The Hour Between: A Novel [Paperback]

Sebastian Stuart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

“I love stories about friendship, particularly those in which friendship is recalled under a nostalgic haze...I found the whole thing quite lovely...Stuart knows how to cut the pathos with some sharp wit.”—Daniel Goldin of Boswell Book Company for National Public Radio

When Arthur McDougal is kicked out of Manhattan’s toniest boys’ school, his parents ship him off to the only place that will take him in—the Christian Science–inflected Spooner School. There, in the woods of Connecticut, Arthur meets Katrina Felt, the charming, troubled daughter of a Hollywood movie star. As Arthur struggles with his sexuality and Katrina’s beauty and talent land her in a Broadway musical, the two forge a tender friendship. But while Arthur’s confidence grows, Katrina is pulled down by the heartbreaking secrets and sorrows of her past. By year’s end, their lives will be changed forever, and their friendship will be over. Set in the late 1960s, The Hour Between is a compelling portrait of a time and place, replete with drugs, sex, Andy Warhol, a cast of truly memorable secondary characters, and some of the sharpest and funniest dialogue in recent memory.

Sebastian Stuart has written novels, plays, and screenplays. His last novel was ghostwritten (with acknowledgment): Charm! by Kendall Hart, a character on the soap opera All My Children. Charm! spent five weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. A native New Yorker, Stuart now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with novelist Stephen McCauley.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1960s Manhattan, Arthur MacDougal has been thrown out of his exclusive prep school and sent off to the Spooner School for the disciplinary challenged in rural Connecticut. Just minutes after his parents speed back to the city, he hits it off with the fragile and quirky Katrina Felt, daughter of a famous show biz couple, who immediately recognizes Arthur's latent gayness. Enter Sapphire, Katrina's roommate, a promiscuous but sweet hippy chick; Nicolas, Arthur's roommate, still dealing with his mother's death; and Lenny, the muscular, snaggle-toothed townie who catches Arthur's eye. Novelist-playwright Stuart (24-Karat Kids) sets his fully drawn character loose in a familiar era, but there's nothing quaint or retro about his '60s set; the ubiquitous drugs, the war, the new sense of sexual freedom and the fight against the establishment are pervasive and essential elements. This simple but wholly moving coming-of-age story features a worthy successor to Holden Caulfield coming to grips with what (and who) he cannot change. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Sebastian Stuart has written novels, plays, and screenplays. His last novel was ghostwritten (with acknowledgment): Charm! by Kendall Hart and spent five weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List in 2008. 24-Karat Kids (St. Martins, 2006), was written w

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: Alyson Books (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593501269
• ISBN-13: 978-1593501266
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,022,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars NPR has got some 'splainin' to do., December 8, 2009

By 

Mary (Virginia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Hour Between: A Novel (Paperback)

As Seneca the Younger once said, "There's nothing new under the sun", and The Hour Between does not challenge that assertion. Predictable, somewhat juvenile, and two-dimensional, it is the story of two "misfits" who become instant best friends at a rather preposterous boarding school in rural Connecticutt in 1967. One of the reviews on Amazon gushingly referred to the male protagonist, Arthur MacDougal, as the new Holden Caulfield, a comparison with which I not only strongly disagree but am insulted by on behalf of Catcher In The Rye fans everywhere. Holden Caulfield made a true journey, both physically and spiritually; Arthur MacDougal goes meekly along with the status quo, his one shining moment of "rebellion" being when he finally confesses to his parents that he is gay (no spoiler here,his sexual orientation is established within the first two or three pages of the first chapter, and over and over again ad infinitum after that). His parents' reaction is--wait, what reaction? A thread that goes nowhere.

Author Anita Shreve mentioned Breakfast at Tiffanys in her review--another stretch of the imagination. The main female character, Katrina Felt, is a feeble yet overblown Holiday Golightly wanna-be who doesn't inspire much beyond incredulity and impatience. At one point, apropos of absolutely nothing as far as I can tell, she adopts a kitten (just as Holly Golightly took in a stray cat) but this particular plot device also goes nowhere except to awkwardly hint at Katrina's wholly unsurprising deep dark secret.

This novel is one of NPR's "independent bookseller recommendations" so I had high hopes, especially as the very next book on the list is Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon (marvelous!), but alas, I closed the book this afternoon with relief and an overwhelming feeling of...."meh". My star indicator would be "It's OK" but 3 stars is a bit misleading so I'll go with 2.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars GREAT COVER, June 12, 2011

By 

D. Homsher (Lancaster, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hour Between: A Novel (Paperback)

I didn't like this novel for the following reasons:
1. The story is set in a New England prep school where all the staff are caricatures or cliches.
2. The gay, new-student, narrator is bland and underdeveloped. His primary function is to tell us of the exploits of his new best friend, Katrina. All his other interactions are given short shrift and quickly dead end. There is no growth or movement for this character.
3. Katrina is a spoiled-brat, alcoholic, rich girl. Why the narrator (or a reader) would want to spend any time with her is a mystery to me. An overdose early in the novel would have been a godsend. Yet, to the extent there is a plot, it revolves around her.
4. A number of names(with appearances) are dropped---Beaton, Avedon, Warhol, etc. But these "context" elements seem contrived---they don't seem ogranic to me. The scene with Beaton is so campy it is beyond belief.
5. At times the writing seems careless. One character is reading "Maurice" (this is 1967), which wasn't published until 1971. In the Beaton scene, which reads like a 15, or at most 30 minute sequence, a very efficient underling searches the campus for a boat, comes up dry, is sent to town, finds one, and comes back with just the right thing. Wow!
6. This novel many, many times did not ring true to me. I wish I had left the characters between the unopened beautiful cover.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hour Between ???, January 7, 2010

By 

Kim D. (Sunny Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hour Between: A Novel (Paperback)

Stuart's latest novel was a pleasure from start to finish. And although there was a bit more than an hour between the two it was definitely fast-paced, and like his other novels, hard to put down. Well, one or two reviewers didn't seem to have too much of a problem, but anyway, The Hour Between was a lot of fun for me. And helpful too. It brought back so many memories of the crazy things I did in my youth-and just last week. I loved it and I highly recommend it.