“The return of David Leavitt” announces the ‘A Reguardo’ belt. And it’s not that he was gone; but he does seem to be a prisoner of a loop of eternal return. Leavitt (like so many other triumphants of his generation and the following generation) does not seem to have fared too well from recent generic-seismic-systemic movements. Thus, he and the others now seem somewhat overshadowed by so much ephemeral novelty and fashion to be almost instantly ‘démodé’. Fortunately, it continues and they continue writing. Since his highly celebrated debut in 1984 with the stories collected in ‘Family Dance’, which also distinguished him as the first gay-themed author in the then conservative pages of ‘The New Yorker’ (a milestone not entirely true; because before done by the great Allan Gurganus with a little help from his mentor/stalker John Cheever), Leavitt has come and gone from the scene. NOVEL ‘A shelter’ Author David Leavitt Publisher Anagrama Year 2024 Pages 370 Price 21.90 euros 3Always looking for a certain difference in what separates it in tone but makes it commune in quality with that of the patriarch Edmund White or that of the British Allan Hollinghurst when it comes to not settling for simply being a chronicler of homosexual life. Thus, Leavitt (Pittsburg, 1961) made headlines again in 1993 with the scandal over alleged ‘life plagiarism’ and lawsuit against Stephen Spender in ‘When England Sleeps’ (a matter that Leavitt himself dramatized – he smiled in a later meta- ‘novel’ ) and his was turning to the elegant work of comedies-dramas such as the very remarkable and autobiographical ‘Martin Bauman’ (2002), the simple biographical ‘The Indian Accountant’ (2007), the cosmopolitan and very ‘à la’ Somerset Maugham ‘The Two Frankfurt Hotels’, and the domestic-academic-cultural farce ‘The Body of Jonah Boyd’. ‘A resguardo’ belongs to this last territory. Satire that —as in the recent ‘The Revelation’, by AM Homes; Much more astute was Salman Rushdie in his ‘The Decline of Nero Golden’ and Quixote—he makes the mistake of satirizing the already exaggeratedly satirical times of Donald Trump. The effect is somewhat light when something more ferocious is expected: it is more ‘Friends’ than ‘Seinfeld’ Here and then, a wealthy couple decides to change Venice for New York to escape the terror of an unworthy orange president whom they cannot consider less than worthy of assassination. And, yes, what Leavitt does here is bring Edith Wharton and Henry James to our days (there are three terriers that respond to the names of his characters), highlighting the not very innocent ages of Americans suddenly converted into troubled ambassadors of itself. Also—Leavitt himself has pointed them out—chiaroscuro brilliance of Grace Paley and the aforementioned Cheever, but without the gentle cruelty of either. The effect is somewhat light when something more ferocious is expected: it is more ‘Friends’ than ‘Seinfeld’. And, at one point, someone theorizes that the Ides of Donald will inspire great novels to writers as they feel oppressed by his bad ‘modus operandi’. ‘A shelter’ is not a great novel (nor does it want to be) but it does offer the refuge of great entertainment courtesy of what Fitzgerald once defined as “careless people” or inconsiderate people: snobs delighted to meet and recognize each other. they. It is not little. But it is fair and, in its own way, just. They don’t deserve anything else.
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