The bohemian, free-spirited existence that blessed many of Manhattan's gifted artists and writers in the nineteen fifties and sixties has, with current skyrocketing rents and the high-income requirements of basic living, been nearly extinguished. And only for the likes of an astute observer such as Joseph Caldwell, perhaps be almost forgotten. In his charming, brutally candid memoir, the author describes his tenure working at WQXR, the venerated classical music station, marching in civil protests and being arrested, his accomplished acquaintances, all of it part of the libertine life of a young gay man who becomes a noted playwright and novelist and Rome Prize winner. But then the mantle of the AIDS epidemic falls heavily on the city and exultation in free love and sex is replaced by unrelenting fear. In a twist of fate, a quixotic love that plagues Caldwell his entire life gives him one last chance at a relationship but in a completely unexpected and tragic ways. This memoir is an important chronicle of the changing tide of artistic and gay life in New York City in the shadow of the plague years.
This spirited, deeply felt memoir by a prize-winning novelist and playwright begins when Joseph Caldwell arrives in Manhattan and lives in a floor-through apartment close enough to the Brooklyn Bridge that he can reach out a window and touch the venerable stones. The rent was twenty-four dollars a month. The apartment is long gone, as are many of the gifted artists and writers Caldwell once knew who lived in equally inexpensive apartments. And this is why his memoir is a celebration of the halcyon years of the 50s and 60s that led up to the AIDS epidemic, which changed the emotional landscape of the city forever. In a charming, brutally candid account of his time in New York, the author describes marching in civil protests and being arrested, his accomplished acquaintances, living an active gay life, and finally becoming a noted writer and Rome Prize winner. But then the mantle of the AIDS epidemic falls heavily on the city, and the life of open gay love and sex is replaced by unrelenting fear. Caldwell's response to the epidemic is to become intimately involved as a volunteer at Saint Vincent's hospital, and in a twist of fate, a love that has haunted him for decades finds fulfillment in a strange and unexpected way. In the Shadow of the Bridge is an important chronicle of the changing tide of artistic and gay life in New York City before and during the plague years.
