life. Those seeking a 'feel good' story collection will be surprised but not disappointed with the author's efforts, because the result is as impressive as it is impressionable. --Rainbow Reviews

Written over the course of three decades, Jameson Currier's latest collection of stories some new, some previously published reveals a long, textured chronicle of gay men, gay life, and the horrific AIDS epidemic that both threatens and empowers an entire population. His tales tell of the initial shock and bewilderment in trying to come to grips with a deadly new menace to gay men's health in the 1980s, coupled with an unending sense of grief and hopelessness. Be forewarned: these are not sunny stories, but they're as real as it gets. By the conclusion of the collection, one wishes for a sweet, joyful story that hasn't been deflated by the mention of death or visible, purple lesions, T-cell counts, and devastating doctor visits. But Currier's fiction isn't the kind with the Hollywood happy ending secured with a pink ribbon. Currier's time-capsule harkens back to a time when drugs failed to stave off disease, and friends disappeared as quickly as they had come into our lives. Dance floors darkened, smiles faded, and the music just went away. --Bay Area Reporter

From the Author
I've been a New Yorker now for thirty years. I arrived in 1978 after graduating from Emory University in Atlanta and lived in a small and expensive apartment in the West Village that I could barely afford. In my early years in Manhattan, I worked as a telephone operator, a legal proofreader, and an entertainment publicist, sometimes all in the same day. Many of my early AIDS stories were inspired from my experiences with my friend Kevin Patterson when he became ill with AIDS. Kevin was a playwright (A Most Secret War) and a theater publicist (he worked at the Public for many years). And my early AIDS stories were published thanks to my friendship with David Feinberg (author of Eighty-Sixed), who showed my stories to his editor, Ed Iwanicki, at Viking. David and I were in a Gay Writers Workshop together back in the mid-1980s that met regularly in the members' homes and our friendship continued up until his death in 1994.

The gorgeous photograph that is being used on the cover of Still Dancing was also taken by a New Yorker--Matt Chapin, who is a member of the NYC Photo Club, which meets regularly at the LGBT Center in the Village, and which was where I spotted Matt's work on exhibit this summer as I was assembling my AIDS stories into a new book.

Along with ten stories from my first collection, Dancing on the Moon, are ten newly selected stories in Still Dancing, including the recently written stories "The Chelsea Rose" and "Manhattan Transfer," about the history of the inhabitants of a Chelsea apartment building, depicting the migratory path of its residents and the deep devastation the epidemic left on a generation of gay men.

About the Author
Jameson Currier is the author of a novel, Where the Rainbow Ends, and two previous collections of short stories. His short fiction has appeared in many literary magazines and Web sites, including OutsiderInk, Velvet Mafia, Blithe House Quarterly, Absinthe Literary Review, Confrontation, Christopher Street, Harrington Gay Men s Fiction Quarterly, and the anthologies Men on Men, Best American Gay Fiction, Certain Voices, Boyfriends from Hell, Mammoth Book of New Gay Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best American Erotica, Best Gay Romance, Best Gay Stories, Circa 2000, Rebel Yell, I Do/I Don't, Where the Boys Are, Nine Hundred & Sixty-Nine, Wilde Stories, Unspeakable Horror, and Making Literature Matter. His reviews, essays, interviews, and articles on AIDS and gay culture have been published in many national and local publications. Mr. Currier also authored the documentary Living Proof: HIV and the Pursuit of Happiness and a collection of his AIDS-themed short stories have been translated into French by Anne-Laure Hubert. A member of the board of directors of the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, he blogs regularly on the GLBTQ publishing community on QueerType. He currently resides in Manhattan.

Customer Reviews

The Impact of AIDS
Currier, Jameson. "Still Dancing: New and Selected Stories", Lethe Press, 2008.

