David Leddick's Autobiographical Novel

Last year David Leddick was going to publish "an impressionistic 'imagined memoir' about a gay man's life in his 70s" called Meaningless Hugs, Meaningless Kisses. That didn't happen. Now, turning 83 this year, he has just released The Beauty of Men Never Dies: An Autobiographical Novel [Kindle]. Ignoring the lofty title, the University of Wisconsin Press says the "short sketches, interspersed with memories, attitudes, and opinions drawn from the past, combine in a vivid tale of a life lived with panache." Apparently the action flits between Montevideo, New York, Paris, and Miami, but because the work is a "melding of memoir and fiction" -- my very least favorite kind of book, even though, like you, I loved Inferno -- sensitive readers are left wondering if the "real" parts are merely wishful thinking and the craft of the novel, the actual act of sustained imagination, is a dead art. Instead, the book emphasizes the author's "fearless sense of fun" and his "upbeat outlook."

Leddick's debut novel My Worst Date in 1996 had a nicely balanced, somewhat idealized lightness that became a little strained in subsequent work such as Never Eat In, The Millionaire of Love, and The Handsomest Man in the World.

Last summer Leddick released another gay art collection Gorgeous Gallery, following earlier titles like The Nude Male, The Male Nude, The Male Nude Now, and Naked Men.