Summary

Guest from Nowhere – In this chapter, the author describes his time in California, in two different communities. He describes first his sense of determination to define himself as alone and unique, in part because he knew he was already different: he wanted, he says, to make himself clearly different, to find a way to turn a negative into a positive. This, he says, is what every young gay man experiences: the transformation of that which is hated into something that can be celebrated. He relates this experience to his devotion to the song “Downtown,” sung by Petula Clark. The author suggests that both song and singer seemed to understand the experience of loneliness and searching.

As part of this determination towards difference, the author writes, he chose to adopt particular patterns of dress and identity (first a geek, then a hippy). He describes...