Accepting Life’s Invitation
Book Review of 'Acqua Calda'
Volume 75, Number 29
| July 21 - 27
2005
BOOKS
ACQUA CALDA
By Keith McDermott
Carroll & Graf
$24; 300 pages
Accepting Life’s Invitation
Keith McDermott creates a character who moves forward despite AIDS
By SETH J. BOOKEY
To live with AIDS in the mid-1990s still meant facing a grim fate and a strong possibility of dying. This was the time just before protease inhibitors helped stem the certain death AIDS had come to mean for many Americans
In Keith McDermott’s debut novel, “Acqua Calda,” New York actor Gerald Barnett is spending his time waiting to die. He’s made out his will and regrets a few things, like not having traveled, not surviving to see the new millennium and having no more love in his life.
So his salvation, of sorts, comes in a letter he receives from an avant-garde director, William Weiss, with whom he has worked for many years. William invites him to be part of his latest production, which will be performed at an arts festival in Sicily.
With very little to lose, Gerald goes to Sicily. One of the first people he meets is a self-absorbed young man named Ian, one of the other actors starring in William’s production also. Ian is full of pompous, youthful self-confidence and that instantly brings out the curmudgeon in world-weary, and life-weary Gerald. The two of them and their fellow cast members are subjected to all the usual indignities of taking part in a high-falutin’, brilliant, but low-paid avant-garde theater piece, cramped quarters among them.
McDermott, who himself has spent many years in the world of theater, dance and performance art, spins a well-told, absorbing tale of an international cast essentially throwing together a play at the last moment. You don’t need to have backstage experience to appreciate the world the author creates, as Gerald meets old friends from William’s other productions, as well as German actors who are stiff and over-prepared and Italians who are enthusiastic but sometimes perplexed. The cast grows anxious waiting for their director’s arrival, and when he does deign to appear, William makes a host of last-minute changes, before declaring the entire venture a “diSASter!”
Though McDermott insists that the entire story is fiction, he acknowledges that did have similar theater experiences in Italy.
Despite the tensions, Gerald is invigorated by the mere adventure of being in Italy, and in time sheds his crusty shell, softens up his rivalry with Ian and even decides to forgo his medications. At a hot springs, from which the book draws its title, Gerald sheds his final inhibitions, slipping naked into the waters. When the hard-bodied Enzo clasps him from behind, Gerald experiences a thrill he thought he had left behind.
Gerald offers us our only point of view on this collection of actors, and from the privacy of a hidden, top-floor library, with a private bathroom so essential to keeping his health struggles to himself, Gerald observes the others. McDermott, who is writing about matters very close to his own history with AIDS, writes, “A communal experience doesn’t give you a lot of time to feel sorry for yourself,” something that seems to explain the change that overtakes his lead character.
Gerald doesn’t discuss his health with any of the cast members except for a woman he is close to, but AIDS is very much a part of the story. His fellow actors understand he is ill and treat him compassionately but without pity, as it becomes obvious that William is disappointed with Gerald’s performance.
McDermott creates a story that is simultaneously beautiful, observant, funny and, most importantly, recognizable to readers. It’s easy to sympathize with Gerald on many levels.
As he begins to hear about the advent of the new protease cocktails, Gerald recalls all the other heralded medicines—like egg lipids from Israel—that he has put faith in before. His railing about how false hopes batter those with AIDS is one of the book’s most poignant passages—indeed, one of the best in all of AIDS literature. It is a plaintive reminder of the exasperation and desperation so many have faced during this epidemic.
Through the course of the novel, it becomes clear that while he was originally waiting to die, Gerald in fact is living with AIDS, not dying from it, nor is he caring for others who are dying.
“Just to have a main character with AIDS can be liberating,” McDermott explained to Gay City News.
Gerald finds a way to keep pushing on and in “Acqua Calda” we find a testament to humanity’s ability to persevere, with motivation coming not from medicine but from someplace within. McDermott’s novel presents the art of living even in the face of likely death in a way that is beautiful and realistic. It is a welcome relief from so many elegiac eulogies.
