"Who cares what straight people think about us?" complains one of the characters in Andrew Holleran's first collection of short stories. "I don't care if they understand what I do in bed. I don't even understand what I do in bed, I could care less what they think about it." And just as many of the gay men in these 16 stories (only three of which have been previously published) refuse--or simply feel no need--to explain themselves, so too does Holleran explore his characters' lives with no effort to justify them. His witty, urbane characters who vacation in Key West or Fire Island are not the only types of gay men, of course, just those Holleran has chosen to write about. He writes on his own terms, and his characters--even when they are struggling to navigate through desire or loss--live on their own terms, not as stereotypes but as people with complex emotional lives.

Holleran's stories are crafted with such polished prose--slyly humorous and achingly poignant in turn--that one is immediately struck by their beauty. Every story seems to have its share of brilliant dialogue or descriptive passages, like the storyteller in "The Hamburger Man" who "didn't have the very best gossip--but ... belonged to that class of people who know one or two people who do." And in the final story, which gives the book its title, Holleran shows that he's equally adept at capturing the fleeting beauty of nature, in a setting "annealed by a delicate silver light, the most beautiful light of the whole year, a light that was both warm (if one lay in the sun, as he did now) and cool (if one stood in the shade)."


From Library Journal
Holleran is a highly acclaimed novelist whose best-selling Dancer from the Dance (LJ 8/78) was a landmark in gay literature. Succeeding novelsANights in Aruba (LJ 7/83) and The Beauty of Men (LJ 6/15/96)Aand essays in Ground Zero (LJ 9/15/88) established him firmly in the gay literary canon. Here, Holleran pulls together 16 beautifully crafted short stories written over a 20-year period, each of which deals with perceptions of gay people, gay events, and gay places through the often ironic haze of half-remembered, garbled time. The continuous use of omniscient narrators provides the necessary distance for viewing layers of conflict in these characters' lives. The results are poignancy, ribald humor, pensiveness, keen discernment, and unsettling apprehension. For character studies like these, Holleran can be compared to de Maupassant. For larger issues, we might look to another Southern writer, Shirley Ann Grau. Holleran's evocative title captures the heart of his matter, much as Grau's phrase "a sea change" does in her short fiction. What ultimately shines after the tempering and burnishing of our lives is a seasoned, indomitable spirit. Recommended for public and academic libraries, and for special collections of gay literature.ARoger W. Durbin, Univ. of Akron Lib. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Peter Parker
The party may be over, but Holleran is still out there, sending back reports that are unflinching, provocative, witty and shrewd.


From Booklist
Holleran remains one of the better gay fiction writers around. Pathos and nostalgia abound in this collection of mostly unpublished short stories, which take place over a period spanning the 1970s to today. Reminiscent of the title of the collection, many of the main characters seem to be in the September of their lives. Middle-aged gay men deal with getting older, with loneliness and feelings of abandonment (often provoked by the AIDS crisis), and they often yearn for youth and younger men. Many of these stories are about travel to foreign places; Holleran shows that the locus need not change for a place to be foreign. Many themes of gay culture are given an honest and brutally critical look. The writing is lovely, spotted throughout with clever phrases. However, the pieces themselves are hit-or-miss, ranging in quality from the banal to the brilliantly constructed. Holleran is a talented, well-known writer, and this new collection will be in high demand from his fans, legion in number. Michael Spinella


From Kirkus Reviews
A lugubrious first collection by the gay author (Ground Zero, 1988, etc.), whose nostalgie de la boue will win him few champions outside Christopher Street. Most of Hollerans protagonists are veterans of the long strugglefirst for tolerance, then for acceptance, and finally for simple survivalthat defined gay history in America from the 1970s through '90s, and most are understandably sad over the changes brought on by the AIDS epidemic. In The Ossuary, a small group of gay American tourists in Mexico meets another gay American who has just scattered the ashes of his dead lover in Oaxacaonly to have one of his bones stolen (for unknown reasons) by a Jesuit priest. The Boxer portrays the unhappy interaction of several graduate students sharing an old house in Iowa City, whereas The Penthouse centers on the more elaborate Manhattan apartment that is the center of a bitchy circle of art and fashion queens over some 20 years (during which many of them come to extremely sorrowful ends). Petunias and The House Sitter describe the drawn-out daily routines of Morgan, a middle-aged restaurant manager recently returned to New York after a long absence, and his constant, melancholy awareness that the gay world he knew in the '70s is gone forever. Amsterdam is one mans account of how his lover moves to that city in an attempt to find reliefthrough treatment or euthanasiafrom the HIV virus he carries, and how he adjusts to life abroad. The title story is an elegy to the gay demimonde, set in a deserted Fire Island community in the quiet season after Labor Day. Too many variations on a single theme, without enough to distinguish one from the other. Hollerans talent is very real, but his focus becomes constraining in short order. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
Andrew Holleran's first novel, Dancer from the Dance, is recognized as a classic portrait of gay life in New York in the 1970s. His subsequent works, from Nights in Aruba and The Beauty of Men to the essays in Ground Zero, established Holleran as the preeminent voice in the contemporary gay literary canon. His fiction has earned comparisons to that of Guy de Maupassant, Somerset Maugham, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and now Holleran returns with a collection of sixteen powerful short stories. Exploring the lives and times of those who have lived past the exuberance of youth, these tales make for a moving journey across landscapes of regret and loss, shame and pride, loneliness and love. With a surprising yet sensitive comic touch, Andrew Holleran has written his most mature work to date--a poignant, polished collection.

