Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style
A Novel
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4.3 • 58 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“A case study in elegant, honest tragicomedy…by the genuinely hilarious Paul Rudnick” (Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author) that follows the decades-long, rule-breaking romance between the son of one of America’s wealthiest families and a middle-class aspiring author.
Devastatingly handsome and insanely rich, Farrell Covington is capable of anything and impossible to resist. He’s a clear-eyed romantic, an aesthete but not a snob, self-indulgent yet wildly generous. As the son of one of the country’s most powerful and deeply conservative families, the world could be his. But when he falls for Nate Reminger, an aspiring writer from a nice Jewish family in Piscataway, New Jersey, the results are passionate and catastrophic.
Together, the two embark on a unique romance that spans half a century. They are inseparable—except for the many years when they are apart. Moving from the ivy-covered bastion of Yale to New York City, Los Angeles, and eventually all over the world, Farrell and Nate experience the tremendous upheaval and social change of the last fifty years. From the freedom of gay life in 1970s Manhattan to the Hollywood closet, the AIDS epidemic, and the profound strides of the LGBTQ+ movement, this witty and moving novel shows how the world changes around us while we’re busy doing other things.
Written with “engaging wit, side-eyed perceptiveness, and barbed elan” (Michael Chabon), this modern classic proves that style has its limits, love does not.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Novelist and screenwriter Paul Rudnick’s romance is filled with his delirious love of language, infectious kindness, and a sensibility best described as very, very, very gay. In 1973, Yale freshman Nate Reminger gets swept off his feet by the gorgeous, brilliant Farrell Covington, setting in motion a head-over-heels tale of young gay love in the post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS era. But when Farrell’s wealthy, conservative, and manipulative family finds out about the relationship, things get complicated—we’re talking a decades-spanning saga of romantic yearning, personal growth, and ice-cold revenge. Rudnick goes hard on the old adage “the personal is political” as Nate discovers that nothing rankles a homophobic society more than being as cheerfully gay as possible. Rudnick’s semi-autobiographical novel feels like his most personal and emotionally honest work yet. It’ll make you cackle and sob.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An aspiring writer becomes enamored of a dashing fellow student at Yale in Rudnick's dazzling and funny latest (after Playing the Palace). It's 1973, and narrator Nate Reminger, who is Jewish, struggles to achieve his literary ambitions. He soon meets flamboyant and outspoken Farrell Covington, who was raised in a powerful Wasp family and "smells like beauty and money and youth." Dazzled by Farrell's sophistication and confidence, Nate quickly falls head over heels for Farrell. Despite their differences, they share affinities for gay culture and such celebrities as Bette Midler, and after sleeping together, they fall into a long-running relationship until Farrell's father puts a stop to it. After college, Nate moves to New York City, where he hones his playwriting skills and basks in the post-Stonewall gay scene. As Rudnick moves the story into the '80s, Nate's successful playwriting career earn him screenwriting work in Hollywood, and, despite the disapproving Covingtons, the pair fight to make time for each other, a resource that suddenly becomes all too precious during the early days of the AIDS epidemic. The author proves himself to be in top form, and each page is loaded with quippy dialogue and winning character work. This is a roaring good time.
Customer Reviews
Farrell Forever!
It’s seldom that you find and fall in love with a book that truly helps explain your place in an often confusing world. And give you some really joy about it. This book does. Part Candide, part Auntie Mame. I loved every page. Thank you for such an enjoyable and heartwarming tour through my and Farrell’s lifetime.
It Has Moments
Enjoyable (if a bit preachy at times) and maybe a bit longer than necessary but worth the time it takes to read it.
Couldn’t get into it
I really don’t like to abandon a book but I did on this one. I held in there until 1/3 of the way in. I was hoping for something to grab me. I think that I didn’t find the plot very plausible or the characters very appealing. I wish that I could rate this higher than two stars, but more me, that’s as high as I could go.