Quote: Jonathan Ascher was a radical writer from the 1960s, who over the years has been largely forgotten. When Philip Marks inquires about access to Ascher's papers, it sets his widow Martha on a journey of discovery where she finds the husband she hardly knew.

Having simply sent all of her husbands papers to an archive after his death, she had no idea what might be found there. Combining large excerpts from Jonathan's journals from the 60s and 70s with Martha's present-day reactions, Merlis weaves a complex family drama in which she discovers her husband's bisexuality and realizes that she really knew nothing of his relationship with their son.

The novel is set in the 1960s literary scene of New York. In an interview with Lambda Literary, Merlis acknowledges that he has used actual writers from the time as jumping off points for some of the characters of the novel, but is quick to point out that they are literally that - jumping off points, not biographical sketches of the actual people. The source for Jonathan Ascher is Paul Goodman. Gore Vidal was immediately obvious in the character of Edgar Villard - no doubt a nod to Edgar Box, Vidal's 1950s literary pseudonym used during his exile for having published The City and Pillar.

   

Quote: 16-year-old Vincent McCaffery has grown up in the Irish-Catholic immigrant enclave of Yorkville on the upper east side of Manhattan. After his mother's death, for which he rightly blames his father, Vincent is lost. He's not old enough to take a 'real job' but is uninterested in the kinds of work that a boy might do. His friend Conny suggests a way for them to get some easy money — something he heard from his older brother who serves in the navy. 'What we oughta do is roll a faggot.'

What starts off as a simple way to get money — pick up a queer in the park and then when things get serious, knock him out with a rock and take his wallet — quickly escalates when Vincent finds that he enjoys beating the filthy queers. One can read Vincent's animus against gay men as coming out of his self-hatred and doubt related to his own sexuality. When they are picked up by the police, Vincent is only encouraged when the queer refuses to press charges. When the police warn McCaffery and Conny to stay out of the park, Conny ends his participation in the scam. Vincent is undaunted.

When he is later picked up by a man in a Cadillac who seems to know all about him, he is given an opportunity to make money under his protection. He is unsure he wants to commit to prostituting himself to both men and women but when he discovers his father forcing his aunt to have sex with him in much the same way he had forced his wife (leading to the pregnancy that killed her), he attacks him with a kitchen knife and leaves his childhood home forever. He quickly moves into Easy Tiger's place in the Village and begins his new life. Although he is making money and living in comfortable surroundings he soon realizes that he has sacrificed his autonomy and all of his power to make his own choices.

   

Quote:
Christopher Castellani has created a fiction that supposes that he did attend that party and what might have happened. The result, primarily told from the point of view of Williams’ secretary and lover, Frank Merlo, includes a who’s who of American gay authors living abroad. John Horne Burns, the now largely forgotten author of The Gallery, is a significant character, while Capote and Paul Bowles appear in more limited roles. In addition the completely fictionalized actress, Anja Blomgren, is added to the mix.

Being told from the point of view of Frank Merlo, highlights the ways in which Williams and Burns struggle with the pressure of fame and its fleeting nature while also drawing attention to the extent to which these authors rely on their secretaries/lovers to manage their lives. Their dependence is clear to the reader, but it is unclear if the authors recognize it.

Williams used many of his life experiences, particularly with family in his plays and short stories. Knowing this, Castelllani cleverly creates a life story for the character of Anja that explains events in Williams’ work that doesn't obviously connect to what we know of his life. In a gutsy move, a previously unknown final play by Tennessee Williams is created by Castellani and connected to events in the later years of Williams’ life. His use of fictionalized characters and events woven into the work in much the same way Williams might have done results in an impressive novel which mostly doesn’t feel like a novel at all.