Even if this edition hadn’t had an introduction from Alan Hollinghurst I think I would still have placed this in the same space as The Swimming-Pool Library. The tension of living a very gay life within a very tight bubble unites them.
Holleran writes at the close of the 70s but it is impossible to read it now without the dark dark shadow of AIDS that would so soon eclipse the world he describes.
Fire Island is on the edge of this UK centric gay’s world map, but it is central to a US, especially an East Coast USA gay identity. A couple of days ago we watched the 2022 film Fire Island - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Island_(film) which gave me an added vision of the setting of most of what Holleran narratives.
But there is a darkness, the endless party of gay-life becomes soul destroying, we try to out run our demons but in the end we have to turn around and face them.
No comments:
Post a Comment