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The Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket
Before the onset of his irreversible decline, Eddie Socket always suspected he was on the verge of something. Now that "something" has arrived in the form of Merrit Mather, an attractive older gentleman of impeccable taste in everything from sweaters to his numerous sexual conquests. That Merrit happens to be the lover of Eddie's agitated boss, Saul, hardly fazes the smitten Eddie; that the elusive Merrit loses interest in Eddie with dizzying speed hardly dims his ardor. While Eddie continues his futile chase, he finds solace in his roommate, Polly, involved in her own implausible affair with a self-involved banker. Both Eddie and Polly eventually conclude that solitude is their best option. But even that is not possible as Eddie finds his life taking an unexpected turn--a turn that that serves as the catalyst for Eddie, love-ravaged Polly, and the indomitable Saul to reclaim their lives.
First published in 1989 and winner of the 1990 Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Debut Novel, The Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket is one of the first novels to respond to the global AIDS crisis. A comedy of absurdist horror, it weaponizes the comic as a way of intensifying the tragic aspects of AIDS, which were especially acute in the early 1980s, and the scars of which are still visible today.
First published in 1989 and winner of the 1990 Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Debut Novel, The Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket is one of the first novels to respond to the global AIDS crisis. A comedy of absurdist horror, it weaponizes the comic as a way of intensifying the tragic aspects of AIDS, which were especially acute in the early 1980s, and the scars of which are still visible today.
276 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
11 people are currently reading
371 people want to read
About the author
John Weir
3 books13 followersJohn Weir (born 8 February 1959 in Tarrytown, New York) is an American writer. He is the author of two novels, The Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket (HarperCollins, 1989), which won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Debut Fiction at the 2nd Lambda Literary Awards in 1990, and for which he received an NEA Fellowship in Fiction in 1991; and What I Did Wrong (Viking, 2006).
In the early 1990s, he was a Contributing Editor at Details; and he has published nonfiction in The New York Times, Spin, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. His short fiction has appeared in Green Mountains Review, Gulf Coast, Subtropics, and elsewhere.
In 1991, in conjunction with ACT UP New York's Day of Desperation action to draw attention to government and media neglect of the global AIDS crisis, Weir and several fellow activists interrupted The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.
Weir is associate professor of English at Queens College of the City University of New York, where he has taught English and Creative Writing since 1993, and where he teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation.
His story collection Your Nostalgia Is Killing Me won the 2020 AWP Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, and was published by Red Hen Press in 2022.
In the early 1990s, he was a Contributing Editor at Details; and he has published nonfiction in The New York Times, Spin, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. His short fiction has appeared in Green Mountains Review, Gulf Coast, Subtropics, and elsewhere.
In 1991, in conjunction with ACT UP New York's Day of Desperation action to draw attention to government and media neglect of the global AIDS crisis, Weir and several fellow activists interrupted The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.
Weir is associate professor of English at Queens College of the City University of New York, where he has taught English and Creative Writing since 1993, and where he teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation.
His story collection Your Nostalgia Is Killing Me won the 2020 AWP Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, and was published by Red Hen Press in 2022.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 20, 2022
A difficult although moving re-read. Gay men, late 1980s, look at that title—no need for spoilers. Yet also surprisingly funny, and illustrates the attitudes of the time.
Not as caustically witty as Eighty-Sixed but brilliant and necessary; this novel is its own take on a brutal and challenging era.
Plague years, you see, create their own culture.
Not as caustically witty as Eighty-Sixed but brilliant and necessary; this novel is its own take on a brutal and challenging era.
Plague years, you see, create their own culture.
November 25, 2007
This novel is a queer lit classic that should not be out of print.
November 15, 2017
I may write a review later, but for now, here is a quote that made me stop in my tracks:
“There wasn’t a word that said, ‘I just got off the phone with the ghost of one more twenty-five-year-old who should have passed out of my life in a normal, healthy way.”
Damn.
“There wasn’t a word that said, ‘I just got off the phone with the ghost of one more twenty-five-year-old who should have passed out of my life in a normal, healthy way.”
Damn.
March 2, 2008
In 1989, when this book was published, a diagnosis of AIDS still equated to a death sentence, and there was little ambiguity regarding the 'irreversible decline' of the title. It tells the story of Eddie Socket, a 28-year old from New Jersey living in Manhattan, his roommate Polly, his boss Saul, and lover Merrit, following their struggle to carve out meaning in life in a city besieged by AIDS.
