Disorderly Men

A Novel

De: Edward Cahill

Narrado por: Eric Fox

ONE OF QUEER FORTY'S BEST PRIDE READS FOR SUMMER 2023!
2023 Best Indie Book Award Winner for LGBTQ+ Fiction!
Gold Medal Finalist for 2024 Independent Publisher Book Awards for LGBTQ+ Fiction

Three gay men in pre-Stonewall New York City find their fates thrown together in the police raid of a Village bar.

Roger Moorhouse is a Wall Street banker and Westchester family man with a preciously guarded secret. As the shouting begins and flashlights blaze in his face, the life he’s carefully curated over the years―a fancy new office overlooking lower Broadway, a house in Beechmont Woods, his wife and children―is about to come crashing down around him.

Columbia literature professor Julian Prince lives a comparatively uncloseted life when he finds his first committed relationship tested to its limits. How could he explain to Gus, a fearless young artist, that he couldn’t stay with him that weekend because the woman who was still technically Julian’s fiancée would be visiting? But when Gus is struck unconscious by a police baton, Julian comes out of hiding to protect him, even if exposure means losing everything.

For Danny Duffy, an Irish kid from the Bronx with a sassy mouth and a diverse group of friends, the raid is a galvanizing, Spartacus moment. Danny doesn’t have too much left to lose; his family has just disowned him. But once his name appears in the newspaper, he’ll be fired from his job at Sloan’s Supermarket, where he’s risen to assistant manager of produce, and begin a journey that veers between political enlightenment and violent revenge.

The three men find themselves in a police wagon together, their hidden lives threatened to be revealed to the world. Blackmail, a private investigator, Gus’s disappearance, and Danny’s quest for retribution propel Disorderly Men to its piercing conclusion, as each man meets the boundaries of his own fear, love, and shame. The stakes for each are different, but all of them confront a fundamental question: How much happiness is he allowed to have . . . and what share of it will he lay claim to?

©2023 Edward Cahill (P)2023 Vibrance Press

Reseñas de la Crítica

In New York City half a dozen years before Stonewall, gay men knew who they loved but not yet who they were. Cahill brings their world to life in a big-hearted novel of existential suspense. A closeted banker fences with a blackmailer, an English professor searches for a brutalized lover, and a grocery store manager loses his job and his family, and the reader turns the pages faster and faster to find out not just whether these men make it but also how gays became people of integrity at a time when shame was so deeply nested in laws, institutions, and their own psyches. Cahill paints on a grand canvas the internal, individual revolutions that came before the historic one.―Caleb Crain, author of Overthrow and Necessary Errors

What a wonderous world Cahill has created full of pathos and driven by memorable characters and a divinely complex plot. Beyond the historical realities of post-war America, the novel―in extravagant and seductive prose―explores the interior lives of gay men eager for pleasure and desperate to push beyond their own perpetual suffering. Disorderly Men is an absolute triumph.―Amber Dermont, author of The Starboard Sea

A teeming multitude of characters and places, Disorderly Men honors the victims of a police raid on a gay bar by showing us their imperfections, their carnality, and their terrible compromises. Mid-century New York has never been so frightening or so beautiful.―Benjamin Nugent, author of Fraternity

Compelling storytelling

It’s a well written, well edited and well narrated novel from a very difficult point in gay history.

A realistic and powerful story of a time before Stonewall

Vivid characters, settings brought to life, an internal and external dive into homophobia and the desire to belong. Great work. Look forward to what Edward Cahill writes next.

A recall of the past discrimination and abuse

The book is a pretty vivid recall in the average lives of a variety of men caught in a time when homosexuality was not only illegal, but vilified. It shows as a good reminder of the past. Read very very well by the narrator. My only issue was being a bit confused at times with flashing back and forth and keeping characters straight. This could be solely on me, but even though confused at times, it didn't hinder the drama and fear and anger these characters had because of their abuse and the situations they were all in.

The Truth…

…of how it was. I had an inkling that the LGBTQ + existence was not easy, but this spin with three such beautifully portrayed characters was more than enlightening. Great read, though not easy in many parts.

A Sneailky Relatable Book!

Disorderly Men by Edward Cahill was a lovely experience. Posting a simple external conflict that propels the true story of deep internal conflict of three men.

These characters and situations at their core are relatable. Like all good characterizations, I found myself looking past the details to the core emotions and the universal human sufferings in the novel. Chapter 28 is just an absolutely lovely, cloudy resolution to my favorite character's story.

I can't write a review of this novel without talking about the importance of the topic at large. As the world grows more accepting of different sexualities, it's necessary to remember where the types of events that got us there, and this novel highlights treatment that, admittedly, I had never thought about.

All in all a strong story with great characters and a narration that blends it all nicely. Pick it up.

What a wonderful book!

I was riveted by the characters and the plot. How those different gay men handled injustice and discrimination, and evolved while doing it, will stay with me for a long, long time.
The performer who read it is masterful, as well.

A cast of characters that I cared about

I really enjoyed this book. It’s one of the few audiobooks that I could listen to a second time and enjoy it just as much as the first. I loved the characters. I loved the setting and scenes and the story. The narration was excellent and I could listen to the narrator’s voice forever.

Outstanding period piece

Very well written and performed with a great perspective of the horrors of the late 50s and early 60s that gay men experienced. it does end rather abruptly, and I would’ve liked to have seen more resolution for the main characters.

Poor writing, poor narration

Intriguing premise, unrealized. Awkward dialogue was difficult to believe. The narrator has no idea what someone from Wisconsin sounds like.