How Many Die (Hardscrabble Books) - Hardcover

Skillings, R. D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1584650656 ISBN 13: 9781584650652

Publisher: Univ Pr of New England, 2001

Synopsis

A sixteen-year-old gay painter, Julian Esmeralda arrives in Provincetown to seek success while the AIDS epidemic is in full swing and devastating the local art community. A first novel.

About this title

About the Author

R. D. Skillings is author of P-town stories; or the meatrack (1980) and Where the Time Goes (1999). He lives in Provincetown, where he currently chairs the Fine Arts Work Center writing program.

Reviews

Set in the seaside artists' haven of Provincetown, Mass., this first novel by short story writer Skillings is a heartbreaking tapestry of loss, liberation and frightening death in the AIDS-ravaged early 1980s. When his effeminate behavior becomes too much for his mother, Julian Esmeralda, a plucky teenage artist, moves to P-Town to paint and attempt to make a name for himself. His titillating, controversial first art show raises eyebrows, and while living and working at a local guesthouse, the Madam's Maid, he meets a stream of passersby, mostly vibrant, forthcoming gay men, many dying of a mysterious and swiftly fatal virus called AIDS. As the lean story line moves briskly through cyclic New England seasons, the series of random, fleeting introductions affords few breakout moments, but among the more memorable encounters is one with Gustave of San Francisco, who recounts the rise and fall of his passionate, whirlwind relationship with Will, a Presbyterian minister. Julian is a formidable protagonist, and singlehandedly anchors Skillings's featherweight plot, bearing witness to the tragedy of the senseless deaths of the many "spectral pairs of slowly moving men." An unending series of hospital visits, funerals and ash scatterings finally take their toll on Julian's bizarre artwork and on his life (and on the novel's readers, too). Skillings's careful erudition can make for stilted reading at times, the writing less affecting than in his short stories. But his elegiac style suits this bleak and sobering commemoration of a period of gay history that many choose to forget, and many others can't help remembering.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

In short story writer Skillings's first novel, we meet Julian, a young, introspective, artistic teenager and his wealthy, withdrawn mother. As Julian matures, his mother notices just enough about his divergent habits to decide that he needs parenting and promptly drops him off with an artist and his wife in Provincetown, MA. Before she even leaves town, Julian rents a room for himself and settles into life at a boardinghouse. The time is the late 1980s, and AIDS has taken hold of the artist community, forcing Julian to look at life and other people for the first time. When a new owner buys the boardinghouse, Julian stays on, working around the place. He learns much about relationships as he listens to the life stories of the owner, a middle-aged gay man, and his friends. While Julian is the central character, he is more of a device linking some powerful stories about the denizens of the town or the boardinghouse. The main attraction here is Provincetown itself, which long-time resident Skillings has depicted in his stories. His love for the town and its people is obvious. Strongly recommended for all public libraries. T.R. Salvadori, Margaret Heggan Free P.L., Hurffville, NJ
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Pr of New England
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1584650656
• ISBN 13: 9781584650652
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 330