Eugene is a midwesterner living in New York, an erstwhile Catholic and not-quite-openly-gay photographer. When a Holy Week pageant in the gritty Lower East Side erupts into a riot, he is sucked into the city’s shadowy depths. While photographing the parade, Eugene has his eye on a handsome teen, but when things turn violent the youth is stabbed and Eugene’s camera is stolen. To find the camera and its precious film, which may provide evidence, Eugene has to become acquainted with a seedy, unfamiliar world, and hold on to his sanity in the process. In Such Dark Places is a thrilling debut novel of awakening and obsession."
In Such Dark Places by Joseph Caldwell, we are introduced to Eugene who is pretty messed up, to be honest. He is gay and Catholic and pretty tortured, which makes for a compelling and at times a both frustrating character and read, but I greatly enjoyed this book for its frank honesty.
The writing is poignant and direct and clean and the prose is truly lovely and lively, despite the fact how moody and lonely Eugene is and therefore the story.
This book is about the near trenches of a depressed man and his near repressed "gay lifestyle" with no true happy ending .. or beginning or middle, just life. I loved it, but if you want something more
hopeful, this is not for you!
--V
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