Light at Dusk: A Novel

by Peter Gadol

Will Law, a rising star in the U.S. Foreign Service, mysteriously walks away from his post and, in Paris, falls into the arms of his onetime lover Pedro. When the child of a mutual friend is kidnapped by a Nationalist gang, Will is reluctantly drawn back to the diplomatic world he abandoned. Fighting against a rising tide of French anti-immigrant hatred, the Americans launch a deperate search across the city. In the process, Will must challenge the moral burdens of his past, and in an attempt to rescue the child, he must also find a way to redeem himself.

Genres: Mystery

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2000

Reviews

[James Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure what to make of this novel. The author's style of writing is beautiful and from that aspect the book was a joy to read, but the story seemed to want to go in several different directions and that left me a bit confused. Fortunately, none of the directions went either too far or in too much detail to make the book too big to handle, even with the confusion of plot complications. This was both a gay love story between the diplomat Will and his lover Pedro and an international political-adventure mystery about the kidnapping of the young son, Nico, of a mysterious young woman named Jorie. Setting much of the action of the novel in Paris was felicitous but, except for the career of Will, would not have been necessary to enjoy most of the action. For example, the chance meeting of Will and Nico could have occurred in most any large city. In the end, despite the fine writing and exciting bits of action, I never really cared about any of the characters which left me merely liking a book that had the potential for far more.

[Geordane Tabo-oy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will Law, after several years of working in the U.S. foreign services suddenly ups and quits his career and seeks solace in the arms of his once lover, Pedro Douglas in Paris. But Paris is not as romantic as one might think as the child of Will’s friend is abducted by French Nationalists. To help, Will must then venture back into the world he had originally planned on abandoning forever.

Peter Gadol’s Light at Dusk alternates between Pedro Douglas’ slow-paced, architecture-savvy life and his lover, Will Law’s more exciting, foreign affairs-centered life until both storylines merge in the middle of the book, when Will and Pedro team up to help Will’s friend. It starts off as slow, but the writing was quite gripping so I held on patiently. Things did not start speeding up until Will meets Jorie and Jorie’s ‘little prince’ is kidnapped in broad daylight by a Nationalist gang. From there, measured doses of drama and scandalous revelations are injected into the reader’s mind, inviting you to root for Jorie and Will.

Strangely enough, both story lines (Will’s and Pedro’s), happening independently for the first half of the book, are narrated by Pedro. And in intimate detail as though Pedro was there when he met Jorie, or when Jorie was confessing to Will her plans. It came off as strange, because it seems illogical that a character in a story can have an omniscient narrative authority. Patiently though, I waited until this strangeness was explained to me, perhaps near the end of the story. It was not.

What was interesting though was the recurring theme of “Lost and Found”. In the beginning, Will lost his er, will to keep working for the U.S. foreign services, and then through a dramatic turn of events, found his way back. Will and Pedro’s relationship had been lost, although not completely gone, for seven years, but then, throughout the book, was found again. Jorie’s child, Nico was lost but in the end, found. And a bunch of other more and less subtle occurrences of Lost and Found.

Another interesting note is that even though this has a love story spread throughout the pages, it doesn’t come off as a romance novel but more focused on themes of discrimination, political intrigue and architecture, which was personally preferable (although the architecture bit was somewhat longwinded and only serves Pedro’s story and not the whole).

A final point of interest is the presentation of Paris in an anti-immigrant light, and even though the typical romantic atmosphere attributed to the place creeps in every now and then, the darker side still manages to overpower it. I mean, that imagery of the people burning trees all over the place was haunting.

Oh, on a final, final note. It was amusing to realize that the narrator Pedro Douglas resembles the author's name. Pedro is Peter; and Douglas is a sort of anagram for Gadol, with an additional U and S.

[Djrmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in a Paris, populated with Americans, this is a story about what the word home can mean to different people. There is the French Front, so intent of on a sort of civic purity that those that don't look like they were born there risk their safety going out at night. Then there is Will, recently having left a life of extensive travel as a member of the Forign Service, looking for an anchor in the arms of an old boyfriend - Pedro, a graduate student who didn't know what he was missing until Will came back into his life. Finally, there is Jorie, a chance meeting for Will that puts them all in the situation of realizing that you can't run to a place that was never your home to begin with. The characterizations in the novel are a little weak, I suspect that Gadol wanted a story that gave you the same feeling that Pedro had when Will dropped back into his life, that you don't always get a chance to sit back and prepare. But with so little explanation (especially in the case of Jorie) of what went wrong with the place they were at, you can't help but think they'll run into the same problem somewhere else. I suppose that 90 degree turn "a few months later" ending is to prove that everyone found what they wanted, but it was a little too neat for my taste.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started slow and built nicely. Good plot twists. I like the way one main charcter, Will, tries to use his slimy diplomatic skills for good. I also liked the style of writing and the narrative device, which is that the narrator, Pedro, tells the story both from his point of view and that of his boyfriend, Will. However, in the end that the device falls apart, because we don't learn how Will could have explained his story to Pedro. Good idea, but execution is murky. Another quibble--way too much of the architecture stuff. Probably I'm missing some symbolism (I usually do) but I don't see the connection of the buildings to the story. I was left with the impression that the author was showing off knowledge, his passion actually, but not working hard enough to make that knowledge matter to me.