Garments the Living Wear [Paperback]

James Purdy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001

James Purdy’s new novel, Garments the Living Wear, is a vision of evil and dark salvation peopled with bizarre and memorable characters. Satirizing life in New York City in the 1980s, its themes include the scourge of AIDS, criminal conspiracies, the excesses of the superrich, modern evangelism, and love in its many forms.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872862399
• ISBN-13: 978-0872862395
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,656,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars TOO MUCH LOVE TO GO AROUND, June 12, 2005

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garments the Living Wear (Paperback)

The once famous singer Peg Sawbridge and her daughter Cleo live in palatial flat in New York City. Peg's personal project is being the patron of Jared Wakeman, a young and extremely handsome up and coming actor who would probably be living on the street without her support. The problem with that is that Peg's fortune is running out and she will soon be penniless. Enter Mr. Hennings, a 94-year old man with a weakness for young men, even though he's married to attractive Cuban woman named Estrellita. Hennings is attracted to Jared and Jared in turn is captivated by his wife. And then Peg and her daughter are both in love with Jared. Can you see where this is going? What you have in this novel is a group of people manuevering for money and for love, and power over others. How far will the Sawbridges and Jared sacrifice their integrity, or really, their souls, to the devilish figure of Mr. Hennings? They don't want to defy him too much since he has promised to build a theater just to showcase Jared!

This novel is very good at showing the similarity between love and dependency, one being the ugly twin of the other. This novel almost goes beyond sex, and takes it to a realm beyond even sexual orientation. Purdy writes almost as a scientist sent down to observe aliens when he writes about these people. The problem with it was that you never get the flesh and blood and thought of the characters. It almost feels like a closet drama, and indeed a lot of the language has a Shakespearean ring to it. They never seemed quite human and the novel became more like a Platonic dialogue on emotional dictators.