Roller Coaster, A Jersey Shore Boy's Explicit Memoir is called a" Must Read" for anyone interested in the politics of coming out in the 1950's, when there was no such use of the word gay, except to describe a flower arrangement.
Alan knew he was different, very different at 4 years of age after his first fishing trip, when he felt sorry for the fish gasping for breath. He would rather be baking cookies with mother.
Stricken with life threatening Polio in 1947, he went on to become an amateur figure skating champion, but not before experimenting sexual encounters with men twice his age. Picked up on the North Jersey Coast train by a leather guy he went to his first gay party recognizing his mother's effeminate hair dresser from the small town of Fair Haven, New Jersey.
Driven by the lure of show business, Alan ran away and joined the Ice Capades. Touring the country, falling in love in Atlantic City. Giving it all up after 4 years of touring and meeting Hollywood screen stars to be with his lover, only to have the relationship fall apart within a few months.
Katharine Hepburn said to Laura Harding her lover, "Alan is light on his feet, even without his skates."
Addicted to sex by the time he was 11, followed by alcohol and then cocaine, Roller Coaster is a ride you will not soon forget. Peppered with hilarious vignettes through out it is no wonder it has 3 Five Star reviews.