gay novel from the early 80s?

[dine]

I recently remembered a book I last read in the early 80s, but can't recall the exact title (or author) - I *think* it was called something like The Stairs on Avenue C but googling that and some keywords like 'book' 'novel' or 'gay' got me nowhere. it was a paperback about a gay guy in New York City (who lived on Avenue C?); and I vaguely remember the cover illustration was a doubling-back staircase - I think the cover was greenish. It was definitely no masterpiece and I think relatively negatively slanted; I can't remember if the protagonist turned out to be a serial killer or died, but that's the sort of impression I have. it was early in my discovery of gay lit, and I was gulping down anything I could lay my hands upon. and now I'm vaguely curious about it but unable to gratify that curiosity.


anyone have any pointers for where I might look?

Comments

[fred_mouse]

The cover sounds like one of the covers for Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin (the one I can find can be seen here) but that is San Francisco, not New York City.

And while your description made me think of the movie Love and Human Remains (1993) it appears to have been based on a stage play, not a book.

[fred_mouse]

Doing some more poking around in library thing, I came across War Cries over Avenue C by Jerome Charyn, which is set in New York City, but none of the descriptions sound like it contains gay characters (although ending horribly fits what I've read).

[dine]

thanks for looking! I'm certain it's not part of the Tales of the City series (which I read & loved) and it definitely wasn't War Cries over Avenue C - that doesn't sound at all familiar to me, though it does seem a compelling story

[fred_mouse]

No worries. It feels like something I've encountered, which means that it has to have been something with a reasonable print run, etc, because a lot of work didn't make it to Australia. Either that, or it is just the issue that so many books about queer people end badly :{.