CR2: Book 22 Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland by James St. James

"Reality can be a rather free-floating concept when there are three drug dealers staying in your apartment who owe you rent."

I saw Party Monster once. Just the once. Unlike the rest of the subversive-minded people I associate with, once was more than enough. Trust me on this: drag queen antics and junkie wackiness are amusing only in anecdotes (which is good, because that's all this book is, really) and though I adore most of the soundtrack to that movie, the movie itself is a bit of a downer (much like Hedwig...)...

I didn't intend on reviewing Disco Bloodbath, the novel on which Party Monster was based. I intended to read just the 1st few lines. But those few lines drew me in. If you've read the book, you'll understand the joke I'm making: the first few pages of this story are a detailed step-by-step in preparing Special K, the author's drug of choice.

Plus, James St. James was Horribly Miscast and I read This Entire Book in Seth-Green Fluttery Speech Pattern #4.

So yes, there was a murder. But this book is less about that, and more about how St. James processes it all.
As a "true crime" story, the actual crime is rather downplayed. It's like when Naomi Campbell heard Gianni Versace was murdered and was rumored to have said, "This is a terrible thing to have happened- To Me."
Having watched these Same People on Geraldo and Phil Donahue and Sally Jesse, I enjoyed this story, rambling and chaotic and fan-fucking-tabulous as it was. It felt much more honest than the parade of freaks I remembered on TV from when I was in high school.

Michael Alig and James St. James meet in the late 1980's, at the end of an era and the beginning of the Next Big Scene. They insinuate themselves into New York nightlife heirarchy, rubbing noses with revelers such as Michael Musto and Lady Miss Keir and (hopefully) Diane Brill. They spend hours upon hours making shocking outfits, shoving drugs into said noses and being crazy and rude and happy-go-lucky and maybe getting their picture in the Village Voice.
They will live forever. They will learn how to fly.

And so, the book details countless hilarious things that happen, countless off-the-cuff remarks and made-up-words, countless adventures with heroin or cocaine or K or whatever.
We learn about Mavis, a rather boring lesbian who takes her entire savings and tries to become the Next Great Drug Dealer. And Freeze, a lost soul who could have been a scholar, if not for the drugs (more on him in a moment). And Angel, with his dirty white wings, who may have been in this country illegally, but without whose murder this story might not be told. He was the "worst kind of drug dealer", the kind who Actually Wanted Payment for his drugs.

There is a fight between Michael and Angel, each one thinking the other owes for something. And Angel is dismembered in the bathtub. And Freeze walks in, to Michael's aid. And Angel is lying on the floor with his head split open. And there is much Mary-ism and name-calling. And Freeze takes a hammer and smashes Angel in the head with it. For some reason, they inject Draino into Angel's dying body. And someone named Daniel is asleep. And Angel is angry with Michael for ripping him off. (Yes, all that was out-of-sequence and muddled, because, well, that was how that night went down.)

To hear Michael Alig tell the story, which he considers just another anecdote, it's easy to understand how all the details get twisted. Or forgotten. Or changed-for-the-sake-of-a-good-story. This is the same person who called in a bomb threat to an airport so that he could sleep 10 more minutes and not miss a flight.

But this is about James St. James telling of how Alig told the story. After a history of jealousy and one-uppance between the two, I'm still not sure the entire picture was painted. In fact, I know it wasn't.
It's a quick and thrilling read, at times (just) a little over-the-top.
This review probably doesn't do it justice, but neither did the movie. The movie was about shocking you IN YOUR FACE with glamour and money and drugs and blood. The book is more of a shock to your brain.