Acqua Calda: A Novel - Hardcover

McDermott, Keith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786715081 ISBN 13: 9780786715084

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 2005

Synopsis

As actor Gerald prepares to die from AIDS, he receives a last chance to perform in Sicily and finds himself living in Italy and falling in love with another actor when he thought he would be dying in a hospital.

About this title

About the Author:

Keith McDermott is a novelist and actor. His writing has appeared in Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction, Men on Men 7, Boys Like Us, and Loss within Loss, as well as in Out, Nest and the James White Review. As an actor, Keith has worked on, off, and off-off Broadway, making his Broadway debut opposite Richard Burton in Equus. He has worked with director Robert Wilson in America, Europe, Russia, and Japan. He lives in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly:

The revitalizing power of art drives this novel by a longtime theater actor, who acquits himself well in this debut. Suffering from AIDS, middle-aged actor Gerald Barnett is pulled off his deathbed by a call from his former mentor, the famous avant-garde director William Weiss. Weiss is a world-class eccentric, self-obsessed and prone to braying periodically that his work is a "diSASter." But Gerald knows that "his years acting in Bill's company had been the best of his life," and so despite his poor health, he makes an arduous trip to Sicily for one last glorious production. Despite the hectic pace, Gerald holds up pretty well, and he's further reinvigorated by an unexpected affair with Enzo, one of the local Italian actors. At the same time, the combination of a skin condition and Gerald's own vanity cause him to forgo his medications--a decision that puts him at risk as the show nears its opening night. McDermott ably captures the heady excitement of theater life, and surrounds Gerald with an eclectic, international cast, even if many of the characters are more like cultural types than individuals. Invested with a thoughtful humanity, this novel mostly steers clear of sentimentality. (Mar.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0786715081
• ISBN 13: 9780786715084
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 300