Exiles in America

by Christopher Bram

Zack Knowles and Daniel Wexler have been together for twenty-one years. Zack is a psychiatrist, Daniel an art teacher at a college in Virginia. In the fall of 2002, a few months before the Iraq War, a new artist in residence, Abbas Rohani, arrives with his Russian wife, Elena, and their two children.

But Abbas is not quite what he seems, and soon he and Daniel begin an affair. After love throws the two families together, politics threatens the future of both in ways no one could have predicted.

A novel that explores how the personal becomes political, Exiles in America offers an intimate look at the meaning of marriage, gay and straight, and demonstrates the breathtaking skill and daring imagination that have garnered Christopher Bram widespread critical acclaim.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Gay, Queer

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Bram grew up in Kempsville, Virginia. After graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1974 (B.A. in English), he moved to New York City four years later. There, he met his lifelong partner, documentary filmmaker Draper Shreeve.

Bram's novel Father of Frankenstein, about film director James Whale, was made into the movie Gods and Monsters starring Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser. Bill Condon adapted the screenplay and directed. Condon won an Academy Award for his adaptation.

In 2001, Bram was a Guggenheim Fellow. In 2003, he received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. He currently resides in New York.

Reviews

[Jing · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was mediocre for me. It was still a pleasant read and I finished the novel, but it's not a book I would buy or read again. Bram explores the meaning of marriage, amongst that of a gay couple in an open relationship, and that of a straight couple with two kids. While he also interjects the interplay of being from the Middle East in the aftermath of 9/11, I think he reaches too far out and expects things to happen that don't seem likely. The characters are wonderfully depicted, but I was not convinced of their quickly forming friendships and relationships. Abbas was an unlikable character for me and one that seems too childish to exist. Bram explores interesting topics and tries to get the reader thinking, but I wasn't all that impressed.

[Skip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love when literature moves me to think about relationships or getting older or even people who may not sound and look like me.
You get all of this "Exiles in America."
I thought it was interesting how the story took a turn down the sort of National Security Road near the end. I was thinking, okay , where is this going....?

But lots of complex characters who were not always likable or easy to understand.... Sort of like our friends.

I plan to read more of Christopher Bram. (Just wish my public library carried more of his titles.)

[Chris]

How did I go so long not knowing was there a novel about polyamorous gay guys in Williamsburg, Virginia? I started it purely out of curiosity, but it really sucked me in (ahem... no pun intended). The writing is at times too realistic but really sharp, well-observed, and engrossing. I've never seen relationship dynamics depicted like this in fiction, and I can't believe it was done in 2006, before the straights caught on to "ENM" (or whatever they want to call it). It's a little clumsy in its handling of a Muslim character set against the backdrop of post-9/11-pre-Iraq-war American Islamophobia, but it does a better job than I would've expected. The ending, too, lands in an interesting place that struck a chord today. The novel stays at the micro level yet raises questions about how personal dramas are always intertwined with what gets known as "history." One personal complaint, if I can stay at that level for a moment: Zack and Daniel made me sad! Leave Williamsburg! There's more life for you elsewhere! But maybe I'm projecting...

[The Rainbow Zee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book from my library solely because it was one of the few books I found on a search for GLBT fiction. I was not disappointed.

We are introduced to two couples: Zach and Daniel, a gay couple, and Abbas and Elena, the "exiles in America". Both share an open marriage that at times offers pleasure, but slowly causes friction for all involved. It is set in post-9/11 America, and the story dramatically comes to a head because Abbas is Muslim.

This is the first M/M book I've read, and while it was graphic, I didn't feel it was gratuitous. The interactions of the couples was fascinating, drawing in their professions, their past, relationships with family and each other.

The ending isn't neat and tidy, but then again, neither is real life. This may be off-putting to some, but I think it's a nearly perfect finish.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and intend on looking for more of Bram's novels.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book as it's about a gay couple that I could relate to on several levels, and several not, but that is where learning happens. And I did learn more about gay relationships, our government's interference in our lives, and how lucky we are to be as free as we are in America...for the time being anyway.
I would recommend the book to any gay person and any open-minded others.
I liked the author's treatment of the couple at the end, presenting the problems directly to the reader and causing some profound thought about their relationship, as well as my own. Any book that entertains as well as teaches something about ourselves is OK by me.

[Jason A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bram has constructed a fascinating story of a very believable couple, and I was surprised to find I cared so much about Zack & Daniel. Interesting reading it so far down the line from Bush's illegal war, and I loved the questions raised (and largely left out there) about God and country. I won't spoil the ending but it sadly annoyed me immensely.

[Rod · Rating 4 out of 5]

>u/u< by Christopher Bram. I am really hooked on this writer. He creates wonderful well rounded honest but sympathetic characters. He is a great story teller. This is a story I have not heard before, and recommend it.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bram is a good writer, and this book is timely and a good read. Especially is you're sceptical about Buswh and the "war on terror."

[Jamie O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good exploration of marriage, good relationship examination, lots of gay sex! Good book, but not something I just "couldn't put down."

[Edie Kestenbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the ending of this book because, unlike others in its genre, it doesn't have a happy ending, but also doesn't have a maudlin unhappy ending. It's a neutral ending.

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, these people are completely crazy, but the book pretty much captivated me from beginning to end.

[Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good start, mostly interesting characters, but a very very poor "ending"

In October 2009, the NYC LGBT Center book group met to discuss this book. We've read Christopher Bram before and generally liked or even loved his books, so we were looking forward to this recent novel.

Almost everyone thought that the plot could have approached magnificence, with the tight cast of characters and excellent plot points in place, but instead of being great, the novel was clunky. The opening exposition was bald and bland. Most of the characters were missing something essential. And the ending was completely unacceptable - a complete cop-out on the part of Bram, absolutely unforgivable.

The most sympathetic character was Elena, the Russian wife (via Paris and Berlin) who was full of poetry and showed, that even though she knew what was going on, she was trapped in a gay drama that could never end well for her. There were some interesting ideas about painting, about being an outsider (about being an alien, even), about love in marriage, and about sex (and sexlessness) both inside and outside of marriage. But any good will was destroyed and any interesting points wound up being murky because the ending refused to answer questions about the outcome of the plot and tell us what happened to the characters. The lack of an ending was a major problem for most of us.

[Daniel Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found myself enjoying this book more as I neared the end. I realized I began to identify heavily with Zack, especially in the way he begins to realize how he loves others and his change in behavior around people. I was getting rather annoyed with Daniel and his lashing out at Zack towards the end and appreciated the shift in focus from Daniel to other characters/ more of Zack’s feelings.
The writing? Not my favorite, I thought the plot was pretty good but the writing style somewhat droned. Thoughts and ideas felt like overly chewed food at some points. Would probably have been more enjoyable for me with some cuts.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started off gangbusters and I was really enjoying it. Some insights into marriage, relationships not often seen and well-written. It grew a bit tiresome with the characters beginning to get a bit annoying and the plot not really going anywhere. Then it took a really political turn that I didn't see coming and just threw me. It felt incongruous to the rest of the book. At the end, the author directly addresses the reader which really did it for me. That just tells me that he didn't really know how to end it and came off as a bit judgmental as well.

[David Sheward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I really enjoyed it. I've read Bram's Father of Frankenstein (filmed as Gods and Monsters) and some of his short stories anthologized in gay collections. Set just before America's war with Iraq, Exiles follows the complex connections between two couples--a gay pair of 40somethings who no longer have sex together and a fiery Iranian artist and his Russian poet wife. I believed the characters and the story. I wanted to know what would happen to them which is all any author should accomplish.

[Bonnie Novick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kept reading but I’m not sure why. I didn’t care for any of the characters and felt the ending was not in character.

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Open Marriages: Stabilities and Consequences

That Christopher Bram is one of our finer novelists today is a given (The Notorious Dr. August: His Real Life and Crimes, Gods and Monsters, Life of the Circus Animals, In Memory of Angel Clare, etc). EXILES IN AMERICA is a very astutely constructed novel, one that explores the concept of displaced persons, whether those persons be gay men in a straight homophobic town, artists in a world of grounded minds, immigrant visitors in the land of the free, or Muslims in a path of fear guarded closely by the Christian ethic. Mix these possible people in a country post 9/11 and prior to America's (read Bush's) declaration of war on Iraq and there is a story brooding.

For the most part Bram finely tunes this novel with well-drawn characterizations, a gift he continues to elucidate in his writing. But something has entered Bram's writing mind that is a bit disturbing: he seems to have lost some of the respect for his readers that has never happened prior to his novel. There are moments of 'dumbing down' the reader by excessive explanations of obvious knowns and even stumbling at the close of the book to speak not in the voice of the characters he has created but in his own vacillating voice as a writer - a section of this otherwise fairly tense read that breaks the magic and adds little.

Daniel, an artist with painter's block who now only teaches art in Williamsburg, VA, and Zack, a psychiatrist who has given up his New York practice to follow Daniel to his present college teaching position, have been together as a couple for twenty one years, the last ten years at least of which have been an 'open marriage': both men are agreed that transient liaisons outside of their marriage are acceptable as long as they talk about them. Daniel, though in his late forties, has fears of aging and continues to pursue flings, while Zack has settled into a nearly asexual state. Into their milieu come a new guest faculty artist, Iranian Abbas and his Russian wife Elena (a couple with two children who also have an open marriage), and soon enough Daniel and Abbas are lusting after each other in what continues long enough to become an affair. The story is centered on how these four people react not only to each others' needs and fears, but how Zack and Daniel become enmeshed in the growing American suspicion of Middle Eastern 'potential terrorists', a factor surfacing when Abbas' older brother Hassan arrives from Tehran insisting that Abbas, Elena and their children return to Iran because of the incipient war between the US and Iraq. These conflicts focus the instabilities and consequences of the lifestyles of the four friends and introduces an entirely new attitude to Exiles in all its meanings.