Although Eddie does contract the virus, ultimately dying of the disease, this book sets itself apart from others written during this period by bucking the trend of focusing solely on death and loss. Despite the undeniably grim backdrop, the characters in Weir's book are focused on living. Weir's accomplishment is that he manages to forge a sensitive, upbeat novel even in the face of Eddie's irreversible physical decline, without resorting to sentimentality.
The story is firmly rooted in 1980's New York, which probably limits its general appeal. There is a certain solipsism about all of the characters which is a little offputting at first. Not surprisingly, Eddie's decline is a catalyst for growth in almost all of the characters, but Weir's account manages to avoid being predictable or overly sentimental.
However, for those interested in reading about gay life in Manhattan in the 1980's, I would much sooner recommend David Feinberg's two books, "Eighty-Sixed" and "Spontaneous Combustion". There is a passivity in Eddie's approach to life which makes him far less interesting than Feinberg's magnificently angry (and much funnier) B.J. Rosenthal. Twenty years later Feinberg's writing still electrifies the reader, a feat that Weir never quite manages to pull off.
Although Eddie does contract the virus, ultimately dying of the disease, this book sets itself apart from others written during this period by bucking the trend of focusing solely on death and loss. Despite the undeniably grim backdrop, the characters in Weir's book are focused on living. Weir's accomplishment is that he manages to forge a sensitive, upbeat novel even in the face of Eddie's irreversible physical decline, without resorting to sentimentality.
The story is firmly rooted in 1980's New York, which probably limits its general appeal. There is a certain solipsism about all of the characters which is a little offputting at first. Not surprisingly, Eddie's decline is a catalyst for growth in almost all of the characters, but Weir's account manages to avoid being predictable or overly sentimental.
However, for those interested in reading about gay life in Manhattan in the 1980's, I would much sooner recommend David Feinberg's two books, "Eighty-Sixed" and "Spontaneous Combustion". There is a passivity in Eddie's approach to life which makes him far less interesting than Feinberg's magnificently angry (and much funnier) B.J. Rosenthal. Twenty years later Feinberg's writing still electrifies the reader, a feat that Weir never quite manages to pull off.
March 29, 2014
I read this book in two days. One of the most memorable novels I've read in a long time. I underlined dozens of phrases and pretty much all of 'Scenes from a Marriage'. So compelling. This novel should be back in print. Thanks, Mr. Weir.
November 14, 2015
An interesting story with a rather distracting style.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
This is a story about a young man named Eddie Socket who lives in New York during the AIDS crisis. The story is not just about him, but also about Polly his flat mate, Merrit his much older fleeting lover who is cheating on Saul, Eddie's sometimes boss and also the person who set Eddie up with Merrit.
So yes it is a bit confusing but this confusion typifies Eddie's life.
Here we have a group of people with different experiences and different points of view but who are all some how connected to one another. The story provides a glimpse of how these people react at a time of crisis and how they are sometimes at the edge of the crisis but also unknowingly caught up in this crisis with others.
This isn't a sad story, but rather an outlook on the ups and downs of life and the strains, joys, pressures and pleasure of relationships, of secrets and of discovering oneself .
At first I thought Eddie would be the main character because he is the one dying after all, but Eddie is just one of a number of characters who have a voice in this story. This is a story about a group of people one of whom dies at a time many friends and family members were dying.
Eddie is something of a drifter. He got out of his small town after high school, went to university, graduated and since then has been adrift. He works now and again, pays his bills now and again, shares two cats with his flat mate Polly and seems to dream his way through life.
Eddie's mother is also adrift in the same way, although she is a writer and able to support herself. His father is distant and send post cards every now and again but doesn't really know his son.
But the story is also about Polly, Eddies flat mate, who also seems to be drifting through relationships with men, having sex she doesn't really enjoy and taking acting classes that she doesn't really like.
Saul is Eddies boss (now and again when Eddie bothers to work). He lives with his partner Merrit who is selfish, self absorbed and more concerned about his dog Larry and his therapist.
Merrit is a man in his forties, racist and homophobic even though he is gay, and Merrit has affairs even though he doesn't really like being touched and lives with Saul as his partner. He has these affairs because he can treat people badly and get away with it and because he is absorbed by his own thoughts and needs. The affairs are always fleeting and don't really mean much to Merrit, but Merrit is obsessed with himself.
Merrit has a fleeting affair with Eddie but quickly discards him to move onto an affair with Brag who was Polly's ex boyfriend.
Yes - Polly also has fleeting affairs and this one with Brag (William). Brag is a trader, likes making money and although he likes Polly as a friend decides to date Merrit the selfish one.
(Good luck with that)
So what we have is a merry go round of characters living in New York during the Aids crisis and all of them although interested in love, have very unsatisfactory relationships which give them little and take them no where but what is clear is that none of the characters really want to face their truth and change their lives.
But when Eddie gets his diagnosis he breaks off from the merry go round and decides to go to San Francisco on the spur of the moment, taking a journey which leads him to explore who he is and brings him out from the circle of friends and family to experience something different.
But his decline continues.
The most distracting thing in this story was the changing perspectives. All the characters were in third person except for Saul who was the narrator in the first person but not the main character. Eddie who is the main character had the same perspective as the others and maybe there is a reason for this but it helped make the book hard going.
I only read to the end because I was trying to make sense of this group of people who all seemed to be living less than fulfilling lives, but at the same time it felt realistic because who has life worked out anyway?
So this was an interesting book of gay literary fiction and well written but sometimes hard to follow through the changing perspective. I did like reading it but only because I was curious and wanted to read something different.
As with much literary fiction there is no neat ending to the story just a pile of threads that could have gone anywhere or mean anything. It wasn't a story of total loss because Eddie although confused was an engaging character and although he didn't seem to achieve much at least he lived life as he chose, so there was something there about personal freedom.
Eddie also valued his relationships which is more than can be said for some of the other characters.
I really loved Polly and the way she loved and cared for Eddie right to the very end. I have a picture in my mind of the Pieta sculpture by MIchelangelo. Of all the characters I think she was closest to Eddie, closer even than his parents and it kind of shows how the love of friends can sometimes be even more powerful than the love of family, spouses, partners etc.
So this was an interesting book which is left open to interpretation. To me it is a book that reminds us not to take any relationship for granted and to go beyond the superficial in our friendships and through our friendships to discover love.
A different kind of book to read, with perspectives that are sometimes hard to follow, but a good story.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
This is a story about a young man named Eddie Socket who lives in New York during the AIDS crisis. The story is not just about him, but also about Polly his flat mate, Merrit his much older fleeting lover who is cheating on Saul, Eddie's sometimes boss and also the person who set Eddie up with Merrit.
So yes it is a bit confusing but this confusion typifies Eddie's life.
Here we have a group of people with different experiences and different points of view but who are all some how connected to one another. The story provides a glimpse of how these people react at a time of crisis and how they are sometimes at the edge of the crisis but also unknowingly caught up in this crisis with others.
This isn't a sad story, but rather an outlook on the ups and downs of life and the strains, joys, pressures and pleasure of relationships, of secrets and of discovering oneself .
At first I thought Eddie would be the main character because he is the one dying after all, but Eddie is just one of a number of characters who have a voice in this story. This is a story about a group of people one of whom dies at a time many friends and family members were dying.
Eddie is something of a drifter. He got out of his small town after high school, went to university, graduated and since then has been adrift. He works now and again, pays his bills now and again, shares two cats with his flat mate Polly and seems to dream his way through life.
Eddie's mother is also adrift in the same way, although she is a writer and able to support herself. His father is distant and send post cards every now and again but doesn't really know his son.
But the story is also about Polly, Eddies flat mate, who also seems to be drifting through relationships with men, having sex she doesn't really enjoy and taking acting classes that she doesn't really like.
Saul is Eddies boss (now and again when Eddie bothers to work). He lives with his partner Merrit who is selfish, self absorbed and more concerned about his dog Larry and his therapist.
Merrit is a man in his forties, racist and homophobic even though he is gay, and Merrit has affairs even though he doesn't really like being touched and lives with Saul as his partner. He has these affairs because he can treat people badly and get away with it and because he is absorbed by his own thoughts and needs. The affairs are always fleeting and don't really mean much to Merrit, but Merrit is obsessed with himself.
Merrit has a fleeting affair with Eddie but quickly discards him to move onto an affair with Brag who was Polly's ex boyfriend.
Yes - Polly also has fleeting affairs and this one with Brag (William). Brag is a trader, likes making money and although he likes Polly as a friend decides to date Merrit the selfish one.
(Good luck with that)
So what we have is a merry go round of characters living in New York during the Aids crisis and all of them although interested in love, have very unsatisfactory relationships which give them little and take them no where but what is clear is that none of the characters really want to face their truth and change their lives.
But when Eddie gets his diagnosis he breaks off from the merry go round and decides to go to San Francisco on the spur of the moment, taking a journey which leads him to explore who he is and brings him out from the circle of friends and family to experience something different.
But his decline continues.
The most distracting thing in this story was the changing perspectives. All the characters were in third person except for Saul who was the narrator in the first person but not the main character. Eddie who is the main character had the same perspective as the others and maybe there is a reason for this but it helped make the book hard going.
I only read to the end because I was trying to make sense of this group of people who all seemed to be living less than fulfilling lives, but at the same time it felt realistic because who has life worked out anyway?
So this was an interesting book of gay literary fiction and well written but sometimes hard to follow through the changing perspective. I did like reading it but only because I was curious and wanted to read something different.
As with much literary fiction there is no neat ending to the story just a pile of threads that could have gone anywhere or mean anything. It wasn't a story of total loss because Eddie although confused was an engaging character and although he didn't seem to achieve much at least he lived life as he chose, so there was something there about personal freedom.
Eddie also valued his relationships which is more than can be said for some of the other characters.
I really loved Polly and the way she loved and cared for Eddie right to the very end. I have a picture in my mind of the Pieta sculpture by MIchelangelo. Of all the characters I think she was closest to Eddie, closer even than his parents and it kind of shows how the love of friends can sometimes be even more powerful than the love of family, spouses, partners etc.
So this was an interesting book which is left open to interpretation. To me it is a book that reminds us not to take any relationship for granted and to go beyond the superficial in our friendships and through our friendships to discover love.
A different kind of book to read, with perspectives that are sometimes hard to follow, but a good story.
June 15, 2008
This book was a foray into love of all sorts, death, disallution and AIDS. All this set against the backdrop of New York in the 80's.
The reason I think this book fell short of the mark for me is because it was so dated. So much has changed in the world and especially with how we deal with AIDS and people with AIDS since this book was written. I feel that if I had read it earlier it may have been more impactful for me.
The interplay became the charactors was also a little flat. The treatment of the Gay Men in this book seemed sterotypical and one dimensional to me. Although it seemed as if the writer was reaching for something more.
All in all, this book was good enough that I finished it, but not good enough for me to recommend.
The reason I think this book fell short of the mark for me is because it was so dated. So much has changed in the world and especially with how we deal with AIDS and people with AIDS since this book was written. I feel that if I had read it earlier it may have been more impactful for me.
The interplay became the charactors was also a little flat. The treatment of the Gay Men in this book seemed sterotypical and one dimensional to me. Although it seemed as if the writer was reaching for something more.
All in all, this book was good enough that I finished it, but not good enough for me to recommend.
April 23, 2015
A simple yet powerful portrait of a lost gay life in a lost NYC in the late 80s at the height of the AIDS crisis. Poignant insights into destruction--personal, societal, demographical. Surprisingly funny and droll. You immediately fall in love with Eddie Socket, a lazy, aimless, and lost 28 year old homosexual. Your heart will slowly break, knowing his irreversible fate gets closer with each page you turn. Stumbled upon John Weir thanks to his recent and utterly devastating piece in Gawker, It Starts With a Nosebleed and Ends With a Dead Guy. Also beautifully captures a changing New York City, the destruction and coming rebuilding of Times Square, for example.
April 8, 2010
Wow, this was a 2009 sleeper hit for me. If you're going to hand me yet one more white-gay-AIDS-era-NYC novel, especially an obscure one with a dubious cover by a guy I've never heard of (sorry John Weir) - as Rebecca did when she used to work at the bookstore and pawn off all their unsellable gay donations on me - then by God it better stand out above the rest. Astonishingly, this one does. It's a mild-mannered little story, all things considered, but it's really nicely, smartly written. I approve.
August 23, 2023
I would like to thank P. Wessels for bringing this treasure into my life. P’s name was written in cursive in the copy I found hunting in a used bookstore and I can definitely understand why they wrote their name in this eloquently romantic and funny book about sex, intimacy and letting go in AIDS era NYC. They wrote it there in pride.
