DEBUT

Beautifully rendered semi-autobiographical fiction that sheds light on a little-studied era in American cultural history.

In 1952, Louie comes to Chicago from rural Indiana to find a job in journalism. At least, that’s what he tells everyone he knows. He is really coming to the city to find Joey, a man he’d met and become romantically entangled with a few weeks earlier. Joey, it turns out, is Louie’s first lover, gay or straight, and the man who will “bring Louie out”–or give him his “debut”–on the 1950s urban gay scene. The rest of Holland’s excellent exploration of love and sexual identity chronicles the ups and downs of Joey and Louie’s fluctuating romantic relationship and tracks them as they decide to move in with and care for Joey’s ailing mother–all while developing a very plausible picture of pre-gay rights America. This notion of “bringing out” is one with which neither Louie nor Holland (it seems) is entirely comfortable, but it does provide a helpful foothold for a sustained discussion of homosexuality during the age of Eisenhower. An early draft of the book featured a simple string of vignettes, literary portraits of the gay men and women of Chicago in the 1950s. While the finished version follows a more traditional narrative arc, the almost ethnographic quality of the first version remains. Hence, Debut is not only the story of a life, but a valuable cross-section of gay culture in pre-Stonewall Chicago. Holland’s prose is admirably unpretentious, and he has a journalist’s eye for detail. He keeps a respectful distance from his characters and tells their stories–and his, for that matter–with objectivity and grace. This perfect balance allows him to avoid coming off as either hyperclinical or melodramatic. While the literary landscape of the book is home to more than a few eccentric figures, the author’s tact keeps them from ever turning into camp stereotypes.

A gorgeous near-memoir.