Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is something of a prejudiced review since I was one of the contributors to this book. But there is NO other book that covers the history of the "gay mecca" of San Francisco as thoroughly and as completely as this one does. The book is a paean to the "gay ghetto" of San Francisco with particular attention paid to the time when Harvey Milk was its cultural and spiritual leader. The writing professionalism of the contributions varies but all of them come from the heart. The photographs alone chronicling the heyday of the Castro are worth the price of admission. Frequently touching, frequently shocking in their nakedness and nudity, they capture the Castro in photographs to make the book a complete volume of text and pictures of a tiny urban area whose influence extended far beyond its geographical size.
I am somewhat surprised that the book has drawn so few reviews, especially locally in San Francisco. There has never been as complete and frank a depiction of any other urban area in America. In that respect, the book is unique. To this day, I doubt that the publisher realizes what he accomplished.
The book chronicles the last of the "grass roots" politicians in the United States from the viewpoints of those who knew him best. "Same-sex marriaage" was not even a twinkle in anybody's eye back then but this is where it started. For a pictorial history of a lifestyle, there is nothing to match it. The same can be said for the multi-faceted view of a politician slowly slipping into an undeserved obscurity but who was the Martin Luther King of the Gay movement.
I confess as to my prejudices on the subject but for those interested in Harvey Milk and his era, "Out in the Castro" is its Baedeker. A well deserved five stars.
Frank M. Robinson, San Francisco
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