I read Holding the Man this past weekend in a single sitting as I made the most of a sunny Sunday in our hammock on the back deck. Perfect weather for a captivating book. Although Holding the Man has been in publication for some twenty years, it’s had a revival thanks to the successful – and, I hear, terrific – recent film adaption.
Friends reported intense weeping as they watched the movie and so I was prepared for a similar emotional onslaught during reading – but I admit to not crying at the end. I was sad, of course, but from about halfway through the book I felt that I wasn’t getting to know John, Conigrave’s dying lover, as a character and that left me wanting, and wishing, for more detail.
That said, it is a book of merit. The honesty of the writing cannot be argued, such as Conigrave’s open discussion of his relationship infidelities as well as recollecting in detail their rapid decline in health several years after being infected with the HIV virus. What keeps the text in balance is its energy – with tremendous recollect of the fashions of the seventies, playground antics and such, Conigrave paints a picture of teenage innocence through to social and political activism to courage and forbearance in the face of great hardship.
I’ve got Out of Place: prose poems and microfictions to start on because I’m interested in learning more about both and there’s no better research than to go straight to the writers already practicing in those forms. This book features a lot of writers I admire and I’m curious to see if (and if – how) their style changes.
Rounding out the Aussie trifecta this month is Second Half First by Drusilla Modjeska. Partly, I have to say, because it was on the ‘New Releases’ shelf on the library and I wanted first dibs (mature, right?), but also due to the fact I’ve heard positive word about it already.
What are you reading this month?
