Arctic Summer - Softcover

Killian, Kevin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156333514X ISBN 13: 9781563335143

Publisher: Masquerade Books, 1997

Synopsis

Highly acclaimed author Kevin Killian's latest novel traces a tangled path of secrets through the homes and haunts of American high society.

Liam Reilly plunges head first into 1952 convinced that it will be a momentous year. He has, after all, everything a privileged young gay man of the time could want including, he thinks, love in the arms of the famous poet Ralph Isham. But the inevitable follies of youth intervene, and by year's end Liam's circle; guileless Tommy, needy, unfocused Diane, and the strangely oblivious Guy de Remours has been contorted and ultimately shattered by the victimizations of love and hate. In sensuous, metamorphic prose, Killian examines the ambiguous motivations and confused loyalties of the young, fashioning a coming of age novel quite unlike any other.

About this title

Review:

Kevin Killian has long been considered one of the finest, if unheralded, writers of experimental gay fiction. His autobiographical novels Shy and Bedrooms Have Windows are considered classics of contemporary fiction. Now Arctic Summer, set in 1952, re-imagines the coming out story and makes us review how we read the motif. Killian's characters are gay, young, in love, and confused, but in the swirl of his charged, sexual, metaphoric prose they become both archetypal and idiosyncratic.

About the Author:

Kevin Killian is a poet, novelist, critic and playwright. A leading figure in the New Narrative Movement, Killian has received critical acclaim for his novel Shy, as well as Little Men, a book of stories, and his memoirs, Bedrooms Have Windows. His work has been widely anthologized, appearing in Men on Men, Best American Poetry 1988, Wrestling With the Angel and others. He lives in San Francisco.

About this edition

• Publisher: Masquerade Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 156333514X
• ISBN 13: 9781563335143
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 395