In Such Dark Places

by Joseph Caldwell

NY 1978-lst (stated) Farrar Straus. Fine in fine DJ. Fiction

Genres: LGBT, Fiction, M M Romance, Queer, Gay Fiction

229 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

A playwright and novelist whose books include The Pig Did It, The Pig Comes to Dinner, and The Pig Goes to Hog Heaven, Joseph Caldwell has been awarded the Rome Prize for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in New York City and is working on various post-Pig writing projects.

Reviews

[LenaRibka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book has been first published in 1978 it is still up to date (in spite of authentically created historical atmosphere) and is a must read for all true fans of gay fiction.



I pretty much enjoyed this story, that describes events that took place within a few days.

An interesting protagonist, intriguing twists, great prose and a well done audio book (from 2013).

[Valen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Such Dark Places by Joseph Caldwell, we are introduced to Eugene who is pretty messed up, to be honest. He is gay and Catholic and pretty tortured, which makes for a compelling and at times a both frustrating character and read, but I greatly enjoyed this book for its frank honesty.

The writing is poignant and direct and clean and the prose is truly lovely and lively, despite the fact how moody and lonely Eugene is and therefore the story.

This book is about the near trenches of a depressed man and his near repressed "gay lifestyle" with no true happy ending .. or beginning or middle, just life. I loved it, but if you want something more hopeful, this is not for you!

--V

[Dpwarzyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, tore through it. Maybe we need to visit these dark places to appreciate the light.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing premise becomes ever more twisted and labyrinthine--without straying from its essential humanity. I remember well the scene where the priest confesses to the layman protagonist, a very clever turnabout. I liked it a lot!

[Elizabetta · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Eugene is an interesting kinda guy… He wanders through this story like a ghost, an observer on the edges of the action. And he has things happen to him more than he instigates, yet he is the center around which the action swirls.

Eugene is a camera man, a photographer. He eavesdrops on the world through his lens, prurient, a peeper in the open. Just how good he is at the craft is not clear. He seems to know how to get the shot, how to develop the black and whites in his bathroom darkroom. But he’s looking for that career-making series of photos. Something that will pull him out of the going-nowhere, part-time movers job that he depends on.

Eugene attends a Holy Week parade in a New York City slum neighborhood hoping to get some compelling shots of the common folk in their natural setting… ever looking for that gallery exhibition. The neighborhood is unfamiliar to Eugene, very ethnic, very colorful. And the parade, enacting the passion of Christ’s last hours, gives the possibility of passions flying amongst the players… Jesus toils down the parade path, under the cross, but it’s the rope-whip wielding Roman soldiers in papier-mâché armor, who catch Eugene’s focus. Hunky, all-male and oozing alpha pheromones, Eugene picks up the scent, camera snapping away. Inconceivably, a fist fight breaks out. Pandemonium ensues, and murder results. Eugene loses his camera which may hold evidence of the crime, and the rest of the story is his working to find it. And himself.

We learn a little about Eugene… it’s doled out piecemeal. I’m guessing he’s youngish… trying to start that career... just moved to the Big Apple from Hicksville, excited by the possibilities…

“Real live human degradation, big-city style, was foreign to him still and the opportunity to see it first hand excited him.”

He hides in the shadows, the dark places. He’s a lapsed Catholic at odds with his faith because of his sexuality…

“… the man put the palms of both hands on Eugene’s shoulders and, with a pressure that was firm… forced him down onto his knees in front of him… somewhere around this time, Eugene stopped going to Mass… out of perplexity. He no longer had any sense of where he stood among men and God…”

Yet he is drawn to the Good Friday parade, and we get a story about the intersection of formal religion and homosexuality. At the crux is Eugene’s struggle with his place in society and his sexual identity. A young boy, David, keeps bumping into and up against Eugene like a boisterous puppy, begging for his attention. Could David be his salvation or his downfall?

I had to struggle through this story. Not because of the writing. It is very well written; the author is an established playwright, which can be felt in the style. The premise and character are also both interesting. I just found it very dark, depressing, with a good share of violence threaded throughout. To borrow from someone else… I appreciated it more than I enjoyed it.

“… it occurred to Eugene that if his cares were to be stripped from him… he would be left… with only a naked despair.”

“His panic increased. The priest had the power to take his sexuality away.”

There is a lot of fear, guilt, and hiding surrounding Eugene. He’s not always a nice guy. Morally, he is all over the place: ashamed one minute, plagued with lecherous thoughts the next; his sexual attention jumps freely from one guy to the next as he lays his plans indiscriminately, one minute he’s saddened by a youth’s murder, the next, he’s sniffing after one of the suspects. Eugene didn’t really resonate with me, I couldn’t completely empathize with him.

In Such Dark Places was written in the 70’s and there is a dated, historical feel to
it though there are issues that translate directly to the 21st century. We’re still stuck in dark places… The reminder that we have come a long way but still have so much farther to go hits home.

Not a romance, nor erotica, I’d file this on the gay literature shelf, it definitely belongs there.

For this review and much more:

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written, but neither the plot nor the characters held my interest. I may consider going back to it, there's potential for it to improve as a story, but for now I just can't do it. DNF at 34%

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest, unbiased review .