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Fidelities
One of America's preeminent writers of gay fiction validates his reputation with his third, and sadly, last collection. Here are love stories, both passionate and compassionate; tales of suspense; narratives on the theme of AIDS; even a ghost story. "A standout read."--The Advocate. Hall died of AIDS-related complications in October, 1992.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 30, 2024
"The Los Angeles Times says 'Richard Hall’s prose displays a rare polish, and his accounts of ordinary and exceptional lives unfold in graceful cadences.” Fidelities is a stunning collection of stories that explores the varieties of gay experience – love stories, both passionate and compassionate; tales of suspense; narratives on the theme of AIDS; even a ghost story. Among the most adept and technically accomplished writers of his generation, Hall’s third and last collection of short stories is an eloquent work of immense power.'
"The author of the novels The Butterscotch Prince and Family Fictions, Hall’s short stories give a sense of having been distilled and polished over time till they glow with depth and wisdom. 'Diamonds Are Forever' highlights a gay man and his married sister who are incapable of seeing the shared traits that make it so difficult for them to accept each other; the story’s carefully paced wrangling over an heirloom is masterful. 'Avery Milbanke Day' features a 70-year-old writer – his seven novels about “the literature of hesitation” long neglected – decides to stay with his old dying lover and nurse him through a final crisis instead of attending a public celebration of his novels and himself. In 'Country People' the author presents a gentle, eerie metaphor for the search for a sense of history, reflecting on previous generations of gay men and lesbians." from the 2018 Kindle edition of this book and a far finer description then the dross currently posted on Goodreads.
This was Hall’s final publication before his own death at age 66 from AIDS-related causes and although I am delighted these stories are now available on Kindle it is a disgrace that this writer has almost disappeared from the literary consciousness, not simply as a 'gay' writer but as a writer, and a very early one, who wrote about the gay experience as if it was part of, and belonged to, everyone. He didn't write 'gay' stories he wrote stories which had 'gays' in them. I cannot resist quoting from some of the praise lavished on this collection at the time of its first publication:
“[A] rich, poignant collection ... The ruminations in Fideleties are remarkably palpable, utterly believable. Enlivened by precise flourishes of description, they touch directly on the reader’s empathy button, and hold.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“Many of these stories are light in tone and charming in manner...” — Washington Post Book World
“Hall’s stories evoke comparison with Henry James or Maupassant, Hemingway and Fitzgerald … A luminous collection … Hall has found in gay life stories to amuse, entertain, and move.” — Lambda Book Report
“Hall writes ... in a measured, often moving voice that explores the difficulties of grief and commitment.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Hall shows again and again his fidelity to the gay male community at large. These stories are the work of an acknowledged master at the top of his form.” — Bay Area Reporter
“Beautifully controlled ... arresting ... insightful ... pungent ... diverse ... [and] keenly observed.” — Publishers Weekly
It is amazing, to me how fresh and relevant so many of these stories are. Hall was a pioneer (I advise looking up his obituary for an insight into his career) and it is amazing, to me, why marginal talents like Felice Picano are constantly mentioned and praised for their contribution, writers like Hall are forgotten.
It is now over thirty years since this collection's publication and Hall's death and it is time for both a reassessment and for readers outside the USA, particularly in the UK, to come to know and appreciate his work. It is still abundantly available and relatively inexpensive second hand and I recommend giving it a punt if you want to try out something unknown.
"The author of the novels The Butterscotch Prince and Family Fictions, Hall’s short stories give a sense of having been distilled and polished over time till they glow with depth and wisdom. 'Diamonds Are Forever' highlights a gay man and his married sister who are incapable of seeing the shared traits that make it so difficult for them to accept each other; the story’s carefully paced wrangling over an heirloom is masterful. 'Avery Milbanke Day' features a 70-year-old writer – his seven novels about “the literature of hesitation” long neglected – decides to stay with his old dying lover and nurse him through a final crisis instead of attending a public celebration of his novels and himself. In 'Country People' the author presents a gentle, eerie metaphor for the search for a sense of history, reflecting on previous generations of gay men and lesbians." from the 2018 Kindle edition of this book and a far finer description then the dross currently posted on Goodreads.
This was Hall’s final publication before his own death at age 66 from AIDS-related causes and although I am delighted these stories are now available on Kindle it is a disgrace that this writer has almost disappeared from the literary consciousness, not simply as a 'gay' writer but as a writer, and a very early one, who wrote about the gay experience as if it was part of, and belonged to, everyone. He didn't write 'gay' stories he wrote stories which had 'gays' in them. I cannot resist quoting from some of the praise lavished on this collection at the time of its first publication:
“[A] rich, poignant collection ... The ruminations in Fideleties are remarkably palpable, utterly believable. Enlivened by precise flourishes of description, they touch directly on the reader’s empathy button, and hold.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“Many of these stories are light in tone and charming in manner...” — Washington Post Book World
“Hall’s stories evoke comparison with Henry James or Maupassant, Hemingway and Fitzgerald … A luminous collection … Hall has found in gay life stories to amuse, entertain, and move.” — Lambda Book Report
“Hall writes ... in a measured, often moving voice that explores the difficulties of grief and commitment.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Hall shows again and again his fidelity to the gay male community at large. These stories are the work of an acknowledged master at the top of his form.” — Bay Area Reporter
“Beautifully controlled ... arresting ... insightful ... pungent ... diverse ... [and] keenly observed.” — Publishers Weekly
It is amazing, to me how fresh and relevant so many of these stories are. Hall was a pioneer (I advise looking up his obituary for an insight into his career) and it is amazing, to me, why marginal talents like Felice Picano are constantly mentioned and praised for their contribution, writers like Hall are forgotten.
It is now over thirty years since this collection's publication and Hall's death and it is time for both a reassessment and for readers outside the USA, particularly in the UK, to come to know and appreciate his work. It is still abundantly available and relatively inexpensive second hand and I recommend giving it a punt if you want to try out something unknown.
April 14, 2022
GAY STORIES FOR GROWN-UPS
Serendipity has a lot to do with the books I read. Several years ago, I was browsing through the used books in Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Room. Something made me pick up a book titled Fidelities: A Book of Stories by Richard Hall, an author with whom I wasn’t familiar. When I saw the strange and sexy jacket illustration by Mel Odom (I’ll pick up anything with a cover by Mel Odom), it was a done deal. I bought Fidelities, took it home, and immersed myself in Richard Hall’s subtle stories about gay men. On subsequent trips to Giovanni’s Room, I’ve found other books by Richard Hall. I’ve weeded my books several times, but Richard Hall’s works are still on my shelves. I will never part with them.
Richard Hall is a superb storyteller. He meticulously depicts and dissects relationships between gay men—gay men, that is, of a certain age, usually forty-plus. His stories are wise, witty, humorous, and, sometimes, ironic. Hall’s stories are for grown-ups. In an essay on Richard Hall’s Couplings: A Book of Stories (1981) in The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered (2010), the young writer Jonathan Harper observes: “Hall’s stories were lessons on how to be a gay adult.”
The order in which the stories appear in Fidelities is perfect. From the first story, “A Simple Relationship” (will Alex ever achieve an orgasm?), to the last one, “Avery Milbanke Day” (will Avery attend the college celebration in his honor or stay by his dying lover’s bedside?), the reader is taken on an engrossing journey through many gay men’s lives. The stories in Fidelities are some of the most engaging and readable stories I have ever read.
How can you pick favorites from the fourteen short story masterpieces that fill the pages of Fidelities? I’m partial to the first and last stories that I have already mentioned and to “A Faustian Bargain,” which is the rare Richard Hall story in which a character struggles with or denies his gayness. David Lichtenstein is a married and closeted pianist. Hall describes him as “a homing pigeon that had lost its way for years.” The scene of David’s sexual encounter with Merrill is excruciatingly uncomfortable to read because of its unflinching intimacy and honesty.
Richard Hall’s characters don’t escape the horrors of AIDS. The stories included in Fidelities that deal with the subject—“Being a Baroness,” “Manhattan Transfer,” and “The Cannibals”—rank with the best of AIDS literature. In the introduction to Vital Signs: Essential AIDS Fiction (2007), Richard Canning mentions that “Being a Baroness” was “a real contender,” but it didn’t make Canning’s final cut for the collection.
Richard Hall appeared early in the post-Stonewall flowering of gay male literature. In his preface to Couplings, Hall writes: “[I] would probably not have produced stories . . . were it not for the emergence in present years of a new publishing phenomenon—the gay magazine. Gay publishers, filling a historical vacuum . . . shaped our imaginations, imposed a form and found an audience.”
