LOVE IN A DARK TIME: And Other Explorations of Gay Livesand Literature

Departing from recent novels The Blackwater Lightship and The Story of the Night and nonfiction such as his Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border, Dublin-based writer Tóibín offers nine case studies in as many chapters of how "gay life" has informed our readings of writers, artists and filmmakers like Oscar Wilde, Francis Bacon, Elizabeth Bishop, James Baldwin, Pedro Almodóvar and Mark Doty. The chapter "Goodbye to Catholic Ireland" wonders if Cathal ó Searchaigh is the first gay poet in the Irish language, and speaks against the Church's continued hold on the Irish life of the mind. (Oct. 29)