Out with the Stars: A Novel

by James Purdy

Following the discovery of an anonymous libretto, a composer comes out of retirement to write an opera based on the life of the infamous novelist-turned-photographer Cyril Vane. A dazzling novel by one of America€™s most underrated writers.

Genres: Fiction, American

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

James Otis Purdy was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, and playwright who, from his debut in 1956, published over a dozen novels, and many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and in 2013 his short stories were collected in The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy.
He has been praised by writers as diverse as Edward Albee, James M. Cain, Lillian Hellman, Francis King, Marianne Moore, Dorothy Parker, Dame Edith Sitwell, Terry Southern, Gore Vidal (who described Purdy as "an authentic American genius"), Jonathan Franzen (who called him, in Farther Away, "one of the most undervalued and underread writers in America"), A.N. Wilson, and both Jane Bowles and Paul Bowles.
Purdy was the recipient of the Morton Dauwen Zabel Fiction Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1993) and was nominated for the 1985 PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel On Glory's Course (1984). In addition, he won two Guggenheim Fellowships (1958 and 1962), and grants from the Ford Foundation (1961), and Rockefeller Foundation.
He worked as an interpreter, and lectured in Europe with the United States Information Agency.

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classical music lover can't help but try to connect the people dots in this comic telling of love and loss among the music giants of NYC in the mid-twentieth century. In the time period of Purdy's novel, most gay people were concealed behind marriages and devices that relied upon the naiveté of the heterosexual world. There were exceptions, the duo-pianists Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale come to mind, but even their relationship was not openly talked about.

The most famous couple may be Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti. Leonard Bernstein was paired with Tom Cothran for a time but many famous names are bandied about when it comes to his dalliances. His wife, Felicia, was a stage and TV actress.

Is Purdy’s novel an insider’s romp? Perhaps. It is an enjoyable time spent with people driven by musical and romantic passions, open-hearted and in its way, sweet.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purdy's scandalously non-PC, outrageously over-the-top satire on the decline of American culture is sexy fun with a sharp edge.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely has its moments, especially if you're aware of Virgil Thomson and Carl Van Vechten (Abner Blossom and Cyril Vane in this novel) and are curious about the surprising liberties for gays to behold in pre-stonewall NYC, but overall it doesn't contain the same sense of perverse magic or bizarre realism that his other novels tend to possess. The section detailing the derailing love between our weepy hero Val Sturgis and his lover Luigi are downright wondrous, but overall the plot seems to meander and one is left with a sense of having wanted more focus by the book's denouement. Liked it, but it is one of Purdy's weaker efforts that I've read thus far.

[Chrétien Breukers · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Purdy is altijd goed voor een roman waarin mensen van elkaar houden en waarin mensen elkaar kwellen.
In dit boek voegt hij daar wat opera aan toe, inclusief het theatrale einde. Een bijzonder boek, en hopelijk komen er nog meer niet-vertaalde romans van Purdy in het Nederlands beschikbaar, de komende jaren.

[Johan Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea.

[Tessel Spijkers · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5