Midnight at the Cinema Palace

Tradowsky’s accomplished debut follows 23-year-old “cute shy gay boy” Walter Simmering’s misadventures in love and cinema in 1990s San Francisco. Walter’s consciousness is suffused with classic films, as referenced in each of the chapter titles (“Breathless,” “Vertigo,” etc.). After he spies a “gamine” named Sasha and chases him into Macy’s, Walter becomes enraptured by Sasha and his partner, Cary (“This dandyish woman and lovely man... he never met anyone like either of them”). Walter and Cary quickly bond by working on a noir screenplay together (excerpts of which appear throughout the book), and the more time Walter spends with her, the more he wonders, “did I want to be Cary and get to kiss Sasha, or did I want to be Sasha and get to kiss Cary.” The three eventually form a throuple, “as if Walter had been the missing piece all along.” Tradowsky thrills in his freewheeling exploration of the characters’ gender and sexuality and their tumultuous attraction to each other, which builds to a breaking point during a climactic road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway. Though he overstuffs the narrative with a few too many preciously quirky episodes, Tradowsky’s film references are as finely tuned as his observations about relationships. Queer cinephiles will be especially enthralled. Agent: Kent Wolf, Neon Literary. (June)