TAKING SHELTER

by Jessica Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1990

Anderson (The Only Daughter, Stories from the Warm Zone and Sydney Stories) writes some of the best English in the language right now, and any mode she turns to is of interest. Here, it's a book of manners: sexual fidelity in the age of AIDS. Beth is a young woman who has had a briefly physical but then (to her) vexingly platonic relationship with her elegant lawyer fiancÉ Miles. Miles is all taste, demeanor, grace--but also, it turns out, bisexual. Beth, who's already skittish of men from a childhood trauma and who thus feels safe with the almost too perfectly balanced Miles, veers away in horror from him and finds herself quickly in the arms of his antipode, Marcus--a freewheeling bohemian young man of impulsive nature and sloppy sociability. Beth becomes pregnant by him, and there is an AIDS shadow once more: How many people has Marcus slept with? Has Miles infected her? Anderson, telling the story in facets (with wonderful use of older characters fascinated with but not appalled by the intriciacies of the yng), is writing about changing natures and the nature of change: Marcus wills himself to fidelity and Beth wills herself into trust--a great leap for them both. While the book has more air-holes in it than credibility strictly allows, it still succeeds as a beguiling juggling-act of attitudes, new realities, and faultless style.

Pub Date: March 1, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION