Guest of a Sinner by James Wilcox

(Harper Perennial, 1995)

 

I had read and enjoyed several  James Wilcox novels (Modern Baptists, Miss Undine's Living Room, Sort of Rich) back in the 1980s when they were first published, but hadn't read anything of his in a long time, so when I saw a paperback copy of this book for sale in the used books section of Northshire Bookstore in Manchester (Vermont), I bought it, and I'm glad I did.

Unlike earlier Wilcox novels, which take place in the South and have an evident southern sensibility, Guest of a Sinner is set in New York City, and is saturated with details of life in NYC late in the 20th century.  Wilcox is very good at capturing the moods and atmospheres of the city, and the book is generously populated with a large cast of authentic and eccentric fin de si��cle New Yorkers.

At the center of all these characters is Eric Thorsen, a man whose stupefying beauty has in some ways incapacitated  him.  A talented but unsuccessful pianist, Eric (barely) makes his living as a rehearsal pianist and teaching piano to underprivileged students, while dreaming of his fabulous debut at Carnegie Hall.  He lives in an (illegally acquired) rent-controlled apartment in Murray Hill.  His sister, Kay, lives in a gloomy basement apartment on the Upper West Side.  (Like all good NYC novels, this one revolves around real estate, and a sort of residential musical chairs drives much of the farcical plot.)  Kay works in Macy's Cellar and is having a doomed but happy affair with a married man; Eric panicked and left his fiance at the altar many years ago and subsequently leads a monastic existence in New York (he is often mistaken for a homosexual). 

Both  Kay and Eric become involved with a hapless and rather  bedraggled woman named Wanda Shopinski, who is having apartment problems of her own.  Orbiting around this central triad is a constellation of very bright minor characters: Mrs. Una Merton, who lives directly below Eric with her dozens of stray (and highly odoriferous) cats; Mrs. Fogarty, the owner of a newstand  who does not hesitate to participate and manipulate other people's lives; Lamar Thorson, Kay and Eric's tragically (and mysteriously) widowed father, who lives in Tallahassee but appears with alarming frequency in New York; Russell Monteith, Eric's very wealthy friend who has recently divorced his wife and embraced a homosexual lifestyle, and Arnold Murtaugh, a short ex-priest with a mysterious sexual charisma.

Wilcox makes a delicious and quietly hilarious souffle  from these ingredients.  His humor is so subtle and unforced that the reader often wonders if Wilcox himself is on the joke.  Wilcox makes most other comic novels seem gross and artificial by comparison -- perhaps because his humor is always connected to the underlying pathos of his characters' humanity.  They strive to be (and do) good in a world that seems especially designed to embarrass and defeat them.