A first novel, 'Dancer,' wallows in depravity

DANCER FROM THE DANCE, by Andrew Holléran; Morrow, 250 pp., $9.95.

This shocking homosexual novel is set in an unreal world that actually exists: the world of "the doomed queens.'

A tiny subculture within New York's gay community, this Dionysian society is dedicated to the pursuit of physical pleasure. Superficial creatures, the male queens adore clothes and cologne. They love to party all night on beaches and dance until dawn in discos. They congregate in public baths. They meet in dark, dangerous parks. They pop pills and sniff Angel Dust.

Their sexual encounters range from the most disgusting acts of sado-masochism to pure Platonic love. Their habitat is the seamy side of the city. Their passions soar in the gray hours just before dawn. Their values are as shallow as their gossipy conversations.

Woven through Holleran's vivid de-. scriptions of decadent discos and dissipated beach parties is the story of Malone, a blond Nordic god from Ohio who grew up in Ceylon, was educated at Yale and came to New York as a bright young lawyer.

Drawn into the debilitating society of queens, this gifted individual gives up family and career to pursue a 10-year search for love on "the circuit." His

protector and pimp is a weird character named Sutherland, a tragic clown with an X-rated vocabulary, an outrageous wardrobe, an endless supply of drugs and a macabre sense of humor.

Malone's first love is Frankie, a beautiful but violent Puerto Rican. His last is John Schaeffer, a naive young fertilizer heir worth millions. In between, Malone enjoys the favors of nearly all his adoring peers.

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Holleran opens and closes his first novel with an exchange of letters between two aging queens, one still on the circuit in New York, the other retired in the Deep South. The New York correspondent is the narrator of Malone's story.

Holleran's voluptuous style frequently erupts in purple passages that capture the erotic flavor of his subject matter in a breathless gush of words. Some of his scenes suggest a homosexual Walpurgis

Night. The overriding atmosphere is sordid, the cast of characters' motivated almost entirely by lust.

A disturbing story, Dancer from the Dance may be offensive to some tastes. Yet, it offers a provocative glimpse of a bizarre life style that teems beneath the surface of everyday life in Sin City.

Wilma Salisbury writes about music, dance and people for The Plain Dealer.