Love and Death on Long Island: A Novel

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by: Gilbert Adair

: Love and Death on Long Island: A Novel

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780802135926
ISBN: 0802135927
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 144
Publication Date: August 07, 1998
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Review:
Giles De'Ath is a widowed British novelist so obstinately old-fashioned that he speaks of the "current fad for videotape recorders." Caught in the rain one afternoon, he ducks into a cinema and inadvertently finds himself watching something called Hotpants College II, where he first gazes upon an American heartthrob named Ronnie Bostock. Initially denying even the possibility that he might be experiencing a homosexual crush, De'Ath soon finds himself giving in to this "strange and bothersome distraction" by scouring teenybopper magazines for articles like "20 Facts Ya Didn't Know About [Ronnie]!!" "As someone who did not know any facts at all about him as yet," he notes, "I confess I felt a certain onset of excitement."

Gilbert Adair's narrative--it might be more accurate to call it a novella instead of a novel--is a precise depiction of romantic obsession and frustration. Narrated by De'Ath, it is thus somewhat more internally driven than the excellent 1998 film adaptation starring John Hurt and Jason Priestley. Love and Death on Long Island can be easily polished off with a few hours' reading, but its nuanced characterization of a man who trades restraint for recklessness is well worth savoring. --Ron Hogan

Product Description:

“A literary gem, a tour de force . . . Beautifully constructed, superbly characterized. What disturbs is the sheer elegance of Adair’s prose style –– most of us had probably forgotten English could be written so well.” –– Literary Review (U.K.)

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Why not read the original instead?
Mr. Adair may be a competent writer, but a reading of _Death in Venice_, by Thomas Mann, will reveal that he owes a great deal to Herr Mann. It may be to the contemporary readers' shame that we are more familiar with pop fiction than great art, but is to Mr. Adair's that he -- aside from not crediting Mann -- does not credit the reader with the education or the wit to tell a pale imitation from the real thing.

Rating:

- brilliant
A brilliantly witty and beautifully written short novel. Comparable to the prose stylings of a personal favorite, Graham Greene, his prose is eloquent and romantic. Adair proves himself as a wordsmith of the highest order, possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of the english language. I only wonder why a writer of his caliber lacks the publicity and popularity of his more noted literary confreres.

Rating:

- Never mind the width, feel the quality
What a small gem! Only 137 pages, but a rich and full journey into the mind of a closeted academic as he works his way through an infatuation with vacuous teen idol Ronny Bostock. Gilbert De'Ath's encounters with the modern world in the form of multiplex cinemas, teenage fanzines, video recorders, pulp cinema and Pakistani newsagents is both hilarious and touching. A vast improvement on the somewhat lacklustre screen treatment.

Rating:

- Fine novel by an equally fine critic
Superb novel, parodying everything from Mann to teen B-movies, but with a tender affection for its main character, sardonic and infatuated novelist Giles De'Ath. Quite different from the (extremely good) movie, with much more time spent on Giles' life in England and less on his adventures in the US. Marvellous over-elaborated style, too.

Rating:

- A very witty account of adult infatuation
I read the book after I saw the movie (which I loved). The book is excellent - the author can make the mundane so descriptive. I just wish the novel was 50 or so pages longer.