Overview

This tender, exuberant novel about a young man navigating coming of age in ’90s San Francisco is for readers of Garth Greenwell and André Aciman. Walter Simmering is searching for love and purpose in a city he doesn’t realize is fading away—San Francisco in 1993, at the height of the AIDS epidemic and the dawn of the tech revolution. Out of college, out of the closet, and transplanted from the Midwest, Walter is irresistibly drawn from his shell when he meets Cary Menuhin and Sasha Stravinsky, a dynamic couple who live blithely beyond the boundaries of gender and sexuality. Witty and ultra-stylish, Cary and Sasha seem to have stepped straight out of a sultry film noir, captivating Walter through a shared obsession with cinema and Hollywood’s golden age. As the three embark on adventures across the city, filled with joie de vivre, their lively friendship evolves in unexpected ways. When Walter befriends Lawrence, a filmmaker and former child actor living with HIV, they pursue a film project of their own, with hilarious and tragic results. Midnight at the Cinema Palace is a vibrant and nostalgic exploration of young souls discovering themselves amidst the backdrop of a disappearing city. Christopher Tradowsky’s astonishing debut captures the essence of ’90s queer culture and the complex lives of friends seeking an aesthetically beautiful and fulfilling way of life.

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9781668057261

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Reviews

""Christopher Tradowsky writes gorgeous, melodious sentences. He also brings mid-90s San Francisco to glimmering life so vividly, you'd think he built its streets and hills and shops and theaters himself.  But best of all, Tradowsky creates unforgettable characters. Film-obsessed protagonist Walter, the flamboyant Sasha and Cary, all the friends and lovers within their orbit--everyone absolutely blazes with life and emotion, making us laugh and swoon and, by the book's bittersweet finale, even cry. I love these characters, and I love this book."" —SCOTT HEIM, author of Mysterious Skin and We Disappear ""How do you come to life as the city of your dreams disappears, person by person, around you? In Midnight at the Cinema Palace, you make art, fall in love with your friends, make each other laugh, and do what you can to keep the inevitable away. This is a brisk, animated novel about LGBTQ+ life in San Francisco in the late days before the internet changed everything. More than nostalgia, it speaks to this moment: Who might we envision ourselves to be?"" —PAUL LISICKY, author of Song So Wild and Blue: A Life With the Music of Joni Mitchell ""Midnight at the Cinema Palace is a funny, sensual coming-of-age novel, double-exposing the voyeuristic pleasures of an artist's life with the sorrowful wisdom that originates within creation.""  —KYLE DILLON HERTZ, author of The Lookback Window

Author Information

Christopher Tradowsky is a writer, artist, and art historian. He was awarded the 2023 J. Michael Samuel Prize from the Lambda Literary Foundation. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Midnight at the Cinema Palace is his debut novel.

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