Like People in History Author:Felice Picano Picano's big new novel is the story of two cousins, Roger Sansarc and Alistair Dodge, from their boyhood through Dodge's death in his forties from AIDS. The two live through several major cultural moments in later-twentieth-century America: Woodstock, San Francisco in the days of Harvey Milk, Fire Island's heyday, and recent AIDS act... more »ivism and gay militancy in New York. Both manage to have incredible (literally!) lives--managing expensive stores and art galleries, inheriting fortunes, editing highfalutin opera magazines, having long-term relationships with Adonises, and generally making Lives of the Rich and Famous look like middle-class America. Picano fills the dialogue with humor and the plot with interest, yet his characters lack the depth and genuineness of Armistead (Tales of the City) Maupin's. So, ultimately, the book doesn't work all that well as a serious chronicle of gay America. Rather, being both gay and an epic (i.e., it's campy and it's long), it succeeds as a story that doesn't take itself too seriously and will be much in demand as a beach book.« less