Joseph and the Old Man

by Christopher Davis

Oswald Stevenson, a famous novelist, must readjust his life and learn to deal with his grief when Joe, his young lover for the past ten years, is killed in a car accident

Genres: LGBT, Fiction, Gay

195 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

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

Reviews

[Nelson Minar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first "gay fiction" I've read in awhile: so much of the genre is writer-workshop prose, a sort of sameness that doesn't inspire. But this book worked for me, if nothing else than as a nice gay romance novel. It gives a particularly good treatment of intergenerational relationships, I think, something that's rare in writing, gay or straight. And the life described, an endless, slow parade of friends on Fire Island; well, it's very appealing, sad to think that it might no longer exist. I hope to visit Fire Island on my big roadtrip this summer, see what it's really like.
I like the style of most of the novel, a sort of sensitive gay male Hemmingway. Simple, upfront prose presenting the daily life of the lovers. The book compelled me enough that I stayed up all night to read it instead of sleeping, called a friend it reminded me of and raved about it.

[Richard Jespers · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book made me angry. Though well-written, it is too obviously Hemingwayesque. Not quite a parody but would make a good entry in the Harry’s Bar and Grill competition. Even the title is derivative. Otherwise, the scene at the hotel, the writing itself, and the narrative are finely rendered. ©1986. Perhaps early in the gay male rush to publish fiction. It would not necessarily be publishable today. It might better have been titled Joseph and the Old Man and the Sea.

[Jack Batts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really short and sad but also well written and cute. I love gay people

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A emotionally moving yet nearly unknown book from the author of the novelized version of the much better known movie Philadelphia. Davis wrote Joseph and the Old Man prior to that novel and it is about a 70 year old "Old Man" living with the beautiful Joseph, only 30 years old. The pair met ten years earlier when the Old Man taught a literature course at Yale and Joseph was his student. They then moved in together, and spent idyllic summers on Fire Island. In the tenth summer, everything changes when, ironically, the younger Joseph dies in a car crash leaving the Old Man with no reason to go on living.

This book is a re-telling of Christopher Isherwood's famous novel A Single Man (made into a movie with the same name); it's almost as if Christopher Davis rewrote it an an exercise to shift the setting from Isherwood's California coast to the eastern setting of Fire Island, and to add more explicit gay content which was not possible in 1963. Many of the plot elements are shared: the older-younger couple, teacher-student relationship, death of the younger of the pair, and attempted suicide of the survivor...and even the uncertainty at the very end whether the suicide was successful.

I would rate the book a solid four stars if it was entirely original in plot, and it is indeed mostly well written, but certainly not to the standard of Isherwood's original. But I'm going to drop it to 3 stars due to this lack of originality.

[George Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow burn, honestly explores the emotions of grief

[Christopher Tapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m so grateful I came across this, especially since it’s no longer in print. Published in the 1980s, Joseph and the Old Man is probably the oldest blatantly queer book I’ve read. It feels like a rare, time-capsule find that I’m going to cherish.

Without giving too much away, the story follows Joe and his older partner, Oswald (aka the Old Man), who spend summers at their home on Fire Island alongside their friends. The characters are written with such honesty, making the novel feel like an actual authentic depiction of queerness. I’m not too familiar with Fire Island, but this book makes me wish I could travel back in time and experience it exactly as it’s portrayed here.

At just 200 pages it can be a quick read, but about halfway through, it takes a heavier turn as the author Christopher Davis explores grief and homophobia with so much depth. There’s a particular moment when the Old Man describes feeling like he’s falling, his inner dialogue wavering between being present and wanting to give up—it kept getting me so emotional!!! Joe’s family also felt painfully real, which was like a big reminder of the kind of world many queer people have had to navigate—and a reminder of where we should never return.

On a completely random note: Barbra Streisand’s ‘People’ album (the one with the beach cover) is so this book coded. I may or may not have had a good cry to it after finishing.

I really hope Christopher Davis’ work finds a resurgence and the cult following it deserves.