THE MAJESTIC LEO MARBLE

A gay man searches for love in post-Stonewall New Orleans in Lee’s brooding romance.

In 1946, Leo Marble, still ensconced in his mother Louisa’s womb, mystically imbibes a gay sensibility straight from a performance of the Broadway musical Carousel. Growing up in Beau Pre, Mississippi, Leo develops a fine singing voice just in time to star in a high school production of Carousel, which makes the girls swoon over him; he dutifully goes steady with one as “camouflage” while secretly pining for a football player. College brings Leo’s first requited—but chaste—relationship with a man. After graduating, Leo moves to New Orleans to write for the Times-Picayune and dives into the city’s thriving gay bar and disco scene. He also joins the New Orleans Gay Resources Coalition, where he mans the volunteer help line and organizes a march to protest the anti-gay rights campaign of entertainer and orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant. Heading into the 1980s, lonely Leo hunkers down as the AIDS epidemic rages but finally finds love with handsome TV weatherman Jay Wilkinson. Lee’s portrait of Leo’s life is subdued but well observed (the author adds a touch of magical realism) as the narrative traces the gay community’s modern success story. Apart from one incident in which he is tackled by a heckler at a demonstration, Leo personally faces little overt homophobia and seems to easily surmount the crumbling barriers to inclusion. (A series of coming-out scenes with family and co-workers all go well; even elderly Granny Marble gushes with acceptance.) The novel’s drama comes mainly from Leo’s anxieties over a future that seems uncertain and loveless, which Lee depicts in plangent, evocative prose (“He could turn on the gas from one of the burners, lie down and just go to sleep. He hadn’t figured out what would happen after that”). He’s not all that majestic, but readers will root for Leo as he struggles to shake off his isolation and embrace life.

A richly textured saga of a gay everyman moving from self-doubt to pride.