A wonderfully funny yet tender evocation of the hedonistic 1980s. A young gay British man comes to 1980s Paris to teach English and to taste the erotic life that has eluded him in Britain. He suddenly finds himself in the midst of a sexual free-for-all beyond his wildest dreams - and then the AIDS epidemic hits. A beautiful, profane and witty novel from one of the masters of the form.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"'It stands with Hemingway or Fitzgerald's depictions of the Jazz Age as a cool yet passionate testament to an age now vanished.' Scotland on Sunday; 'This is a disturbing, brave and very well written book.' Spectator; 'A stylistic tour de force... it is life, not death that this novel affirms.' Sunday Times; 'Adair is a writer of undoubted class and has the gift of sharp portraiture needed to make a picaresque novel sing.' Sunday Telegraph"
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
GILBERT ADAIR was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1944 and moved to Paris as a young man, because, as he told an interviewer, "If you were a film buff in the sixties, you went to Paris." Adair later returned to the UK and spent his time writing experimental fiction, as well as film and literary criticism. His works include The Death of the Author, The Holy Innocents, later made into Bernardo Bertolucci's film The Dreamers; The Postmodernist Always Rings Twice, a book of literary criticism; and the novel Love and Death in Long Island. Adair lives in London.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dull, deluded and dangerous,
By Nick Alexander "Author" (Nice, France) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Buenas Noches, Buenos Aires (Paperback)
Just finished this one and I must say it represents everything I hate in a single book.
This story is not only dull, but dangerous. Yet more AIDS identity literature, this novel tells the story of a timid young lad arriving in paris. The first three quarters of the book are taken up by his observations of those around him and his endless tired winging about his lack of sex-life. His exclusion from the goings on of the Parisian gay world are emphasised when aids arrives on the scene... He has "sadly" remained negative, and looks longingly at those around him as they struggle "heroically" with the disease. Finally, in the final chapter AIDS "saves" him. He realises that to "belong" he will inevitably catch the "gay" disease and die "proudly" from it. This is gay literature at its most stupid, and would be amusing as such were it not so dangerous. Aids is not a "gay" disease... Ask some Africans about it. It's not "inevitable" to catch it... Ask any gay man with a condom in his pocket. It's not "heroic" to sit on the toilet all day with AIDS or treatment-induced diarrhoea. And there's nothing proud about dying stupidly of an avoidable disease. As an older gay man who has made great efforts to enjoy his sex life whilst remaining negative and healthy, I find the premises of this novel both insulting and offensive. In these days of a very loud HIV+ minority and a very quiet HIV- majority, the gay world looks to newcomers as if the only way to belong is to join those who don't want to stay alive enough to use a condom. The message of these "AIDS as identity" novels is pitiful and terrifying. Youngsters know this. You don't need AIDS in order to get an identity; you just need a life to live and a little respect for yourself and your partners. And you don't need to be a monk to avoid the disease. You just need a condom.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Noth worth a penny...,
By
This review is from: Buenas Noches Buenos Aires (Paperback)
Mr Adair portrays the less than original English character of Gideon who takes a teaching post at a Berlitz school in Paris in the 1980s. After getting to know the gay scene, Gideon witnesses his acquaintances fall under the spell if the first Aids wave as the result of their wild fornication and libertine banter.
Readers will find very little compassion for any of the characters. The language is crude, the tale banal. Had Mr Adair published his novel 15 years ago, it may have been of interest but unfortunately today, what the author presents as "a true story" in page 1 is completely devoid of originality.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pretentious & ridiculous,
By Dominic Swayne (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Buenas Noches Buenos Aires (Paperback)
Original turns of phrase do not a novel make. One wonders what exactly the author's intention was.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
