The Kingdom of Sand displays all of Holleran’s considerable gifts it’s an elegy to sex and a stunningly honest exploration of loneliness and the endless need for human connection, especially as we count down our days.

Reviewers have described his subsequent books as beautiful, exhilarating, seductive, haunting, and bold. Holleran’s first novel, Dancer from the Dance, is widely regarded as a classic work of gay literature. The Kingdom of Sand displays all of Hollerans considerable gifts its an elegy to sex and a stunningly honest exploration of loneliness and the endless need for human connection, especially as we count down our days. All the while, he shares reflections on illness and death that are at once funny and heartbreaking. Reviewers have described his subsequent books as beautiful, exhilarating, seductive, haunting, and bold. He distracts himself with sexual encounters at the video porn store and visits to Walgreens. Now Earl’s health is failing, and our increasingly misanthropic narrator must contend with the fact that once Earl dies, he will be completely alone. Earl is the only person in town with whom he can truly be himself. For the last twenty years, he has been visiting Earl to watch classic films together and critique the neighbors. With gallows humor, he chronicles the indignities of growing old in a small town.Īt the heart of the novel is the story of his friendship with Earl, whom he met cruising at the local boat ramp. The nameless narrator is a gay man who moved to Florida to look after his aging parents-during the height of the AIDS epidemic-and has found himself unable to leave after their deaths. The Kingdom of Sand displays all of Holleran's considerable gifts it's an elegy to sex and a stunningly honest exploration of loneliness.

It is Andrew Holleran at his best. Holleran's first novel, Dancer from the Dance, is widely regarded as a classic work of gay literature. The Kingdom of Sand is a poignant tale of desire and dread-Andrew Holleran’s first new book in sixteen years. The Kingdom of Sand has the wit and keen, often biting observations of gay life that made me fall in love with Hollerans books all those years ago.

The kingdom of sand a novel