Moscow, 1993. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union have brought unimaginable change to Russia. With this change come new freedoms: freedom to travel abroad and to befriend Westerners, freedom to make money, and even the freedom for an underground gay scene to take root.
Encouraged by the new climate of openness, twenty-one-year-old Kostya ventures out of the closet and resolves to pursue his dreams: to work in the theatre and to find love as his idol Tchaikovsky never could. Those dreams, however, lead to tragedy – not only for Kostya, but for his mother and for the two young men he loves, as all three face up to the ways they have betrayed him.
Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants is both a gripping mystery and a poignant, very human tale of people beset by forces beyond their control, in a world where all the old certainties have crumbled and it's far from clear what will eventually take their place.
It's such a pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants today. Many thanks to Paul David Gould, Unbound Firsts and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my advance copy of the novel.
Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants is centred on the circumstances leading to the death of Kostya, a young, gay Russian man in 1993. However, although much of the plot follows the two significant men in his life as they try to discover why an apparently fit young man would suddenly die of 'natural causes', to merely describe this book as a mystery would be to do it an enormous injustice and it is also a poignant exploration of what it meant to be gay at a time when state and cultural homophobia was rife. Reading it during Pride month felt particularly apt as it's a sobering, emotive reminder of the struggles LGBT+ people have and continue to endure, most notably in Russia itself where just last year, Putin's Government passed a law banning 'LGBT propaganda'.
The storyline shifts between 1993 after Kostya's death and events from 1990 which eventually reveal exactly what happened to him. Alternate chapters follow the perspectives of Jamie, a British student and later ambitious journalist working for a small newspaper in Moscow, the charismatic Dima, whose dreams of being an actor have resulted in him working in the porn industry, and Tamara Borisovna, Kostya's mother. The gradual intertwining of the past and present allows both readers and the characters themselves to understand more about who Kostya was and the tragedy of his death. The heartrending chapters told from his viewpoint reveal a scared young man gradually coming to terms with his sexuality and having the courage to pursue love, despite being repeatedly let down by those closest to him.
Jamie and Dima are both shaken by Kostya's death and separately at first, try to find out more. As the novel progresses, they must confront their selfishness but even as he acknowledges his mistakes, it's clear that Jamie is also driven by his desire to write a story which will lead to a job with a higher profile newspaper. Meanwhile, Dima's reaction to the loss of somebody he knows he treated badly, results in dramatic changes in his own life. It would have been easy to have written Kostya as the victim with the two men he loved as merely censurable for his eventual downfall but this is a far subtler, more perceptive novel and Paul David Gould infuses these characters with light and shade, ensuring they remain sympathetic throughout. It's perhaps easiest to be critical of Tamara Borisovna who, despite clearly loving her son, is unable to support him when he finally confirms her long-held fear that he is 'gomosexual'. However, her crushing grief following his death and Paul David Gould's empathetic understanding of a woman who knew no different means the development of her character is arguably the most interesting.
For those of us who remember the optimism of 'glasnost' and the apparent freedoms it brought as the Soviet Union crumbled, Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants offers a fascinating look at what these enormous changes meant for those living in Russia. Rising inflation and consumer shortages, coupled with political insecurity understandably meant people like Tamara Borisovna yearned for the solidity of the Soviet Union. Even those who hoped this new openness would eventually lead to a time when their gay scene moved from the underground, constantly moving, secretive venues for the 'Discotheque for Sexual Minorities' still know they are at risk of violence and imprisonment. Promiscuity and the concurrent fear of AIDS is sensitively woven into the plot too but although this is an authentic portrait of life in Russia, it doesn't shy away from its condemnation of the West either. The commodification of the country to the benefit of Western businesses and investors but not Russian citizens is starkly portrayed and even though the brutality of Soviet homophobia is apparent throughout, it's important to reflect upon the fact that that even today, in supposedly more enlightened times, many LGBT+ couples in this country don't feel able to openly hold hands in the street.
Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants is a thought-provoking, powerfully honest and open look at loss and the tremendous bravery and resilience it took – and still takes – to live outside heteronormative bounds. It's a beautifully told, heartbreaking, yet ultimately hopeful novel and one I very highly recommend.
Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants is published by Unbound Firsts, a new imprint for debut writers of colour. It can be purchased from the publisher's website, bookshop.org, Hive, Waterstones, Amazon or Kobo.
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Thanks for the blog tour support x
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