Love and Death on Long Island

By Gilbert Adair

Book Overview

A reserved British intellectual falls obsessively in love with a young American heartthrob, in this witty and poignant "tour de force" (Literary Review). When he wanders into the wrong theater and finds himself watching the wretched teen-pic Hotpants College II, cerebral British author Giles De'Ath becomes romantically obsessed with dreamboat Ronnie Bostock. Giles's infatuation drives him to the unthinkable: he reads American fan magazines and watches movies with titles like Tex Mex and Skid Marks. And finally, he travels to Long Island, intent on meeting Ronnie in the flesh. The basis for the hit independent film starring Jason Priestley and John Hurt, Love and Death on Long Island is a brilliant and heartrending update of Thomas Mann's early twentieth-century novella Death in Venice. It offers both a poignant meditation on passion, and "a very funny portrait of an extraordinarily unworldly academic's introduction to the dizzyingly incomprehensible realm of popular culture" (Nick Hornby).

• Format: MP3 CD
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09NF5X1L1
• ISBN13: 9798200154586
• Release Date: March 2021
• Publisher: Tantor Audio
• Length: 1 Pages

Customer Reviews

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.

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.

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.

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.