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Don't Cry for Me, or Gay in Argentina

© Dennis Cox

Colm Toibin’s novel, “The Story of the Night”, begins with an inauspicious period of Richard Garay’s young life. It is 1980s Argentina, and Richard is ½ English and ½ Spanish and during the Falklands War the ½ British part is not appreciated by his countrymen. Add to that, he is toiling in a boring job he hates as an English tutor. In his free time, he cares for his ailing mother whose health is steadily deteriorating. If that weren’t enough, Richard is a closeted gay, indulging in singularly joyless and anonymous sex in steam baths and public parks. Richard’s life brightens when he becomes employed by an American diplomatic organization. He translates Spanish to English, advises businessmen and vaguely CIA types on the political shifts occurring in his country. The money is good and the characters he mingles with are sophisticated (if not somewhat sinister) and glamorous. Then Pablo Cannetti enters his life. Pablo is a beautiful, also closeted young man. Richard experiences heretofore-unknown romantic stirrings and they begin a long period of surreptitious and tentative flirting. After they finally bed down, Pablo accedes to carrying on the affair beyond a one-night stand. This is a miracle to Richard; Pablo cares so deeply for him that the risks being disowned by his family. Unfortunately AIDS tragically threatens their “secret” and their bliss. In a heartbreaking denouement, Pablo and Richard are alienated when they most need each other. It is quite amazing how 100 percent Irish Toibin assumes the persona of Richard in this first person narrative. Suffused with validity, his bare dispassionate prose belies the intense emotion roiling beneath. The reader is totally hooked and invested in the reconciliation of the two lovers.

Added note: Where does Colm Toibin fit into the gay fiction genre? While he has written non-fiction and essays, this is his only homosexual themed novel. Toibin happily admits he is gay. In a “chat” with Artshapes, he proclaimed that as important as the contraceptive for women is “being able” to live freely as a gay man.”

RECOMMENDED READING: "The Story of the Night" by Colm Toibin, Henry Holt, 1997, ISBN 0805052119

RECOMMENDED WEBSITE: www.artshapes/com/cp/toibran.html A full transcript of the live "chat" woith Colm Toibin.

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