Why We Never Danced the Charleston

This novel is about a group of homosexual men in Charleston, South Carolina during the early 1900's. Written in a style that is haunting and sad, it tells of the men's loves, fears and obsessions with life and with one another. It also is about the times and how they wrought tragedy to those who chose to love others of their same sex in the south during the early 20th century.

Why We Never Danced the Charleston was written in the early 1980s, so it has a few years under its belt now. However, it is still a very relevant and timely novel. Greene places the story in Charleston, South Carolina in the 1920s - a time when high society was very high and memories of antebellum times were still very much alive (have they died out now?). It was also, most notably, a time before Stonewall, when being gay made one a parriah and an outsider. Greene uses this setting to tell his story of love and hate. His prose is captivating - encased in Spanish moss and mildew - and the story is very believable. For those interested in a historic fictional gay novel, this is a must read.

In this novel, the unnamed narrator recounts the love triangle between himself and two other men in 1920's Charleston - a very repressive time when even a new dance was considered shocking enough to have people arrested. The young narrator meets Ned Grimke, a shy, club-footed boy, when just a child and begins an unusual friendship. As they grow older, the narrator begins to distance himself from him, not liking the unusual attraction that Ned has for him; he soon learns that he himself has such strange urgings. He begins to haunt the secret places where such men meet: a waterfront area known as The Battery and the Peacock Alley Bar. One night, the narrator meets the handsome Hirsch Hess, a brooding Jew who seem sbent on self-destruction over his homosexualtiy. They share a short-lived affair until Hirsch accidentally meets Ned. The two form a strange, very close bond that both the narrator and societal pressures attempt to break with disatrous results. "Why We Never Danced the Charleston" offers a unique glimpse at homosexuality in the South during the 1920's - a time when sexual expression was just beginning with new dances and other forms of culture. Greene depicts a very repressed society, in which everyone knows that the love between two men is wrong, where such men are taught to loathe themselves and others like them, and yet they survive, live and love despite what society says. His characters and their reaction to the time and societal norms with which they live come across very realistically. And, even though the ending is typically tragic for a gay novel, I still enjoyed reading it.

I know that I am almost 20 years late, but I have just read this novel set in "Old Charleston". Having just read Ed Balls Peninsula of Lies, I was directed to this Greene masterpiece in quest of my knowledge of a character mentioned by Ball that was reported to be the subject of this novel, Ned Grimke. Greene has brought to life the atmosphere, scenery, sense of place, and clandestine lifestyle of Old Charleston's underground society from the 1920's and 30's. His descriptive terms drive every paragraph. One, and I suppose you would have to live here to understand, describes the "throbbing heat" of downtown. I read this very slowly as not to miss any words or nuances. Walking my dog on the Battery yesterday, Greene's ghosts were envisioned and I could not help but wonder in which of these mansions his character Luden Renfrew's notorious orgies were held. Homoerotic,eloquent, and fascinating describe this drama.