The Coney Island Memoirs of Sebastian Strong

About the Book

It is the late fifties and early sixties, and Brooklyn’s Coney Island is confronting loss of former glory and the initial stages of deterioration. Here the gay protagonist pursues a journey of exploration into his sexual and emotional needs in a cheap hotel, a bingo parlor in nearby Brighton Beach, claustrophobic barrooms, an ancient roller coaster, and the prevailing sense of the Atlantic Ocean. Sebastian’s insistence on independence evokes challenge and conflict, leading to a visionary climax.

About the Author

The author wishes to state that the current work is fiction, not autobiography. While his previous novel, The Coney Island Memoirs of Sebastian Strong, along with most of the portraits in the present tales, are presented in first-person format, there is no relation to the author’s own life. All was inspired by glimpses, overheard conversations, and incidents imagined from a distance. All is contrived illusion, just as Coney Island, too, is myth, vapor, and a substratum of beckoning possibilities.