Product Description
A stunning portrait of community, identity, and sexuality by the critically acclaimed author of The Narrow Door
When Paul Lisicky arrived in Provincetown in the early 1990s, he was leaving behind a history of family trauma to live in a place outside of time, known for its values of inclusion, acceptance, and art. In this idyllic haven, Lisicky searches for love and connection and comes into his own as he finds a sense of belonging. At the same time, the center of this community is consumed by the AIDS crisis, and the very structure of town life is being rewired out of necessity: What might this utopia look like during a time of dystopia?
Later dramatizes a spectacular yet ravaged place and a unique era when more fully becoming one's self collided with the realization that ongoingness couldn't be taken for granted, and staying alive from moment to moment exacted absolute attention. Following the success of his acclaimed memoir, The Narrow Door, Lisicky fearlessly explores the body, queerness, love, illness, community, and belonging in this masterful, ingenious new book.
When Paul Lisicky arrived in Provincetown in the early 1990s, he was leaving behind a history of family trauma to live in a place outside of time, known for its values of inclusion, acceptance, and art. In this idyllic haven, Lisicky searches for love and connection and comes into his own as he finds a sense of belonging. At the same time, the center of this community is consumed by the AIDS crisis, and the very structure of town life is being rewired out of necessity: What might this utopia look like during a time of dystopia?
Later dramatizes a spectacular yet ravaged place and a unique era when more fully becoming one's self collided with the realization that ongoingness couldn't be taken for granted, and staying alive from moment to moment exacted absolute attention. Following the success of his acclaimed memoir, The Narrow Door, Lisicky fearlessly explores the body, queerness, love, illness, community, and belonging in this masterful, ingenious new book.
Reviews/Praise
“This memoir is much like [Lisicky’s] Provincetown, exulting in tenderness and lust, lit with flashes of poignant spectacle, even the majestic―the way a drag queen at night can become, in sequins under a spotlight, full of the fire and beauty we associate with goddesses, before descending back to the realm of the human.”―The Los Angeles Times
“Part Lonely Planet guide, part ghost story, Paul Lisicky’s latest memoir may well cement his status as queer king of the genre. Encompassing the author’s time in Provincetown in the early 1990s, Later charts Lisicky’s journey of coming out and coming of age amid the backdrop of a gay idyll still reeling from the AIDS crisis.”―Harper’s Bazaar
“[A] coastal elegy . . . ravishing in its precision and restraint. . . . What’s affecting here is Lisicky’s preservation of a multitude of subtle, ambivalent feelings, of small kindnesses and cruelties. Nothing is simplified in a bid for universal resonance, and the text is richer for that.”―Harper’s
“Lisicky invites his reader into this delicate, brutal, and moving psychoanalytical terrain. . . . He seduces us, breaks our heart, and helps us put it back together.”―Los Angeles Review of Books
“With deep sensitivity, love, and gravity, Lisicky finds connections both haunting and liberating in this tender and energetic book.”―New York Observer
“[Lisicky’s] prose is beautiful but never overwrought, and almost aphoristic at times. . . . This heartfelt memoir will appeal to literary readers and certainly those with ties to Provincetown and its gay community.”―Library Journal