August 29, 2007
One of my favorite books ever!
September 10, 2007
Unforgettable and harrowing AIDS story.
July 18, 2022
SPOILERS AHEAD:
I enjoyed most of this book, but a good third of it, sadly, involves watching Eddie Socket die. I mainly enjoyed Eddie's brief relationship with Merrit that was charming, funny, and ultimately disappointing. The side stories with Polly and her boyfriend and Eddie's travels with Eulene (who bordered on being a stereotypical Mammy character) weren't as interesting to me, but I did appreciate the chapters with Saul, who provided a reprieve from Eddie's woes. Weir gives readers today a glimpse into life in New York in the 1980s during the AIDS crisis and provides great details about that time. I look forward to reading his second novel.
I enjoyed most of this book, but a good third of it, sadly, involves watching Eddie Socket die. I mainly enjoyed Eddie's brief relationship with Merrit that was charming, funny, and ultimately disappointing. The side stories with Polly and her boyfriend and Eddie's travels with Eulene (who bordered on being a stereotypical Mammy character) weren't as interesting to me, but I did appreciate the chapters with Saul, who provided a reprieve from Eddie's woes. Weir gives readers today a glimpse into life in New York in the 1980s during the AIDS crisis and provides great details about that time. I look forward to reading his second novel.
November 21, 2023
An absolutely incredible book.
The characters are well built and the narrative is sad but wonderful.
Weir expertly navigates the nuance of gender and sexuality in the late 80’s of all things, something that people freak out over today as if it’s a new invention. Weir’s progressive topics are so forward, his style so up-to-date, that if it weren’t for a like here or there that dates it, I would easily believe it was written today.
Unbelievably enjoyable. Sad and hard. Crass. Honest. A real encapsulation of the queer experience.
The characters are well built and the narrative is sad but wonderful.
Weir expertly navigates the nuance of gender and sexuality in the late 80’s of all things, something that people freak out over today as if it’s a new invention. Weir’s progressive topics are so forward, his style so up-to-date, that if it weren’t for a like here or there that dates it, I would easily believe it was written today.
Unbelievably enjoyable. Sad and hard. Crass. Honest. A real encapsulation of the queer experience.
May 14, 2025
Quite enjoyed this book upon starting it a second time, I don't know why it didn't take the first time, but it was effecting, written well and full of pathos, feels like it could be a very good 90s movie with parker posey as polly and a slew of other characters of the time filling in. Maybe more later, my head is mostly empty.
November 9, 2023
A sad slice of life.
AIDS stories often focus on the heroics and the mythic.
This was a reminder that--of course--28 year olds don't have their lives figured out at all, and can still die abruptly.
AIDS stories often focus on the heroics and the mythic.
This was a reminder that--of course--28 year olds don't have their lives figured out at all, and can still die abruptly.
February 24, 2023
Life changing
April 29, 2024
A powerful, devastating and truly beautiful book.
July 6, 2022
Didn't really feel this book until almost the end - everything seemed a little too diaphanous, from the characters, to the time period, to the timeline, the setting. I had so many questions, and it wasn't until Saul (the most present character) started summing everything up at the end that I "got it" - so at least the author tied up the loose ends. To Saul's point: it DID sort of feel like a puzzle missing most of the pieces, and by the time you fit together the ones you had, the book was over.
June 10, 2008
This book is an incredible story of the life of Eddie Socket a gay man in New York City at the beginning of the Aids epidemic. His story is charming and you instantly fall in love with his quirky personality and dry humor.
January 6, 2010
I read his second novel first -- which I adored -- and then turned to this one. It's not long and it took me forever to get through. It's definitely meant to be somewhat over-the-top and somewhat divorced from reality. And I think that's my problem. I like it REAL.
October 7, 2015
Effective look at the AIDS era and its impact on people. The tone shifts at times, and I wasn't sure if some sections were meant as serious or funny. Mostly bland prose, with occasional vivid detail.
March 20, 2008
Funny and harrowing.
June 9, 2013
Breathtakingly beautiful. Insightful and unforgettable this book leaves you with a sense of bitter sweet emotion tinged with the sting of realism.
May 23, 2013
I could not even finish it. I found the title character very irritating. While I appreciate the time capsule of the AIDS crisis of the 80's, this just did not do it for me.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews