A frank yet subtle novel about the old and the new and about the steps that led to the gay rights movement.
A successful but lonely architect in early-1960s New York City begins a relationship with a much younger man during the early days of the gay rights movement in Horrigan’s (Portraits at an Exhibition, 2015, etc.) novel.
In 1962, Frederick Bailey lives in Manhattan, where he has a well-established career as an architect. At 48, he’s set in his ways and doesn’t believe in causes. His friend Deborah, however, has tried to get Frederick to protest the planned demolition of Penn Station with a preservationist group. But he notes that the station is a “sooty, baggy, ill-kept monster of a building, a confusing mixture of styles—faux classicism, Crystal Palace ostentation.” One night, Frederick helps a woman who’s been mugged, attracting the attention of Curt, a scrappy 20-year-old who makes romantic overtures toward him. Frederick, who’s closeted to family and most friends, agrees to a later rendezvous with Curt, who then stands him up. Months later, Frederick spots Curt at a museum and the two agree to meet again, thus beginning a long, somewhat-tumultuous relationship in which Frederick fears exposure and Curt recoils from monogamy. As Curt becomes involved with the Mattachine Society gay rights group, Frederick deals with personal issues, including his mother’s early signs of dementia. The couple embark on a European trip in 1964, and Curt’s fling with an Italian leads to a confrontation. Horrigan’s novel is convincingly at home in its time period, full of wonderful details and forthright opinions about architecture and art, family dynamics, and the fight over civil rights. The author keenly describes Frederick’s fears and his struggles to adhere to a false narrative regarding Curt as well as the punitive realities that gays experienced at the time. Although the reasons that Frederick is so tied to Curt could have been further explored, the author’s attempt to get into the psyche of a pre-Stonewall gay man is admirable. A touching scene with Frederick and his mother is also one of the novel’s highlights.
A frank yet subtle novel about the old and the new and about the steps that led to the gay rights movement.Pub Date: April 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-59021-636-1
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Lethe Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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