Fabulous Hell

by Craig Curtis

Fast, furious, funny and compelling, this debut novel takes a mesmerising look at a slacker's alcohol-soaked, crystal meth-fueled search for his soul in the wastelands of West Hollywood, the neon... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555834795
• ISBN13: 9781555834791
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Alyson Books
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Fabulous Indeed

Just like the powder of so many glassine baggies, the one-liners pile up & blow the reader away with a manic intensity. The novel's theme of a search for connection, for meaning, is hauntingly familiar.I want to be chums with this guy.

Yesss! Five Stars for "Fabulous Hell"

Having personally lived, loved, lied and lost in L.A., I believe that Fabulous Hell provides incredible insight into L.A.'s edgy gay scene. Craig Curtis is a gifted author. This is one of those exceptional books that---once I picked it up and started to read the first page---I could not set down until I had reached the last page.Some day this book will be considered a gay classic. A "must read" for anyone who wants to understand what West Coast hip (including the zingy highs and the depressing lows) is all about. Kudos to Craig Curtis.

"Faggots" for the 21st Century

This is a groundbreaking novel! One of the first novels in decades to look at gay, male lifestyles and the HIV culture with brave and forthright vision. I rarely read so-called "gay novels" anymore because they pander to fantastic, consumerist values that reflect publishers' attitudes of gay male lifestyles rather than the raw, day-to-day realities.Curtis takes a hard, cold, true look at life in its raw ambition, and success or failure. He delivers a true, fresh and sweeping portrait of family abuse, adolecent peer abuse and self-abuse, but his prose transcends such victimization to capture a heart that yearns, a psyche that delves and a soul that aches, breaks and re-creates.This novel is the most groundbreaking work I have read since Larry Kramer's "Faggots." For the new generation of gay men, struggling with media's seduction of the gay lifestyle which is in disaccord with our culture's mainstream treatment of actual, lived lifestyles, this is every bit as groundbreaking and remarkable. Larry Kramer's book I read and threw across the room. Years later, I knew why I did that (I was being groomed to live it!). I hope many young gay men today, and young gay HIV+ men, throw this book across the room! We learn from being uncomfortable, from acommodating hard lessons. Curtis's talent is in not allowing his readers to assimilate easy lessons.

To hell and back.

Meth addiction, Alcoholism, AIDS. Craig Curtis' debut novel sounds like a downer. It isn't. Nearly all of the novel seems like a joyride straight to hell -- until the end, when a surprise shows there's always a point to turn around. This is a book about someone who's down and out, but not finished.

A brilliant novel

This novel, which I've seen reviewed in a qualified, conditional way, is really beautifully done. The author is totally unpretentious, the writing is engaging and interesting, and the story is authentic and real. Very few--if any--of the novels that have come out of the nightmare of HIV and AIDS have been as affecting and important as this one.