"I was unprepared for the power of this book, this very personal memoir. The vulnerability and rawness of emotion revealed here were unexpected. ...A brave, haunting, work."

-A. J. Mojtabai, author of Blessed Assurance

Dear Editor/Producer,

Richard Giannone was once a solitary gay academic, always alone, always fearful, but his mother's dementia changed all that. Her vulnerability opened Giannone to the love of another man, a former priest and Jersey boy like himself. Together the two men saw the old woman through to her death and did the same for Giannone's sister.

In HIDDEN: Reflections on Gay Life, AIDS, and Spiritual Desire, Giannone uncovers how, ultimately, these experiences moved him closer to participating in the vitality of life, something that had always eluded him in the past. He discusses the evolvement of his gay partnership alongside the AIDS epidemic and against the backdrop of Italian American culture that mirrors the Catholic Church's disapproval of homosexuality. Weaving reflections on gay life in Greenwich Village with his spiritual journey as a gay man and Catholic, Giannone’s memoir is somewhat a religious conversion. In which, while caring for the women of his family, Giannone moved away from the modeling power of institutional Christianity and towards the influence of homosexuality on the Gospel. Gay or straight, he reminds readers, so long as we remain hidden from ourselves, the true God remains hidden from us.

I hope you enjoy these uncorrected proofs of HIDDEN, please let me know if you have any future plans for this title.

Sincerely,

Coleen Hatrick | Publicity

coleen.hatrick@oup.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard Giannone is Professor Emeritus at Fordham University. He is the author of four books, including Flannery O'Connor: Hermit Novelist.

HIDDEN: Reflections on Gay Life, AIDS, and Spiritual Desire

by Richard Giannone will be published by Fordham University Press in May 2012

224 pages | $27.95 | Hardcover | 9780823241842