CELIBATE- P - Softcover

Arditti, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1569471843 ISBN 13: 9781569471845

Publisher: Soho Press, 2003

Synopsis

The unnamed narrator in this sensitive story is a young man with his mind full of God and his heart closed to love. An ordinand, he has had a breakdown while serving at the altar. The Church has sent him to a London therapist, rather than a priest, for confession. During the course of his cure, while living in an unfamiliar world of outcasts, fundamentalists, and AIDS sufferers, he is forced to face the reality of his own physical passion: first for a humble rent boy, then for a sadomasochistic pimp, and, finally, for a priest. The healing begins as he gradually comes to terms with his own history.

About this title

Review

Michael Arditti's The Celibate is an ambitious work that challenges the standard parameters of the gay novel: although it could be classified as a coming-out tale, the book is more accurately described as the record of a spiritual journey with historical and overtly sexual overtones. Told in the first person, The Celibate is the story of an almost-priest who, after a nervous breakdown, begins dealing with his sexuality, a path that includes hustlers and s&m. The narrator's day job is guiding tourists through Jack the Ripper's crime scenes, and Arditti uses this material to show how the historical and the personal, the spiritual and the political inform one another, giving The Celibate depth and compassion. It is, in essence, a meditation on sex, violence, forgiveness, and faith.

About the Author

Michael Arditti is a novelist, short story writer and critic. His novels are The Celibate (1993), Pagan and her Parents - Pagan’s Father in the USA (1996), Easter (2000), Unity (2005), A Sea Change (2006), The Enemy of the Good (2009), Jubilate (2011) and The Breath of Night (2013). His short story collection, Good Clean Fun was published in 2004. He was awarded a Harold Hyam Wingate scholarship in 2000, a Royal Literary Fund fellowship in 2001, an Oppenheim-John Downes memorial award in 2003, and Arts Council awards in 2004 and 2007. He was the Leverhulme artist in residence at the Freud museum in 2008. His novels have been short- and long-listed for several literary awards and Easter won the inaugural Waterstone’s Mardi Gras award. In 2012 he was awarded an Honorary DLitt by the University of Chester.

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1569471843
• ISBN 13: 9781569471845
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416