Bram writes brilliantly and moves his story at a terrific pace: EXILES IN AMERICA is a difficult book to put down once started. For this reader the only problem other than the ones mentioned above is the lack of charisma: it is difficult to truly care about any of the people in this book. But perhaps that is another 'alienation' Bram wants to introduce - a metaphor for the isolation among people that has been heightened by the current preoccupation with distrust of intimacy and people outside our individual realm. Bram poses questions, delivers the goods, and once again proves that he can create a fine story based on a tough theme. Grady Harp

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine book, well-crafted and sensitive. The characters are those slightly-idealized versions of real people that only fiction can present; they are models to which we can compare ourselves. Which is, ultimately, what this book is about: it's about us. It asks us--explicitly at last, in the final few pages--to look inward at ourselves, at our own lives, and loves, and desires, and to judge ourselves fairly and honestly. I get the feeling that readers of this book will all see it slightly differently, because, looking inward, they will all discover something unique to themselves. At times, the metaphors can get cloying, the "know thyself" rhetoric a bit clumsy. But this is perhaps only an attempt to appeal to the less jaded among us--those who still enjoy a parable, even while recognizing its inadequacies. Bram comes from the same place as Tolstoy here, albeit a modernized version, well-schooled by modern liberalism and ubiquitous psychoanalysis. He has a point to make about the ways we live, now. This is a book that is intended to be Good For You. But he writes with honesty, craft, and abundant love. I was won over, despite my cynic's heart.

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is rich in dialogue and characterization and it explores two worlds, universities and professional psychiatry, that I find really fascinating. Even the premise -- one half of a gay couple in an open marriage takes up with a married man and both couples end up involved (not sexually) with each other -- is plausible and well worth exploring.

But Bram really seemed to be reaching to make a whole bunch of points about America in the wake of 9/11 and our treatment of immigrants, especially those of Middle Eastern origin. I agree with him politically but I felt like he was using the characters to make points and the characters themselves were getting lost. By the final third, some of the dialogue and plotting was just clunky and tired and implausible.

When he gets to the end (very minor spoiler alert) and asks the reader-- in the second person, no less -- to decide whether Daniel and Zack should care about (1) their own troubles or (2) global politics and the world in Iraq, he is clearly saying that human beings can and should care about both. But this was no revelation to this reader.

Gripping, but also disappointing.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bram has written another excellent novel here. The best parts focus on the relationship issues (sexual and otherwise) and the inner workings of the characters' lives. One of Bram's strengths is his ability to create well-developed characters who can be so disparate from each other. It would be interesting to see how other readers reacted to the story, as I imagine there could be a wide variety of opinion based on which (or which combination) of the main characters they most sympathized with.

Some of the FBI and Iraq War focused sections feel a little too heavily plotted, and some of the dialogue surrounding those sections threatens to cross the line into sermonizing, but not enough to be a major detraction from the book.

[Zweegas · Rating 2 out of 5]

These characters just do not know when to shut the hell up and leave well-enough alone. They just go on and on and on about their own personal crap, every little angle popping into their minds that no one cares about reveling in their own selfishness / martyrdom until they inevitably say something hurtful and drama ensues. Stupid stupid drama.

Most of the book is stupid stupid drama and minutae brain-turds from the four main characters. The only good part about the story involves the Patriot act and the war with Iraq, not who had sex with who and how everyone feels about it.

And that ending! OMG! Lamest ending to a book in recent memory.

[Elana · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. I really wanted to like this book, and trudged through it hoping it would get better. But, in the end, it was just okay.

There's a lot potential here - thoughts about marriage, relationships, sexuality, identity, race, ethnicity...etc.,etc. But, the writing is just so-so and the story line is all over the place, to the point of being less than believable. Yes, it's fiction, but it's supposed to be representing or reflecting a bit of reality...which it does not do effectively, IMHO.

[Dolphe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's an unusual study of relationships. A gay couple in an open relationship; a Muslim man and wife in an open relationship. It's a well-paced read and asks a lot of interesting questions about love, jealousy, revenge and bigotry. I was thrown for a loop in one of the final chapters; however, when the author offers a off-side tirade seemingly defending his characters. Was this an editor's note that was printed by mistake? Very odd.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this author (and was happy when I traded for this book and it was hardcover AND signed!) But the last 1 1/3 chapters spoils this from a 5 star to a 4 star. It's a great book about an Iranian art professor and his and his family's realationships with a gay couple in the US. As the Iraq war blossoms all changes. Good but the silly ending keeps it from being great.

[David]

This book about two couples in open relationships has some fodder for some exploration of jealousy and commitment but it lacks depth, so it reads more like a soap opera. I did not finish the book and heard that the second half gets to be absurd with a political situation and an FBI investigation. Don't bother with this one or if you're feeling really frisky just skip to the sex scenes!

[Dorothea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story, full of emotional conflict, politics, and reflection on what it is like to be gay or foreign or Muslim or all three in America. A little heavy on explicit sex for my taste, but worth reading.

[Ada · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really did not like this book. The only reason I got through it was because of an incredibly long flight delay over Christmas holiday.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gay politics. Post-9/11 race politics. Meh.

[Tanya b · Rating 2 out of 5]

my heart wasn't into it as it involved couples with open marriages and jealousy. It made me sad. Had to put it down.

[Damian Serbu]

Not my cup of tea.