Vulgarian Rhapsody by Alvin Orloff

A whirlwind tour of San Francisco's fabled queer bohemia in the waning days of the 20th century, as the city's budget bon vivants work to save their eccentric lifestyles in the face of tech gentrification by LAMBDA award finalist Alvin Orloff.
Harris, San Francisco's most annoying gay barfly, doesn't mean to be bitchy, passive aggressive, or insulting. But he's so bedazzled by his own critical brilliance he feels morally obliged to share his scathing opinions with the world at any and every opportunity. This irritates no one more than his roommate, Maxine, an avant-garde transsexual cabaret singer. When she overhears him badmouthing her on the phone she flies into a rage and expels him from their apartment. This crisis couldn't come at a worse time. The year is 1999 and the 'dot com' boom has rendered cheap housing nonexistent, and Harris, who works as a part-time telemarketer, is-as usual-low on funds. Will he be able to convince one of his eccentric, semi-dysfunctional friends with a rent-controlled apartment to let him move in?
Vulgarian Rhapsody immerses readers in a fading bohemia of queer dive bars, drag clubs, and countercultural cafes. The book's narrator (a longtime frenemy of Harris who's every bit as snarky and annoying as he is) tells the story with sadistic relish and an ironist's eye for the absurd. Anyone feeling sickly from too many uplifting stories of personal empowerment, precious coming-of-age tales, or sugarcoated romances will find the perfect antidote in this hilariously acidic comedy of manners.


Past Praise for Alvin Orloff
'No one is cooler than Alvin Orloff.'-Andrea Lawlor, author, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl (for Disasterama! )
'Both beautiful and heartbreaking all in one.'-Michelle Tea, author, Against Memoir (for Disasterama! )
'Thoroughly original.'- Publishers Weekly (for I Married an Earthling )
'Alvin Orloff writes with a sharp mind and a gentle touch.'-K. M. Soehnlein, author, The World of Normal Boys (for Why Aren't You Smiling? )
'Quirky, insightful . . . glam as hell.'- The Bay Area Reporter (for Gutter Boys )

Alvin Orloffbegan writing in 1977, while still a teenager, by penning lyrics for The Blowdryers, an early San Francisco punk band. He spent the 1980s working as a telemarketer and exotic dancer while concurrently attending U.C. Berkeley and performing with The Popstitutes, a somewhat absurd performance art/homo- core band. In 1990 he and his bandmates founded Klubstitute, a floating queer cabaret devoted to the ideal of cultural democracy that featured spoken word, theater, drag, and musical acts. Orloff is the author of three previous novels, I Married an Earthling, Gutter Boys, and Why Aren't You Smiling? in addition to Disasterama! Adventures in the Queer Underground 1977-1997, a LAMBDA Literary Prize Finalist for Best Gay Memoir. Orloff currently lives in San Francisco and works in the heart of the historic Castro District as the proprietor of Fabulosa Books.