Love in a Dark Time:
Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodovar
Colm Toíbín, 2001
288 pages
Read in 2026.07
Check the synopsis and details on amazon.com
🔽 Summary and quick note 🔽
✔ Essays on gay artists and writers who lived and loved in the 19th to 20th century
✔ On writers like James Baldwin, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann, and artists like Francis Bacon
✔ Honest study and interpretation of our society and homosexuality
★★★★☆ A collection of essays on gay artists and writers who lived and loved in the 19th to 20th century. A stark fact throughout the book is clear; our society doesn't like homosexuality. It sounds so simple, or some might argue old fashioned, but not much has changed in the last 100 years or so.
🔽 Book review 🔽
My first time reading Colm Toibin, and it's a collection of essays on gay artists and writers who lived and loved in the 19th to 20th century, a Dark Time.
Being a gay himself, who prefers not to speak much about his homosexuality, and from a very Catholic nation of Ireland, he has his own views, and what makes this book stands out is its honesty and sharpness.
I bought the book when I was a student writing on Almodovar, so back then I only read the first chapter and the chapter on him.
When it's about someone I know nothing of (basically the poets) it was not as interesting as the ones I do know, which is obviously my fault, there are writers like James Baldwin, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann, and artists like Francis Bacon.
Their lives and ways of life have some things in common, while other things that are obviously unique and often relates to the period they lived.
A stark fact throughout the book; the 20th century society doesn't like homosexuality, and probably we're still dragging the old custom with us today too.
It sounds so simple, or old fashioned, but maybe not much can be changed in the 100 years or so.
People here in the book are all European and American, from the 19th to 20th century, as that was the author's intention.
And another very clear fact you learn from this book is; even if our society might not like homosexuality, it tolerates tragic and scandalous homosexuality.
I read somewhere else that, people are OK about 2 men leaving a party alone, but they are not OK about seeing the two men in the morning happily holding hands.
The writers and artists in the book lived in that period, where people didn't wish them simple happiness.
The book ends with Catholicism and homosexuality.
Being an Irish man, Colbin cannot avoid facing the Catholicism that as an organisation rejects homosexuality.
The fact that today we increasingly accept homosexuality or any gay or LGBTQ+ rights means Catholicism is losing fights.
While it's nothing "wrong" with the religion itself, one cannot help but think of the motivation behind the recent rise on Catholicism in the US, its power to be selective and to control.
🔽 Related pages 🔽
🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽
●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●
Love in a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodovar
