In the Shadow of the Bridge: A Memoir

by Joseph Caldwell

Overview

The bohemian, free-spirited existence that blessed many of Manhattan’s gifted artists and writers in the nineteen fifties and sixties has, with current skyrocketing rents and the high-income requirements of basic living, been nearly extinguished. And only for the likes of an astute observer such as Joseph Caldwell, perhaps be almost forgotten. In his charming, brutally candid memoir, the author describes his tenure working at WQXR, the venerated classical music station, marching in civil protests and being arrested, his accomplished acquaintances, all of it part of the libertine life of a young gay man who becomes a noted playwright and novelist and Rome Prize winner. But then the mantle of the AIDS epidemic falls heavily on the city and exultation in free love and sex is replaced by unrelenting fear. In a twist of fate, a quixotic love that plagues Caldwell his entire life gives him one last chance at a relationship but in a completely unexpected and tragic ways. This memoir is an important chronicle of the changing tide of artistic and gay life in New York City in the shadow of the plague years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781883285944
Publisher:	Delphinium
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

A playwright and novelist whose previous books include In Such Dark Places, The Deer at the River, Under the Dog Star, The Uncle from Rome and Bread for the Baker’s Child, Joseph Caldwell has been awarded the Rome Prize for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Joseph Caldwell’s intimate portrait of gay life in New York City before Stonewall is an important addition to LGBTQ history. Caldwell is a compassionate and accomplished storyteller, and his memoir of a life well and fully lived is a book to treasure.

Peter Cameron

In telling the story of coming to NYC as a young man, grappling with his desire to be an artist, to be a man of faith, and his desire for the love of another man, Joseph Caldwell tells the story of a time and place—the story of a generation.

A.M. Homes

A tender memoir. [The] story of love and loss is told with earnestness and wit.”  — Publishers Weekly

“In telling the story of coming to NYC as a young man, grappling with his desire to be an artist, to be a man of faith, and his desire for the love of another man, Joseph Caldwell tells the story of a time and place—the story of a generation.” — A.M. Homes, author of May We Be Forgiven

“Joseph Caldwell’s intimate portrait of gay life in New York City before Stonewall is an important addition to LGBTQ history. Caldwell is a compassionate and accomplished storyteller, and his memoir of a life well and fully lived is a book to treasure.”  — Peter Cameron, author of Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Praise for Joseph Caldwell: “Caldwell writes a deceptively simple prose, without decoration, metaphor, or simile. He is well worth reading now and watching for in the future.” — Doris Grumbach, New York Times Book Review on In Such Dark Places

“A novel with such brio that it could be the basis for a half-comedic, half-tragic grand opera … Bravo, Uncle!” — The New York Times on The Uncle from Rome

“The Uncle from Rome is a dazzling tour de force, deftly melding the exaggerated passions of grand opera with the techniques of contemporary fiction, the novel kept buoyant by the humor inherent in the hero’s predicament.” — The Los Angeles Times on The Uncle from Rome

“Joseph Caldwell’s The Pig Did It is a mischievous, even devious, wallow in a thoroughly Irish mire of love, loss, murder, and redemption, with a prescient porker, frothy pints, errant darts, and even a little plagiarism of the classics thrown in for good measure.” — Bob Gray, Shelf Awareness, on The Pig Did It

“ . . . very funny . . . Caldwell’s shaggy pig story, the first of a projected trilogy, puts farcical doings into lilting language and provides a payoff that is as unexpected as it is satisfying.” — Publishers Weekly on The Pig Did It

From the Publisher

Joseph Caldwell’s The Pig Did It is a mischievous, even devious, wallow in a thoroughly Irish mire of love, loss, murder, and redemption, with a prescient porker, frothy pints, errant darts, and even a little plagiarism of the classics thrown in for good measure.

Bob Gray

Praise for Joseph Caldwell: “Caldwell writes a deceptively simple prose, without decoration, metaphor, or simile. He is well worth reading now and watching for in the future.

Doris Grumbach

A novel with such brio that it could be the basis for a half-comedic, half-tragic grand opera … Bravo, Uncle!

The New York Times on The Uncle from Rome

The Uncle from Rome is a dazzling tour de force, deftly melding the exaggerated passions of grand opera with the techniques of contemporary fiction, the novel kept buoyant by the humor inherent in the hero’s predicament.

The Los Angeles Times on The Uncle from Rome

2019-08-26
The acclaimed novelist and playwright traces one of his significant relationships, from its inauspicious origins on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1959 to its heart-wrenching conclusion during the height of the 1980s AIDS epidemic.

Caldwell (The Pig Goes to Dog Heaven, 2010, etc.), the winner of the Rome Prize for Literature, packs a lot into this brief yet rich, meditative memoir about a talented Midwestern transplant trying to make his mark on New York City. Aspiring playwright, defiant Catholic, struggling novelist, courageous civic activist, conflicted soap-opera scribe: Caldwell approaches the many roles in his life with an offhanded aplomb that belies his depth as an artist. In reconciling his homosexuality with his steadfast Catholicism, the author writes, "whenever I'm asked about my sexuality, I say, ‘I am, by God's good grace, as gay as a goose.' Glib, I know, but true." Later, he wonders if "the greatest satanic success since the eating of the Edenic apple was the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity." The author's sexuality, no wonder, plays a central role in this story, and much of it predates the Stonewall uprising, in an era when being gay could get you fired from a job on a trailblazing soap opera like Dark Shadows. As Caldwell explains, not only did he have to keep mum about his homosexuality while writing for the enduring cult TV favorite, he also had to mute any intrinsically gay themes. Ultimately, though, this memoir is about the author's 30-year, on-again, off-again (mostly off) relationship with the young photographer named Gale that he met at dawn on the Brooklyn Bridge. Throughout his triumphs and travails, Caldwell never abandoned hope that the two would one day be reunited, and when the reunion ultimately occurs, it hits as hard as any love story could.

A simultaneously tragic and uplifting story of enduring love.

Kirkus Reviews