"Like John Cheever's work, these stories are suffused with a sense of magic and the possibility of grace." --San Francisco Chronicle Book Review


About the Author
Andrew Holleran is the author of Dancer from the Dance, Nights in Aruba, The Beauty of Men, and a collection of essays, Ground Zero.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In September, the Light Changes presents sixteen stories written during the course of the last two decades, only three of which have been published before. In the longest story, "Amsterdam," the narrator visits an old friend and discovers something that makes his stay unbearable, causing him to seek solace in the beauty of the city's streets, museums, and bath houses. "Someone Is Crying in the Chateau de Berne" introduces Martin, a man "so shallow, he has depth," whose lush head of hair comes to symbolize an era. A chance encounter on a train (with a young raconteur who has pectoral muscles as massive as "the armor a Roman general wears in a statue at the Met") proves to be something else altogether in "Blorts." And in the title story, Holleran is at his most lyrical and moving as he writes of the end of the Fire Island beach season and the unchanging nature of desire.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Holleran is a highly acclaimed novelist whose best-selling Dancer from the Dance (LJ 8/78) was a landmark in gay literature. Succeeding novels--Nights in Aruba (LJ 7/83) and The Beauty of Men (LJ 6/15/96)--and essays in Ground Zero (LJ 9/15/88) established him firmly in the gay literary canon. Here, Holleran pulls together 16 beautifully crafted short stories written over a 20-year period, each of which deals with perceptions of gay people, gay events, and gay places through the often ironic haze of half-remembered, garbled time. The continuous use of omniscient narrators provides the necessary distance for viewing layers of conflict in these characters' lives. The results are poignancy, ribald humor, pensiveness, keen discernment, and unsettling apprehension. For character studies like these, Holleran can be compared to de Maupassant. For larger issues, we might look to another Southern writer, Shirley Ann Grau. Holleran's evocative title captures the heart of his matter, much as Grau's phrase "a sea change" does in her short fiction. What ultimately shines after the tempering and burnishing of our lives is a seasoned, indomitable spirit. Recommended for public and academic libraries, and for special collections of gay literature.--Roger W. Durbin, Univ. of Akron Lib. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Peter Parker - The New York Times Book Review

None of the stories could be described as comic, yet they do contain some very funny moments. A number of them consist largely of conversations in which Holleran's sharp ear for the cadences, vocabulary and preoccupations of his characters' language instantly brings them alive....The party may be over, but Holleran is still out there, sending back reports that are unflinching, provocative, witty and shrewd.

Freeman - Time Out New York

It will be a shame if Andrew Holleran's In September the Light Changes exits 1999 without a prize. This long-overdue collection from the author of Dancer from the Dance is a delightful Christopher Street comedy of manners.

Kirkus Reviews

A lugubrious first collection by the gay author (Ground Zero, 1988, etc.), whose nostalgie de la boue will win him few champions outside Christopher Street. Most of Holleran's protagonists are veterans of the long struggle—first for tolerance, then for acceptance, and finally for simple survival—that defined gay history in America from the 1970s through '90s, and most are understandably sad over the changes brought on by the AIDS epidemic. In "The Ossuary," a small group of gay American tourists in Mexico meets another gay American who has just scattered the ashes of his dead lover in Oaxaca—only to have one of his bones stolen (for unknown reasons) by a Jesuit priest. "The Boxer" portrays the unhappy interaction of several graduate students sharing an old house in Iowa City, whereas "The Penthouse" centers on the more elaborate Manhattan apartment that is the center of a bitchy circle of art and fashion queens over some 20 years (during which many of them come to extremely sorrowful ends). "Petunias" and "The House Sitter" describe the drawn-out daily routines of Morgan, a middle-aged restaurant manager recently returned to New York after a long absence, and his constant, melancholy awareness that the gay world he knew in the '70s is gone forever. "Amsterdam" is one man's account of how his lover moves to that city in an attempt to find relief—through treatment or euthanasia—from the HIV virus he carries, and how he adjusts to life abroad. The title story is an elegy to the gay demimonde, set in a deserted Fire Island community in the quiet season after Labor Day. Too many variations on a single theme, without enough to distinguish one from the other.Holleran's talent is very real, but his focus becomes constraining in short order.