BOOKS
ACQUA CALDA
By Keith McDermott
Carroll & Graf
$24; 300 pages
Accepting Life’s Invitation
Keith McDermott creates a character who moves forward despite AIDS
By SETH J. BOOKEY
To live with AIDS in the mid-1990s still meant facing a grim fate and a strong possibility of dying. This was the time just before protease inhibitors helped stem the certain death AIDS had come to mean for many Americans
In Keith McDermott’s debut novel, “Acqua Calda,” New York actor Gerald Barnett is spending his time waiting to die. He’s made out his will and regrets a few things, like not having traveled, not surviving to see the new millennium and having no more love in his life.
So his salvation, of sorts, comes in a letter he receives from an avant-garde director, William Weiss, with whom he has worked for many years. William invites him to be part of his latest production, which will be performed at an arts festival in Sicily.
With very little to lose, Gerald goes to Sicily. One of the first people he meets is a self-absorbed young man named Ian, one of the other actors starring in William’s production also. Ian is full of pompous, youthful self-confidence and that instantly brings out the curmudgeon in world-weary, and life-weary Gerald. The two of them and their fellow cast members are subjected to all the usual indignities of taking part in a high-falutin’, brilliant, but low-paid avant-garde theater piece, cramped quarters among them.
McDermott, who himself has spent many years in the world of theater, dance and performance art, spins a well-told, absorbing tale of an international cast essentially throwing together a play at the last moment. You don’t need to have backstage experience to appreciate the world the author creates, as Gerald meets old friends from William’s other productions, as well as German actors who are stiff and over-prepared and Italians who are enthusiastic but sometimes perplexed. The cast grows anxious waiting for their director’s arrival, and when he does deign to appear, William makes a host of last-minute changes, before declaring the entire venture a “diSASter!”
Though McDermott insists that the entire story is fiction, he acknowledges that did have similar theater experiences in Italy.
Despite the tensions, Gerald is invigorated by the mere adventure of being in Italy, and in time sheds his crusty shell, softens up his rivalry with Ian and even decides to forgo his medications. At a hot springs, from which the book draws its title, Gerald sheds his final inhibitions, slipping naked into the waters. When the hard-bodied Enzo clasps him from behind, Gerald experiences a thrill he thought he had left behind.
Gerald offers us our only point of view on this collection of actors, and from the privacy of a hidden, top-floor library, with a private bathroom so essential to keeping his health struggles to himself, Gerald observes the others. McDermott, who is writing about matters very close to his own history with AIDS, writes, “A communal experience doesn’t give you a lot of time to feel sorry for yourself,” something that seems to explain the change that overtakes his lead character.
Gerald doesn’t discuss his health with any of the cast members except for a woman he is close to, but AIDS is very much a part of the story. His fellow actors understand he is ill and treat him compassionately but without pity, as it becomes obvious that William is disappointed with Gerald’s performance.
McDermott creates a story that is simultaneously beautiful, observant, funny and, most importantly, recognizable to readers. It’s easy to sympathize with Gerald on many levels.
As he begins to hear about the advent of the new protease cocktails, Gerald recalls all the other heralded medicines—like egg lipids from Israel—that he has put faith in before. His railing about how false hopes batter those with AIDS is one of the book’s most poignant passages—indeed, one of the best in all of AIDS literature. It is a plaintive reminder of the exasperation and desperation so many have faced during this epidemic.
Through the course of the novel, it becomes clear that while he was originally waiting to die, Gerald in fact is living with AIDS, not dying from it, nor is he caring for others who are dying.
“Just to have a main character with AIDS can be liberating,” McDermott explained to Gay City News.
Gerald finds a way to keep pushing on and in “Acqua Calda” we find a testament to humanity’s ability to persevere, with motivation coming not from medicine but from someplace within. McDermott’s novel presents the art of living even in the face of likely death in a way that is beautiful and realistic. It is a welcome relief from so many elegiac eulogies.
Posted: Thu - July 21, 2005 at 10:25 PM
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