Nights in Aruba

Nights in Aruba has been criticized as lacking structure. Even Holleran has said this. I don't agree. The "Novel" is perfect as it is. With this work, Holleran should have been elevated to his proper place among the most skillful and observant writers of English prose of the last, and now this, century. Sadly, because his audience has been largely limited to gay men, that is unlikely to happen. He deserves a wider audience. This is a thinly veiled memoir in the guise of fiction. Holleran writes as well as anyone can. In penetrating his own psyche he reaches the reader's as well. The earnestness in certain passages in Aruba made me want to read them again and again. The writing is gorgeous.

Holleran, Andrew. "Nights in Aruba", Harper Reprint, 2001.\ Remembering Amos Lassen and Literary Pride I have been quite busy reading Andrew Holleran for two reasons---he is coming to the Arkansas Literary Festival next month and I really love his work. It is a tradition with me to reread those authors who have moved me in some way and Holleran's visit here gave me the impetus to read him again now. "Nights in Aruba" is Holleran's second book, written in 1983. Paul the narrator of "Aruba" is a Proust like character as he relives his life in his own mind. As such, this is a book to be read slowly, thought about, and enjoyed. Being a non-linear plot, it has to be followed carefully but as you follow it you will become that much of a better person. As Paul remembers, we can see him as the composite post-Stonewall gay male. He enjoys and he suffers (like all of us) and he says what he thinks (unlike most of us). One does read "Aruba" because the plot is so good; we read it because the author's voice is so pervasive. Its truthfulness hurts at times because as you read you discover what t is to be human and how to feel uncertainty. It is one viewpoint (like in "The Beauty of Men") as it shows how we, as humans, make the same mistakes over and over. I found so much more in this reading than I have in previous readings of the same book--but then I am older now and perhaps I am more ready to accept or disregard. As Paul looks back on his early years of living in Aruba, he discovers that what he had was empty. All the sex and all of the liaisons have mounted up to a feeling of nothingness and as he faces his inner world, Paul realizes that he did the same thing again and again. Paul sees everything and yet he cannot help himself from erring. His life has been devoid of motivation and yet he wonders why he has nothing to show for the life he led. Granted the book is short on plot but it is Holleran's language and use of English as well as his ability to communicate feelings that saves this book from being a story of self pity. It is certainly not his best book but we can see where he is heading with it. It is surely a precursor of ideas that he will develop later in his novels "The Beauty of Men" and "Grief". And I can see the frustration one feels as he grows older and feels he has nothing to show for his life. Some of you may feel that Holleran is a depressing writer and I must say that this is not necessarily so. The fact that many of us find ourselves in situations like Holleran writes about does not mean that Holleran's writing is meant to depress---rather it is to get us to face the reality of our lives. Perhaps by reading the results of how others feel, we can prevent ourselves to fall into the same quagmires.

This is not a book to read for plot, but for the "voice" of the narrator and in that sense it is truly excellent. This does not mean it is boring - at least I didn't think so - and found myself longing to continue reading it. The book full of truths. Reading it makes one FEEL what it is like to be human, (though from a gay point of view) - and what it means to feel ambivalent, and how the weight of life's uncertainty feels like. "Dancer from the dance" is Holleran's more successful novel, but I personally preferred "Nights in Aruba". One of the earlier reviewers trashes the book on the basis that the character does not learn from his experiences - but to this I wish to say that the novel is not a "bildungsroman". I do not think that the book has a bleak outlook to life - rather is depicts one viewpoint (and does so very well) - and shows how and why humans are prone to making the same mistakes and that there is so much existential uncertainty to life. The book's literary qualities are also such that the book improves with a second reading. Kudos to Holleran.

Holleran's NIGHTS IN ARUBA is one of the first novels I read by those writers who are now described as having belonged to the Violet Quill--it was and remains one of the best. Here is a novel that reads in many ways like a memoir; at the same time, it has the dramatic movement of fiction. In this book, I particularly loved Holleran's dialogue, which is at once arch and sad and comic. A wonderful book.

This is a story about Paul, who's looking back on his early years living in Aruba. He's getting older and discovering not only the emptiness of one-night stands, but also that he's not as unlike his parents as he would like. Holleran's sense of wry humor and his astute observations about growing older as a gay man are strong in this work and make it shine. This is a novel about the inner world, so apparently the lack of outside action aggravated some reviewers. I think Andrew Holleran is one of the best writers of gay fiction, so.