Musto Gusto

In Manhattan on the Rocks (Henry Holt)—the dark debut novel of Village Voice columnist Michael Musto—Vincent DiBlasio, Musto's semi-autobiographical narrator, starts a magazine called Manhattan on the Rocks just to get in the news. Vinnie is the Peeping Tom of AIDS-era nightlife; he's friends with no one but fabulous nobodies. But no matter how hard he tries to have fun, his partying is always blighted by detachment. While there are similarities between Musto and his fictional alter ego—both are borough-born Ivy Leaguers from Italian families—Musto's own career developed less perniciously than Vinnie's: he was "discovered" by writing anonymous letters to The Soho News's Ms. Lonelyhearts (Cynthia Heimel) while working at 7V Star Parade. His novel, he says, "represents the decline of a group of people during a gross time in nightlife and national affairs. But those days are over. There's a return to hedonism and a lack of pretension. The night is back in nightlife once again."

CRAIG BROMBERG