The Impact of AIDS

Amos Lassen

It seems that many in our community have little idea how AIDS affected us and I find that distressing. The youngsters seem not to care and those that have survived in some cases have chosen not to look back. As a survivor I feel very lucky but I cannot forget all the friends that I have lost and how much the world, as a whole, has lost. I say to you that we have achieved so much as we stand on the shoulders of those that came before us and are no longer here to reap the rewards. This is something that we cannot forget--it was our Holocaust and it brought us together and gave us the chance to build a community.
Jameson Currier also has not forgotten. In his collection of stories, "Still Dancing", he looks at the impact that AIDS had on gay New Yorkers and he looks at them from different perspectives---those that are no longer here, those who have left the country, those who have been displaced, those who have survived and those that just do not care. The collection was written over a thirty year period and some of them have appeared in an earlier collection, "Dancing on the Moon". Other stories have appeared elsewhere but now we have them collected together. There is something for everyone in this volume and it is hard to close the covers and remain untouched. I have always loved Currier's style and I remember what an effect his novel "Where the Rainbow Ends" had on me. I was living out of the country when it as published and had not yet realized how devastating AIDS was to the American gay community. I returned for a visit shortly after reading it and realized very quickly that my rainbow was nearing its end as I discovered so many friends and contemporaries were no longer alive.
If this sounds somewhat morose and depressing, let me assure you that Currier's writing is anything but. He simply reminds us of an important period in gay history--if not the most important--when we came together in sorrow for mutual need and then we regrouped and made great strides. The proof of that is where we are today. Personally I want to thank Jameson Currier for reminding us of who we are.

The Heartache of Death, The Beauty of Friendship
One of life's pleasures, as any book lover can testify, is falling in love with a new author. Or, rather, the work of an author new to you. I recently discovered Jameson Currier and am head over heels in love with his writing. I have so far read only one book of his, Still Dancing, but have two others, Where the Rainbow Ends and Haunted Heart, waiting their turn. (I have so many good books waiting their turn I wish I were twins.)

There are twenty stories here, written over a time span of about 30 years. Not just any 30 years, but the three decades beginning with the mysterious and agonizing deaths of gay men in the mid-80's to the present. Yes, these are AIDS stories. And yes, AIDS stories aren't particularly popular now with either readers or writers. I suppose that's because the average person thinks of AIDS as something in the past or something that is better ignored. Or perhaps in tough times maybe people just want escapism. I don't know. But what I do know is that no one with a heart could read this collection and come away unmoved.

Jameson Currier is a master at the difficult art form of short fiction. Within the space of a few hundred or a few thousand words he can take out your heart and break it. I do not suggest that these are maudlin, pity-poor-us stories. Not at all. If they tell of death and dying, they tell equally of family, friends, lovers past and present, dead and living. The stories are gritty and honest, as real as IV tubes and funerals. Some also have a subtle meaning that doesn't hit the reader until later. Currier's stories don't whitewash the physical ugliness of AIDS, or the pain, the fear, or the grief. Nor does he elevate the friends and caregivers to the status of saints who are never angry or impatient or resentful. The stories are elegant in their simplicity, and sublimely humane.

As I read the stories my favorites kept changing. "Still Dancing" was my favorite. No, "Ghosts" was my favorite. "Everybody is Always Somebody Else" was my favorite. Impossible choices. But I know I have to pick just a couple to draw attention to, so I chose "What They Carried" and "Winter Coats."

"What They Carried" is deceptive. In less skilled hands it could have been a dreary laundry list of things taken to comfort a dying man: flowers, pajamas, books, etc. But because even the most mundane object carried to the fragile, beloved, and sometimes cantankerous Adam, are symbols not only of caring but also of helplessness, the story is unforgettable. The people in the story are not only carrying tokens of love to someone they are about to lose, but some of them wonder if they carry within their own bodies the deadly virus that will soon make of them objects of caring rather than givers. And some of them know.

"Winter Coats" is nothing short of charming, and that's because Dennis, friend of the narrator, is charming. Dennis is handsome, talented, a dancer and actor, graceful, humorous, kind, and the embodiment of Je ne sais quoi. Shortly after burying his lover, for whom he was the devoted caregiver, Dennis, too, is losing his life to the virus. The narrator is Dennis' friend of many years, and he is as much bemused by Dennis as anything else. At the end of the story, as if flipping the bird to frailty and his own mortality, Dennis can still spin a graceful, perfect double pirouette on a cold New York City street.

Jameson Currier is, simply, a remarkable writer who deserves to be read.

Reviewed by Ruth Sims[...]