Larry’s review of Midnight at the Cinema Palace > Likes and Comments
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Full Disclosure: I was one of the judges for the 2023 Lambda Literary J. Michael Samuel Prize which Christopher Tradowsky won for his novel in progress, so I was beyond excited when his publicist offered to send me a copy of the now-completed book (it’s official release date is June 10).
The completed book is brilliant (think a flawlessly cut and set diamond) and beautifully written. Here are some of my favorite passages from the book so far:
“…in the end Jeff’s head was still crammed with radiant code, and his brainy solution to a very bodily problem was to replace bodies cruising bodies with code chasing code, ones and zeros cruising ones and zeros.”
And this describing the sounds from the Mighty Wurlitzer organ in a movie theater: “…a man in a tan seersucker blazer was ranging all over it, weaving its innumerable, enormous tones with the deftness of a spider.”
141 pages in and here are some of my thoughts and favorite quotes:
"Last came the blizzard, which arrived in dozens of cardboard boxes. It was stage snow, fluffy paraffin flakes, the kind you sifted over opera singers in the final act as they die of pneumonia or bleed out after a duel."
In the midst of an absurdist dinner party in a Christmas display, no less, full of lightness and the aforementioned absurdity, as character blurts a line that leaves the reader feeling like Nagasaki waking up on August 10th:
"My whole life, I've just loved beautiful things. Beauty is the only thing I've ever cared about. I'm live Tosca: Visse d'arte, I've lived for at-=rt! but beauty doesn't save a single life, does it? Beauty never saved one goddamned life."
And this, which seems to sum up this novel:
"...the new year launched and their feverish collaboration continued apace, full of entropic energy, moving fast if not always forward."
275 pages in--about 100 pages till the end. Here's my next batch of favorite quotes. I promise there will be a full review shortly.
"The rowboat nosed into a float of lily pads. A stray neon Frisbee sank among them; a UFO lodged in a Monet."
And the exquisite building of tension in this passage: "It seemed that something he had always imagined was inert was in fact explosive, realizing too late--by placing it too close to the gas range--that what he'd thought was gunpowder tea was, in fact, gunpowder."
348 pages in. Watch for my full review shortly. Meanwhile, here's my next batch of favorite quotes.
This quote on death as a casual footnote in a larger more important story, or rather as its inevitable ending, as all stories of a life must reasonable end in a death:
“Walter was crying again, a little, thinking once more how insane it was that someone could exist one day and not the next. It seemed impossible, a mistake. A bug in the creator’s coding, an obvious flaw in the design.”
And later this, and perhaps this one will resonate most with gay men of a certain age: “The fantasy ended, like all fantasies about the golden age of disco and bathhouses, with him wondering if he’d be dead now, too, like Roland and Lawrence, or dying, like so many others.”
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Full Disclosure: I was one of the judges for the 2023 Lambda Literary J. Michael Samuel Prize which Christopher Tradowsky won for his novel in progress, so I was beyond excited when his publicist offered to send me a copy of the now-completed book (it’s official release date is June 10). The completed book is brilliant (think a flawlessly cut and set diamond) and beautifully written. Here are some of my favorite passages from the book so far:
“…in the end Jeff’s head was still crammed with radiant code, and his brainy solution to a very bodily problem was to replace bodies cruising bodies with code chasing code, ones and zeros cruising ones and zeros.”
And this describing the sounds from the Mighty Wurlitzer organ in a movie theater: “…a man in a tan seersucker blazer was ranging all over it, weaving its innumerable, enormous tones with the deftness of a spider.”
141 pages in and here are some of my thoughts and favorite quotes:"Last came the blizzard, which arrived in dozens of cardboard boxes. It was stage snow, fluffy paraffin flakes, the kind you sifted over opera singers in the final act as they die of pneumonia or bleed out after a duel."
In the midst of an absurdist dinner party in a Christmas display, no less, full of lightness and the aforementioned absurdity, as character blurts a line that leaves the reader feeling like Nagasaki waking up on August 10th:
"My whole life, I've just loved beautiful things. Beauty is the only thing I've ever cared about. I'm live Tosca: Visse d'arte, I've lived for at-=rt! but beauty doesn't save a single life, does it? Beauty never saved one goddamned life."
And this, which seems to sum up this novel:
"...the new year launched and their feverish collaboration continued apace, full of entropic energy, moving fast if not always forward."
275 pages in--about 100 pages till the end. Here's my next batch of favorite quotes. I promise there will be a full review shortly."The rowboat nosed into a float of lily pads. A stray neon Frisbee sank among them; a UFO lodged in a Monet."
And the exquisite building of tension in this passage: "It seemed that something he had always imagined was inert was in fact explosive, realizing too late--by placing it too close to the gas range--that what he'd thought was gunpowder tea was, in fact, gunpowder."
348 pages in. Watch for my full review shortly. Meanwhile, here's my next batch of favorite quotes. This quote on death as a casual footnote in a larger more important story, or rather as its inevitable ending, as all stories of a life must reasonable end in a death:
“Walter was crying again, a little, thinking once more how insane it was that someone could exist one day and not the next. It seemed impossible, a mistake. A bug in the creator’s coding, an obvious flaw in the design.”
And later this, and perhaps this one will resonate most with gay men of a certain age: “The fantasy ended, like all fantasies about the golden age of disco and bathhouses, with him wondering if he’d be dead now, too, like Roland and Lawrence, or dying, like so many others.”
“…in the end Jeff’s head was still crammed with radiant code, and his brainy solution to a very bodily problem was to replace bodies cruising bodies with code chasing code, ones and zeros cruising ones and zeros.”
And this describing the sounds from the Mighty Wurlitzer organ in a movie theater: “…a man in a tan seersucker blazer was ranging all over it, weaving its innumerable, enormous tones with the deftness of a spider.”