The Darlinghurst Boys

A mostly true history of the 80s and 90s

Three gay classics in one volume

 AS IF OVERNIGHT

The Big W, legendary nightclub glamour star, invites four friends for lunch atop Centrepoint Tower. It’s a prelude to 1985, the year when everything changes. This is the story of what happens to their world. 

 SHADOWS ON THE DANCE FLOOR

“Where there’s hair, there’s hope,” states Mr Pointy Head, inner-city survivor, shoplifter and owner of three milk crates of second hand men’s undies. Back in 1985 he and Grace went for HIV blood tests together. Now, in 1990, for the first time, their different results really begin to matter.

 TOTTERING TOWARDS DARLINGHURST

It’s the mid-90s and Simon (aka Grace) is on his way to the Diva Awards night with The Big W. She’s heard she’s likely to be presented with some gong or other for centuries of service, both on stage and in the epidemic front-lines. 

Initially appearing in magazines, then published in various books, Gary Dunne's fiction of the 80s and 90s captured a very Australian response to HIV/AIDS with honesty, insight and humour. Now collected in one volume, they tell an insider's history of a community where illness and death became common aspects of daily living, and how that community evolved over those decades. 

Author: Gary Dune

Paperback Published  12 March 2021  192 pages

"Pioneering Australian gay fiction writer Gary Dunne had a productive Covid lockdown. He edited and republished three of his books, including this one. The Darlinghurst Boys collects together three previously published novellas: As If Overnight (1990), Shadows on the Dance Floor (1992) and Tottering towards Darlinghurst (1996). All three novellas are linked by the same characters, however, as the books are set in the late 1980s and 1990s, several major characters die of AIDS as the series progresses. Most of the characters are known by affectionate nicknames - our narrator is Grace (a gay man) and his friends Mr Pointy Head and the Big W (a drag queen inspired by Margaret Whitlam, the statuesque wife of Gough). It adds a non-binary aspect to the narrative, written decades before non-binary became commonplace, and sometimes it is not entirely clear what gender or sexuality a character may be. The book is fiction but is an authentic history of gay Sydney and Darlinghurst through one of its most critical and desperate periods - when AIDS was rampant and treatment options were non-existent. Yet despite the quandary over whether to test or not to test for HIV, the vigils at hospital beds, and the deaths, the narrative is lightened by wit and some outrageous moments. ‘I eat like a bird’ one character proclaims. ‘A vulture,’ Mr Pointy Head whispers. The book also presents an early glimpse of coalition politics between lesbians and gay men, as once upon a time these communities were quite separatist and some held the view that there wasn’t a lot of common ground. And the book also reminds us of the vital work carried out by AIDS charities Ankali and BGF and their army of volunteers and the many services they offered. Older readers will relish the opportunity to step back in time - to venues that no longer exist and a time when Sydney was less rigidly policed - while younger readers will get a sense of an era that endured countless tragedies yet somehow still managed to raise a smile and a glass. Reviewed by Graeme