Colm Toibin
Story of the Night
(Picador)
Synopsis
Set in Argentina in the 1980s, this novel follows the progress of a lonely young man trying to live openly with his homosexuality. His coming out mirrors the country's emergence from the repressive rule of the Generals to tentative new hope under the early Menem government.
Biography
Colm Toibin was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of four novels,
The South, The Heather Blazing, The Story of the Night and The Blackwater
Lightship, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize. His non-fiction
includes Bad Blood, Homage to Barcelona, The Sign of the Cross, Love in
a Dark Time and Lady Gregory's Toothbrush. His work has been translated
into seventeen languages. He lives in Dublin
Contributors Testimonials
As
"night" suggests, The Story of The Night is dark and detonates
with misapprehensions and perplexities. The narrative commits itself to
the murkiness of lived lives, which proceed against obstacles and with
losses that are incommensurable. Whether about a relationship between
mother and son, stark, abject, and fundamental to the book's handling
of alienated bodies; the Falklands War in Argentina, and the effects of
U.S. or British involvement; plagues on physical or political bodies,
or lust awakened, and the chance for love, anywhere, anytime, The Story
of The Night explodes or collapses supposed discrete worlds. Colm Toibin
joins these spheres, brilliantly, through his enigmatic protagonist, Richard.
Richard's ambivalence, ideology, and desire drive him, and also, the novel
insists, all individuals as well as nations. Political ambition and sexual
longing misalign and ignite, while Night's characters fall prey to conscious
and unconscious demands.
This is a singular novel, scrupulously and passionately written. Nothing's
out of place - the whole is more than its parts - yet it leaves the reader
in a state of severe displacement. Its ending is breathtaking. Calling
a novel straight or gay is meaningless, in my poor opinion, except for
"branding," a marketer's tool, so I'm against these commercial
designations. An author's sexuality or characters' orientations do matter
but only as political work for representation, within a socially divided
and strained landscape. Good writing can be about anything by anybody,
and a good novel trumps designations and limitations, persuasively. So
straight or gay, a reader can find herself or himself in it, if identification
is the need, or not identify but have pleasure, both of which are abundant
in this truly intelligent and compassionate novel.
Lynne Tillman