Cyclizen

Cyclizen explores the class divisions of metropolitan life, the angst and pleasures of casual sex, and offers a darkly comic take on gay culture and relationships in 1990s New York City. Kent Hyles, a former member of ACT UP, turned bike messenger, finds a strange opportunity when a closeted corporate underling offers a deal. Balancing encounters with his ex-boyfriends and current sort-of boyfriend, and dying friends, Kent contemplates the end of his greatest love affair, with New York itself.

As with his previous novels, Provenzano weaves a deeper story, that of the demise of the tribe of centaurs. With clever symbolism, names and plot devices, he retells a mythic tale in a contemporary urban setting.