Plays Well with Others

Sometimes when you are reading a book you say to yourself, “I get it, but I don’t love it”… so it goes with Plays Well with Others by Allan Gurganus.  The story is set in the early 1980s – mid 1990s during the height of the AIDS epidemic in NYC, also during the high end of the sexual revolution of sorts.  The story focuses on the protagonist, Hartley Mims Jr., a writer, and his two newly acquired friends, Robert and Angie, both of whom are in the art world too.  Mims has relocated from North Carolina and is looking to find a place that makes him comfortable, as are most of his gay friends, who have left Iowa, California, etc. to be freed in NYC.  The problem is, the freedom includes unprotected sex across genders and at all the places one can find it.  The book is really a series of short vignettes about the three characters' lives, mostly on Hartley, though the real through line is the demise of the beautiful Robert Christian Gustafson, the son of a preacher, and how Hartley has to bury him and so many other friends during this timeframe.  The short stories paint Hartley as a more reserved young man who has to keep the young Asian middle school boy who he tutors at bay (he has a major crush on Hartley and actually tries to make a sexual advance – which is actually pretty comical).  Gurganus weaves in personal tragedy, comedy, and self-reflection in illustrating how utterly difficult these times were.  Hard to imagine that was only 30 years ago…  The story is compelling for those who were not aware of the hate and bigotry infected gay men were treated with during that time (though I would say I’m sure those feelings exist to this day).  I guess I never warmed to the characters of Robert or Angie (wasn’t really sure what she was all about)…   I’m glad I read it, but would not say one of my favorite as the short vignettes and jumping from one time to another didn’t really flow for me.  I’m not completely linear, but I’d say format was ok.