Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: THE gay novel of its era

With the onset of AIDS, many gay people felt a new and perhaps better era had dawned in the gay community. Now with the restraints of fear, safer sex, and greater introspection, the wild, wanton sexual circus of the 1970's was in decline. The 1980's was the watershed decade as dating came into vogue and the process of assimiliation came to the fore. Leavitt's vigoriously written, richly textured novel is by far THE novel of the gay 1980's. In its themes- young love, coming out, relationships between family members, gays ans society and their interaction- the novel shows a clean and welcomed break from the world portrayed by the works of Holleran, Picano, and Ed White. This is a chronicle of a New York caught in urban decay and a gay community shell-shocked by the vulnerability of most essential desires. Well-written and fast-paced, it is by far the best work by Leavitt, who has generally produced less than fulfilling novels and short stories since.