The story is later taken up by the father of the New York protagonist in Hawai’i. It begins with the story of a young gay man and his older partner, also living in Washington Square, confronting the AIDS crisis among their friends. However, I lost my way in the second part, set in 1993. The world it portrays is at once recognisable and strange. The lives of the characters were vividly created (reading it reminded me a little of The Great Mistake which covers a similar period and themes). His precarious condition might have been called hysteria, in a story often told about a woman at this period, so it’s an interesting twist to have it from a male perspective.Īlthough the man’s dilemma is a familiar one, it was nicely done and I enjoyed this part of To Paradise. The protagonist lives with his grandfather, cosseted but controlled, in a Washington Square mansion. In this version of history, New York is an independent state, and people are free to marry others of their own sex. A privileged but lonely young man, troubled by illness, is trying to choose between two potential suitors – one representing security and respectability, the other danger and passion. It begins in 1893, in a subtly altered New York. To Paradise tells three stories of a family, each a hundred years apart. I loved A Little Life so I was looking forward to getting to grips with another big book by Hanya Yanagihara.
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