The Salt Point [Paperback]

Paul Russell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 2000 | Series: Stonewall Inn Editions

From the award-winning author of The Coming Storm comes the brilliantly conceived and precisely rendered novel The Salt Point, which explores the lives of four people-Anatole, Leigh, Chris, and Lydia-and their intermingled and unwinding desires. Set in a Poughkeepsie mall, the Main Street to a new generation, the novel follows these characters as they achieve their oddly triumphant lives redolent with loss and hope, humor and sadness, union and alienation. As promises are diminished and futures are abandoned, all four are hurtled toward that place in which everything is transmuted-the salt point.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The salt point is the place in the Hudson where the river changes from fresh to salt water. "It's always changing," says Chris, one of the three friends whose shifting affections are recounted in this subtle and accomplished novel. "You can't exactly fix it, but it's there, a point. But it's never the same." Set in Poughkeepsie, New York, in the 1980s (this St. Martin's volume is a much-welcome reprint of the 1990 Dutton edition), The Salt Point follows Chris, Lydia, and Anatole through the crisis that results from Anatole's discovery of a beautiful fair-haired youth that he dubs "Our Boy of the Mall." At first, it is Anatole who falls for Leigh, offering him a place to stay for a while, and respecting the young man's wish not to talk about himself, and not to be touched. But soon Leigh makes himself available to Lydia, as well, permitting her sex without the intimacy he enjoys with Anatole. While the friendship had once centered on Chris, the aloof and ironic focus of both Anatole and Lydia's longing, he now watches warily as his friends battle for the elusive Leigh. When Leigh shows up unexpectedly at Chris's music store, all Chris's good intentions, and his talent for withdrawal, come into question. Paul Russell, better known for The Coming Storm, moves with ease between his characters, alert to every nuance of their conflicting loves and loyalties. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly

Leigh, a teenaged hustler, enthralls Lydia, gay hairdresser Anatole and bisexual Christopher in this tale of alcoholism, drugs and shifting relationships set in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. According to PW, "Graphic homosexual encounters combined with some graceful writing might remind readers of Edmund White, although Russell doesn't aim to be quite so literary . "
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Stonewall Inn Editions; First Edition edition (September 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031226769X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312267698
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,189,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars intriguing psychosexual novel, October 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Salt Point (Hardcover)

The three main characters conduct deep, self analysis over their individual attractions to and experiences with a young, handsome street "hustler". Each of the main characters (two men and one woman) reflect on their pasts and internalizes his/her relationship with the others and with the beautiful street boy. This infatuation and desire eventually leads to self recrimination and seriously undermines the friendships. This was a good work with much psychological speculation.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Smart Read, July 11, 2001

By 

J. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Salt Point (Paperback)

This book deals with those of us who are gay and are trying to find that perfect partner. I guess it spoke strongly to me because while I am in my early 30s, I was dating someone in his early 20s. While a difference in 10 years may not be much, in this age bracket it does prove to be. The longing to be with someone, falling for the wrong person, and missing the better choice out of blind passion. Wonderful story!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars " The bitter after taste of salt...", April 27, 2001

By 

Irishlad "irishlad" (Fergus, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Salt Point (Paperback)

Having been swept away with Paul Russell's, " The Coming Storm," I was eager to read his earlier writings. I found myself reading a book that could in many ways be the screenplay for my own life! The man is a genius in being able to transport a reader back to those painfully akward moments of early adulthood when they are battling the inner demons of friendship, loyalty, burgeoning sexuality and the sheer confusion that manifested itself in the 80's -- the era of flamboyant decadence!

Anatole, Chris and Lydia could be the every person's version of the three musketeers. Together through thick and thin, good times and bad, in moments of abandoned logic where suddenly two people come together in a frenzied moment of lust that often abandoned or injured the missing third party.

I was especially fond of the dance of confusion danced by Chris who knew in his heart of hearts who he truly desired but was afraid to listen to that small voice. He is attracted to Anatole but dances ina frenzy with Lydia and then finds himself on the outside looking in as both Anatole and Lydia discover a blond siren named Leigh.

Plot twists and turns, and well versed three dimensional character development allow for this relatively short story to build to a thundering crescendo like climax.

This is one of my favourite writing styles where you enter the hearts and minds of more than one central character. I laughed and cried with each of them, and even tasted those same salty tears as I remembered back to a time when I too felt like an insider and an outsider all at the same time!

This is definitely a book to pick up for those in a nostalgic mood, as well as those curious to know whether Russell's writing could be compared against " The Coming Storm. "