Casanova 20
Or, Hot World
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A novel about art, desire, and mortality, Casanova 20: Or, Hot World follows a young man isolated by his extraordinary beauty and his strange friendship with an older painter
Cursed by an extreme and unrelenting beauty, Adrian has drawn the frenzied attention of adoring strangers since childhood. As a twenty-nine-year-old in New York City, he spends his days drifting between affairs with women (and occasionally men) who provide him with everything he needs, from spending money to luxurious vacations to even, once, a mini yacht. With this generosity comes a dangerous possessiveness that often puts him at risk of much worse than heartbreak. But as people begin removing their masks in the spring of 2021, Adrian’s aimless sexual availability is interrupted by a shocking discovery: He is no longer beautiful.
Across the country, Adrian's best friend and companion, Mark, a world-famous painter, has returned to the family home in rural Northern California. He's faced with his own horrible revelation: He’s dying from the same mysterious disease that will soon take his mother and sister.
Despite the depth of their platonic romance, neither man reveals his fate to the other. Feeling as if he’s disappearing from sight, Adrian searches for answers among his thousands of lovers. In a race against his failing body, Mark becomes obsessed with watching fifty-two VHS tapes of unknown origin, left to him by his sister, before it’s too late.
“An astounding writer, seemingly unconstrained by taboos and waist-deep down in the maw of life” (Torrey Peters), Davey Davis presents a modern-day Casanova figure grappling with what it means to find true intimacy when his very existence means constant exposure to the world's violent desire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Davis (X) unfurls a fascinating if at times frustrating narrative of art and desire. Adrian, 29, is so beautiful that people follow him on the street in New York City, and he takes any lover he wants, man or woman. Suddenly, with spring fever in the air amid the first wave of Covid-19 vaccinations in 2021, he finds he's either lost his beauty or people no longer see him. He books an appointment with therapist Lola and tells her how "it kind of feels like I'm disappearing." Meanwhile, in Northern California, Adrian's painter friend, Mark, is dying of a mysterious undiagnosed illness that previously claimed the lives of his mother and sister. He invites Adrian to visit, and Davis adds intrigue and subtle connective tissue with the cache of VHS tapes left behind by Mark's sister, notably one entitled "Hot World," which Adrian and Mark view together. These videos depict strange and surreal scenes such as "a woman draped like Salome" dancing while "Behind her, an alcazar stretches black against the dunes blurred by the setting sun." The main plot line eventually resolves as the pair grapple with their mortality. Despite being a bit unfocused, this ethereal work holds the reader's attention.
