Dupont Circle: A Novel

By Paul Kafka-Gibbons

Book Overview

Set in the nation's capital, this delightful comedy of manners centers on the busy intersection of Dupont Circle, where old meets young, gay meets straight, rich meets poor, and past meets present.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395869323
• ISBN13: 9780395869321
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A book like an electric blanket....

...warm, fuzzy, and leaves you with somewhat of a glow. The focus of the novel is not on love exactly, but on domesticity. All three of these couples have no problem falling in love, it's what they do after they fall that makes this book work. While it's not a completly happy-happy-joy-joy situation, the optimisim and love that fill this book will leave you with a smile.

Good fun!

This one is pure pleasure, a breezy family comedy-drama mixing themes of cross-generational love, gay relationships, and extended families that truly care for each other. Highly recommended as a fast summer read that will teach you something in the bargain!

The Good Life

Paul Kafka-Gibbons must be a happily married man. The nicest thing about this lovely novel is the evident joy that the author takes in coupling people together and making families. I got lost in the legal technicalities presented, and some of the myriad characters seem almost too good to be true. However, the message is that regardless of what the courts say, family life - whatever the configuration - is a fine thing. This sweet story is a good summer read, and will make you want to give your main squeezes a squeeze when you've finished.

A Comedy of Love

I loved this novel. It's full of the kind of lively, witty and wonderfully human characters that you'd find in a classic screwball comedy from the 30s or in one of Wilde's best plays. But the novel's characters bump into each other in the very contemporary world of Washington's Dupont Circle-- where, as the novel's opening page tells us, "poor meets rich, old meets young, gay meets straight, native meets new arrival, and the peoples, styles, and languages all squish together to form America." What really sets this novel apart are the intertwining love stories-- especially the wacky relationship between stately judge and young law student and the relationship between Jon and Peter-- a gay couple that takes on the challenges of parenting and finds them tougher than anything a reactionary government can throw at them. The novel's author, Paul Kafka, pulls off a tough trick-- he crafts an edgy novel with political bite that doesn't take itself too seriously. A homophobic government is the only real villain here, and it's the villain in a touching and light-hearted comedy. As one of Kafka's characters says, "The state has replaced the recalcitrant fathers of Shakespeare's comedies of love." Kafka's written a great little comedy that reminds us of how silly we all are.

A Comedy of Love

I loved this novel. It's full of the kind of lively, witty and wonderfully human characters that you'd find in a classic screwball comedy from the 30s or in one of Wilde's best plays. But the novel's characters bump into each other in the very contemporary world of Washington's Dupont Circle-- where, as the novel's opening page tells us, "poor meets rich, old meets young, gay meets straight, native meets new arrival, and the peoples, styles, and languages all squish together to form America." What really sets this novel apart are the intertwining love stories-- especially the wacky relationship between stately judge and young law student and the relationship between Jon and Peter-- a gay couple that takes on the challenges of parenting and finds them tougher than anything a reactionary government can throw at them. The novel's author, Paul Kafka, pulls off a tough trick-- he crafts an edgy novel with political sting, but also a novel that doesn't take itself too seriously. Yup, a homophobic government is the villain here, but it's the villain in a touching and light-hearted comedy. As one of Kafka's characters says, "The state has replaced the recalcitrant fathers of Shakespeare's comedies of love." Kafka's written a great little comedy that reminds us of how silly we all are.