In How Long Has This Been Going On? the New Yorker writer Ethan Mordden gives us a sweeping saga, moving from the seedy bars and "meat racks" of the post-World War II gay underworld, through the history-making Stonewall Riots of 1969, and on to the era of Gay Pride and triumphant marches down the Main Streets of urban America.

Along the way, the author seeks out heroes and heroines to entertain and inspire us: the Mistress of Thriller Jill's, a delightfully acerbic lesbian bar owner; the Saint of Christopher Street, a devastatingly handsome policeman who becomes a legendary porn star; and the Green Goddess, a drag queen who, we eventually learn, is the novel's true narrator, spinning out his comic, touching, and at times shockingly erotic tale.