Acqua Calda: A Novel

By Keith McDermott

Book Overview

For years Gerald lived for his twin passions, acting and sex. As a handsome young actor, he found plenty of opportunities to perform in both arenas. But that was years ago, long before AIDS hit the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786715081
• ISBN13: 9780786715084
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

In Hot Water

The characters all seem to have prototypes in the long running theatrical troupe of Robert Wilson, right down to the mentally disabled "boy" figure who grows out but not up. McDemott tweaks these stereotypes like an old pro, but the delight of ACQUA CALDA lies partially in feeling that we're getting access nonprleil into a bunch of real people, and in seeing how they all get along or don't. The "let's put on a show" plot is one that never fails (for me), for I'm a sucker for performance. As a result the book is a high comedy with moments of sheer farce, and yet on the other hand certain elements that creep in give it an impressive depth, like looking at a silent comedy through the screens of sepia cheap video firms used to tint their stock in. I loved the book and got sucked right in. Years ago in an anthology--was it called BOYS LIKE US? I had read a piece by author McDermott that knocked my socks off. I hate it when actors or whatever turn out to be talented at writing too, it just makes me lose hope, but here in this instance I found McDemott's writing to be so evocative, so spirited, it melted away my mean spirited resentment at his "renaissance boy" status. And this book seems to me a complete success from beginning to end. The hero, Gerald, is an actor who wonders if he's stuck to his last for too long, and perhaps stereotyped himself as one of "William Weiss"'s company to the neglect of other parts of his resume, and plus he's a man who has lived through the terrors of AIDS and has found himself sort of still alive on the other side, like the shipwrecked mariners of Shakespeare's TEMPEST, and it seems to me that McDermott has placed all these valences of character and plot exactly where they belong. And I hate books set in Italy, for they're usually like, oh I have so much money I can live in Italy, but with this one we're in the soul of a bargain hunter, almost a miser, and this Balzacian "flaw" gives Gerald heart from the start. Good work all around. I hope that the author comes to San Francisco some time so I can tell him how much his book meant to me, and how I look forward with immense equanimity to his future productions. He's really good and so is his story sense.

An Impressive First Novel

I read ACQUA CALDA (sulphur water) after reading a chapter from the novel that was included in the collection of short stories FRESH MEN. This Mr. McDermott's first novel is certainly well worth reading. We can only hope that this is not a one time effort on his part and that he will publish another novel soon. This novel begins with the opening sentence: "Gerald was as well preparead for death as anyone could be." While one cannot always judge a book by the first line, in this case, this sentence, along with the first paragraph, sets the tone for a fine tale indeed. The protagonist, a New Yorker, who is now in better health but who has been very ill with AIDS, has made a will, a living will, arranged for his cremation, weeded out his photo collection, thrown away his porno stash and all his journals, shut out most of his friends, stocked up on suicide drugs and is "as ready to go as the dinner guest in coat and gloves standing at the open door." Then he gets invited to be in a play being produced in Italy by an old director friend of his and gets another go at living. In Italy Gerald meets a variegated cast of characters-- he actually meets one actor on the flight over-- one of whom he falls for, an Italian named Enzo. The novel has interesing twists and turns. One of Gerald's dilemmas, for instance, is when and how to tell Enzo that he has AIDS. The author quite deftly solves the problem for both Gerald and the engaged reader. Since he is an actor-- having appearead in the stage production of EQUUS with Richard Burton, for example-- Mr. McDermott would be expected to write about the theatre with an insider's knowledge; and he does. You feel as if you are actually rehearsing with these characters, on stage with them and sharing in their bickering and gossiping. The author is also adroit with words and at turning phrases. Gerald visits a government office where "poor people with jobs decide if poor people without jobs are eligible for assistance--food stamps, disability." Disney and Hard Rock Cafe are "gelding" Forty-second Street." Enzo's skin looks like "Sicilian olives caught in sunlight." Finally, Mr. McDermott captures in beautiful, succinct language the loss of so many lives snuffed out by AIDS: "Poor Damon [Gerald's deceased friend]. Poor everyone he knew who died so young: tricks, roommates, friends. Sometimes he's recall one after another, guys who'd been so much a part of those early, sexy years in New York, until he'd cocooned himself in the past and peopled his present with the dead." A very impressive first novel.

an amazingly good novel, not to be missed

This book is so much more than just a "good read." Keith McDermott's sense of pacing, his beautiful and often hilarious descriptions, and his pitch-perfect ear for dialogue do great justice to the story he tells. He's a writer who grasps, at all times, the shape of his scenes. And whether those scenes are two paragraphs or ten pages long, they're woven together expertly, so that the book, from its haunting prologue and wonderful first chapter to its gorgeous, heartbreaking finale, unfolds in a consistently compelling way. ACQUA CALDA is well-crafted, smart, funny and moving. It's one of the best novels I've read in a long time.

a brilliant debut

Keith McDermott's debut novel serves as a harbinger for more impressive work to come. His writing is as fluid, intriguing, and powerful as the body of water referenced in the title. I am astounded by the beauty of his prose: full of humanity, wit, and sensuality, qualities sorely missing in current literature (especially, and lamentably, gay literature). I look forward to more work by this fantastic writer.

A striking debut novel

Where did Keith McDermott learn such economy? The two conversations of any length between his protagonist Gerald, and Ian, a blithely arrogant novice performer, give us reams of character description on both men. I don't mean to damn with hyperbole, but the comedy, gentle satire, and unsentimental compassion in these scenes remind me of Jane Austen. I chose the above examples, not because they are likely to catch anyone's breath, but to show what Mr. McDermott is quietly capable of on nearly every page. More majorly, in his depiction of the autocratic, advance-guard director William Weiss, he has created one of the great comic characters in recent fiction. However Mr. McDermott may have modelled him on any actual figure, he has selected, imagined, strategically withheld and revealed and written beautiful paragraphs. That we can laugh at the maestro's fatuity and pretension but come to believe utterly, with Gerald, in his genius is a virtuoso feat. This book moves me. By the close, the sense of Gerald's theatre enlarging is very, very touching. Yet the author does not shy from the truth of pain and weakness. I don't wish good books to be other than what they are, but this one is a felicitous antidote to the rather sour latest of such writers as Alan Hollinghurst and, further back, Andrew Holleran.