It is a simple matter for archivists to dehumanize cultural history and make catalogues of causes, effects, and turning points, reducing the stories of individuals to trends and statistics.
Hinge factors, however, are not abstract events which spring fully formed from the forehead of Zeus; rather, they evolve, gradually created over stretches of time; the attitudes, values, and stories which are their foundation must be brought forward in order to more clearly grasp the significance of the events of which they represent the critical mass.
Exactly forty years ago, a global Hinge Factor occurred, drawing a red line which established a clear “Before’ and “After” demarcation. In September of 1982, in the midst of growing panic, the CDC labeled an always fatal condition about which almost nothing was known: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, and AIDS was given a name.
The narrative of DANCING BEFORE THE CRASH by C.C. Everill straddles the pre-AIDS period and the first wave of the epidemic.
What might be considered a daunting task is accomplished with grace, style, and welcome objectivity in Everill’s candid and unpretentious book, which takes the form of a fictional memoir inspired by actual events.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” said Leonardo da Vinci, and simplicity is the keynote of Everill’s style. The result is a distinctive evocation of a loose-limbed, liberated era and its downfall; a powerful reconstruction of the atmosphere of both the day- and night-life of the hectic, ambitious, sexualized, late 70’s/early 80’s, when the scent of nervous perspiration was the artist’s cologne.
The many anecdotes in the pre-AIDS section are by turns charming and thought-provoking. The first wave stories will break your heart and uplift you. I come away from the book feeling that I have both made and lost many new friends - particularly the keeper of the diary, the aspiring actor who, in 1978, arrived in NYC fresh off the apple truck and somehow stayed the course.
We cannot know enough about this pivotal time in our history; the peaks, the abysses, everything in between, and the people, oh, the people…
To complete the Leonardo quote begun above: “When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. Learning never exhausts the mind. Art is never finished, it is only abandoned.”
I recommend DANCING BEFORE THE CRASH wholeheartedly and without reservation.
Available on Amazon, in both Kindle and paperback.