"A Short Jew in the Body of a Tall W.A.S.P. (A Gay Melodrama in 13 Acts)" by Mark Okun reads on the printed page in much the same way reality TV feeds our appetite for the sordid. Does this mean there are drugs, casual sex, wild parties, with celebrities and name-dropping galore? Of course there are, and much, much, more as well.

Okun's life is an inexhaustible panorama of the picaresque. Moll Flanders and Candide, move over, here's Mark Okun. Filled with all of the elements already listed above, we can also read about (and this is only the tip of the iceberg): sexual compulsion; kidnapping; stalking; alcoholism; Alcoholics Anonymous (where he was first disappointed that no one there was hot); addictions of all sorts; teen runaways; lovers both gay and "straight;" narcissism; New Age clichés; the cut-throat world of hairstyling; the cut-throat world of gay cruising with gay friends; the HIV/AIDS plague time; birth families versus "real families" (where Okun appeared on TV with his "birth family"); and a grandmother (on the adopted side of the two families) who was a hybrid cross of Molly Picon, Golda Meir, a Fairy Godmother, and Auntie Mame.

What most appealed to me about the book is the simple fact that Mark Okun was my contemporary. I lived and worked in New York City during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and partook in all that gay life then offered. I am not alone in my voyeuristic delight in reading about how my contemporaries ran wild in the never-never land we enjoyed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although short lived (My friends and neighbors in New York City began getting sick and quickly dying around 1981), this time was perhaps, for most of us, the time of our lives. We saw no end to freedoms of every kind. This sort of roman a clef does have an inherent spoiler alert: we know how it will end, with the HIV/AIDS crisis.

That said, I and many others still get that vicarious thrill whenever we read or hear or see others when they share their outrageous behavior about "our time." This autobiography is written for us. In many cases, "today's young gay" often finds these tales to be distasteful, even disgraceful, with guilt by association with those "bad old gays" who acted as if they were on a 365-day-a-year Spring Break, giving being gay a "bad name" in this Brave New World of same-sex marriage, having kids, a home, a spaniel and hetero-normative respectability as their route to happiness.

Okun himself does contract HIV, and is a long-time survivor who writes that for the most part he is asymptomatic and healthy. According to his book published in 2013, he continues to work as a hairstylist in Manhattan, and he lives happily with his long-time partner in Jersey City, NJ.

Okun's book is an easy, although often emotional and troubling read. It takes him way too long to realize that those lost days (and weekends) were indeed signs of addiction. We do need to be patient as he describes every serial "boyfriend" and sexual escapade until he either tires of them, or they are no longer socially useful, or pushes them away with his self-centeredness. Another peevish quality that may set your teeth on edge is Okun's unfortunate habit of calling his parents – who adopted him, raised him, and tolerated his awful behavior because they loved him – by their first names. This is a definite turn-off in my book.

Other minor criticisms include his habit for repetition, a casual regard for spelling and punctuation, and his way of always seeming to say, "Here I am with …. " which may be overlooked in this first-person narrative of the story of his own life.

With that said, "A Short Jew in the Body of a Tall W.A.S.P. (A Gay Melodrama in 13 Acts)" written by Mark Okun and Hillary Brower, published by Dog Ear Press, 2013, is an entertaining read about a part of our gay history written by one of its survivors (with a little help from his friend) who has made the transition into a happy present.

To purchase the book, visit http://www.amazon.com/Short-Jew-Body-Tall-Wasp/dp/1457517361