Richard Hall died of AIDS on October 29, 1992 at the age of 65. I hope one day to walk into Giovanni’s Room and see Richard Hall: The Short Stories, Richard Hall: The Novels and Plays, and Richard Hall: Selected Nonfiction prominently displayed among the new books. These collections will include critical introductions, biographical chronologies, and notes. And many Mel Odom illustrations! I can dream, can’t I?
Serendipity has a lot to do with the books I read. Several years ago, I was browsing through the used books in Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Room. Something made me pick up a book titled Fidelities: A Book of Stories by Richard Hall, an author with whom I wasn’t familiar. When I saw the strange and sexy jacket illustration by Mel Odom (I’ll pick up anything with a cover by Mel Odom), it was a done deal. I bought Fidelities, took it home, and immersed myself in Richard Hall’s subtle stories about gay men. On subsequent trips to Giovanni’s Room, I’ve found other books by Richard Hall. I’ve weeded my books several times, but Richard Hall’s works are still on my shelves. I will never part with them.
Richard Hall is a superb storyteller. He meticulously depicts and dissects relationships between gay men—gay men, that is, of a certain age, usually forty-plus. His stories are wise, witty, humorous, and, sometimes, ironic. Hall’s stories are for grown-ups. In an essay on Richard Hall’s Couplings: A Book of Stories (1981) in The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered (2010), the young writer Jonathan Harper observes: “Hall’s stories were lessons on how to be a gay adult.”
The order in which the stories appear in Fidelities is perfect. From the first story, “A Simple Relationship” (will Alex ever achieve an orgasm?), to the last one, “Avery Milbanke Day” (will Avery attend the college celebration in his honor or stay by his dying lover’s bedside?), the reader is taken on an engrossing journey through many gay men’s lives. The stories in Fidelities are some of the most engaging and readable stories I have ever read.
How can you pick favorites from the fourteen short story masterpieces that fill the pages of Fidelities? I’m partial to the first and last stories that I have already mentioned and to “A Faustian Bargain,” which is the rare Richard Hall story in which a character struggles with or denies his gayness. David Lichtenstein is a married and closeted pianist. Hall describes him as “a homing pigeon that had lost its way for years.” The scene of David’s sexual encounter with Merrill is excruciatingly uncomfortable to read because of its unflinching intimacy and honesty.
Richard Hall’s characters don’t escape the horrors of AIDS. The stories included in Fidelities that deal with the subject—“Being a Baroness,” “Manhattan Transfer,” and “The Cannibals”—rank with the best of AIDS literature. In the introduction to Vital Signs: Essential AIDS Fiction (2007), Richard Canning mentions that “Being a Baroness” was “a real contender,” but it didn’t make Canning’s final cut for the collection.
Richard Hall appeared early in the post-Stonewall flowering of gay male literature. In his preface to Couplings, Hall writes: “[I] would probably not have produced stories . . . were it not for the emergence in present years of a new publishing phenomenon—the gay magazine. Gay publishers, filling a historical vacuum . . . shaped our imaginations, imposed a form and found an audience.”
Richard Hall died of AIDS on October 29, 1992 at the age of 65. I hope one day to walk into Giovanni’s Room and see Richard Hall: The Short Stories, Richard Hall: The Novels and Plays, and Richard Hall: Selected Nonfiction prominently displayed among the new books. These collections will include critical introductions, biographical chronologies, and notes. And many Mel Odom illustrations! I can dream, can’t I?
August 29, 2025
Richard Hall died of AIDS in 1992, the year his short story collection, “Fidelities,” was published. He was a pioneer of what was then called “gay fiction” (now called “fiction”). He was the first openly gay writer elected to the National Book Critics Circle but unfortunately is not well known today. I often avoid contemporary short stories because after investing time in them—and I’m probably revealing something about myself here—I reach the end more puzzled than satisfied. That is not the case with Hall’s beautiful stories, which are deeply satisfying, even when they’re sad or disturbing. Each of these stories has gay characters, and each deals with loyalties and commitments, but otherwise they’re diverse in theme, geography, and mood. It's a beautiful collection. Time to rediscover Richard Hall!
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June 27, 2025it’s not that white people categorically shouldn’t or can’t write about race… but…
December 29, 2007
This is an extraordinary collection of short stories by an author who was completely unknown to me. Although most of the stories focus on the lives of gay characters, the author's sensitivity and exquisite writing give them an appeal which should be universal.
December 2, 2013
Every word in these stories rings true. And of course, like almost every work of fiction about AIDS, it is out of print.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews