What I Did Wrong Hardback - 2006

by John Weir

The long-awaited second novel by the author of The Irreversible Decline of Eddie SocketIn 1989, John Weir's debut novel, The Irreversible Decline of Eddie Socket, was one of the first novels to convey the horror of the AIDS epidemic and critics quickly recognized it as one of the truly outstanding works in that genre. Now, Weir follows up with another terrifically moving-and often disarmingly funny-book about loss, survival, and sexuality in the post-AIDS era.Returning to a Manhattan haunted by the memory of all the young men who died in the late 1980s and early 90s, What I Did Wrong has at its heart a protagonist for whom that loss is still all too palpable. Tom, a forty-two-year-old English professor, watched his best friend die years earlier and now finds himself sliding into middle age while questioning everything he thought he knew about his "gay identity." His Queens College classes are filled with borough boys displaying their own bravado along with their confused masculinity. As Tom balances their friendship with the occasional displaced erotic overtones, he finds an unexpected common ground with these proud young men and, surprisingly, claims his place in the world and in history. What I Did Wrong is a dazzling work juxtaposing low comedy and heartfelt tragedy with astonishing finesse, a book worthy of John Weir's return to fiction that will be warmly welcomed by critics and readers alike.