Title: After Francesco
Author: Brian Malloy
The Set-up
“From acclaimed
author Brian Malloy comes a stunning novel of love, friendship, and surviving
the deepest loss, set in New York City and Minneapolis in 1988, at the peak of
the AIDS crisis.”
More than a decade ago, the organizing principle of our book
club was to create a way for us, all former Board Members, to continue gathering
on the third Monday of the month to share our mutual love of literature and The
Loft. So, when Linda suggested we read
Brian Malloy’s fourth novel, After Francesco, it was an easy, unanimous
decision.
Brian had served as both
Director of Development and, later, Director of Education at the Loft before he
embarked on a successful writing career. We all remember him fondly, as Steve
put it, as “just a fundamentally nice guy and good person, as well as a
talented writer.” With the promise of a
“mystery guest,” we were a big, boisterous group including Blanche and Faith,
who we’ve been missing, and Chris, who flew in from New York. Liz, Gail, and Joanne unfortunately couldn’t attend
and Steve joined by phone to spare us from his bad summer cold.
From the moment Brian walked into the room to
our spontaneous applause, our discussion was off to a raucous start. For a conversation about a novel dealing with
grief, guilt, heartbreak, and anger, we still managed to laugh. A lot!
Insights and Opinions
+ Never shy, we dove right into the debate over cultural
appropriation in literature. We asked
Brian his thoughts about Rebecca Makkai’s novel, Great Believers. Born in 1978, Makkai is a straight woman who
was still a child at the peak of the AIDS crisis. Yet her book on the topic received a $1M
advance and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Brian explained that, in his opinion, anyone
can write outside their personal experience if they’re writing fiction. At the same time, he thinks it’s fair game to
skewer authors who opportunistically write their “emotional truth” in
fabricated memoirs like the fictitious bestseller by Francesco’s
“sister-in-love.”
+ Linda expressed her appreciation for the “gallows humor” that
balances the sadness that could have rendered the story unbearable. She read the final paragraph of Brian’s author’s
note asking him to elaborate on its final sentence: “Neither man has the
self-pitying look of the bitter.” Brian
told us that he realized that he is still angry 40 years later about the cruel
mismanagement of the AIDS crisis. Writing this book helped him come to terms
with that anger because, as he said, he doesn’t want to be a “bitter old man”: “Bitterness is judgmental and narcissistic. It means you’ve given up on other people.”
+ When Brian gave Francesco the memorable line “Be curious
first, judgmental a distant second,” he didn’t realize he was channeling Walt
Whitman.
+ Steve admired how all the characters in the book are
fully developed – a skill Brian shares with Faith. It enabled him to care not only about the
main characters, Kevin and Francesco, but all the secondary characters because
they are so clearly and cleanly delineated. Faith agreed and acknowledged what hard work it is to create such
memorable minor characters. When she
finishes a novel, she said, she feels like she’s “had a long, long session with
a psychologist.”
+ A good example of this was our affection for Kevin’s loyal
friend Tommy. Brian explained that he
was based on a real life-long friend from high school. Brian specifically wanted to include a sympathetic
straight character in the book to counter the current demonization of straight,
white males. “We’re so into identity
politics these days, it’s preventing us from thinking and seeing others.”
 | |
| Author Brian Malloy amid the booksters |
+ Lois commented that Brian has managed to capture the details of everyday life in the 1980s so authentically that it brought the emotional era back to life for her. And, Jocey appreciated his ability to write natural dialogue that “just flows.”
+ While Kevin Doyle isn’t an autobiographical character, Brian feels he’s done his best writing about him and isn’t ready to let him go. Also a character in his first book, The Year of Ice, Brian is currently planning a third novel tentatively titled Minneapolis is Burning, that will pick up when Kevin is in his 60s (Brian’s current age). Having all loved After Francesco, we can’t wait to return to Kevin’s story and to resume our conversation with Brian as soon as it’s published.
Next Up
Our next meeting is set for Monday, August 16,
at 12:30 pm to discuss Turbulence by David Szalay. The author of five books, Szalay was
short-listed for the Man Booker in 2016 for his novel All That Man Is. At just 145 pages, Turbulence is “a
stunning novel about twelve people and the ripple effect each one has on the life of the next as they cross paths in their journeys around the world." Happy travels!
And finally
Many thanks to Margy for writing this post and supplying the pix. And, many apologies to the booksters for the delay in posting because, you know, COVID.
