Something you do in the dark

Daniel Curzon calls his first novel SOMETHING YOU DO IN THE DARK, published in 1971, the first gay protest novel. It is the story of twenty-seven-year-old Cole Ruffner, who was arrested by undercover vice squad officers in a public restroom in Detroit. When the novel opens, he has just been released after serving three years in prison-- his time was extended after he was raped in the prison laundry room by other "straight" inmates. Cole has lost his job as a cartographer with the government as well as his friends and a lover. His family, including a brother, has forsaken him as well. While in prison he learned that his mother has died. Later his ailing father tells him that she died of a heart attack and that Cole was responsible: "'Broke her heart and would have broke mine too, if I hadn't been strong.'" His old lover Teddy has spread the story that Cole has had a nervous breakdown. Of course word always gets around, and most everyone knows the truth about where he has been for the past three years. Should we be surprised then that this character is lonely, depressed and, most of all, extremely angry over what had happened to him? "'I am extremely bitter'" he tells his old friend Bud. There are so many reasons to like this novel. Curzon is a master of dialogue. The novel starts slowly but quickly gains in momentum; the ending will blow your head off. You will care passionately for Cole and hate with even more passion the vice-squad officer John Keel, who is by no means a cardboard character. The novel rings true on every page. Angie, Cole's old girl friend tells him that he can be "cured" when he tells her "'I am a homosexual'" after a humiliating attempt at lovemaking he has with her. His old friend Bud, recently engaged-- you will not care for his beloved-- and in many ways a decent sort, admits that he is attracted to Cole but opts for a life of marriage and a family. In one of the most poignant passages in the novel he and Cole discuss the differences in the lives that each of them will probably lead: [Bud]: "'Isn't it sadder yet to be alone all one's life?'" [Cole]: "'Not necessarily sadder, just a different kind of sad.'" [Bud]: "'There's plenty of bright moments in those years.'" [Cole]: "'That's true of my kind of life too.'" Then there is the touching but all-too-familiar scene when Cole's father reminds him that if he does not marry and have children, that he will die without having anyone to carry on his name. Cole responds: "'Most of all, Pa, I want my life while I'm living it to be my own; I want to make the most of what I am--for me now, no merely for somebody who comes after me.'" Christopher Isherwood liked this novel and his comments are used on the paperback edition. Joyce Carol Oates, once a colleague of Curzon's, is quoted on the jacket of the hardback edition-- the one I read-- as finding it "engrossing, powerful and disturbing." I would have added "brutally honest." SOMETHING YOU DO IN THE DARK certa

Daniel Curzon's first novel, first published in 1971, is one of the all-time great gay novels, perhaps the first one to have a post-Stonewall gay sensitivity. Unfortunately, the book went out of print in the late 1970's and since then it has been extremely hard to find. Now that "Something You Do In the Dark" is back in print, it is my fervent wish that it will finally get the attention and the acclaim that it deserves.