Accepting Life’s Invitation
Book Review of 'Acqua Calda'
Volume 75, Number 29
| July 21 - 27
2005BOOKSACQUA
CALDABy Keith
McDermottCarroll &
Graf$24; 300
pagesAccepting
Life’s
InvitationKeith
McDermott creates a character who moves forward despite
AIDSBy SETH J.
BOOKEYTo 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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Published On: Jun 20, 2009 07:03 PM
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