Four Squares
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3.6 • 13 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
From the beloved author of The Old Place comes a tender, funny, and fresh novel about a gay writer in New York City whose life is irrevocably altered, and then again thirty years later.
In 1992, on his thirtieth birthday, Artie Anderson meets the man who will change his life. Artie spends his days at a tedious advertising job, finding relief in the corner of New York City he can call his own, even as the queer community is still being ravaged by HIV. But when his birthday celebration brings Artie and his friends to his favorite bar, a chance encounter with Abe, an uptight lawyer and Artie’s opposite in almost every way, pushes Artie to want, and to ask for, more for himself.
Thirty years later, Artie is stunned when Halle and Vanessa, Abe’s daughter and ex-wife, announce they are moving across the country. Artie has built a lovely, if small, life, but their departure makes Artie realize that he might be lonelier than he previously thought. When a surprising injury pushes Artie into the hands of GALS, the local center for queer seniors, a rambunctious group of elders insist on taking him under their wing.
Alternating between both timelines, Four Squares is an intimate look at what it means to find community at any age. With humor and compassion, it honors the enduring power of queer friendship, its history, and how essential it is to keep those stories alive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Finger's affectionate and evocative sophomore novel (after The Old Place) alternates between two distinct periods in a writer's life. In 1992, 30-year-old Artie Anderson meets a married man named Abe at Julius', the Greenwich Village gay bar, and feels a mix of friction and attraction ("He may be a little prickly, but he makes me confident") that turns out to be a harbinger for their fraught sexual relationship. Thirty years later, in 2022, Abe has been dead for 18 years, and his widow and pregnant daughter—whom Artie has kept in touch with—are moving to Seattle. Feeling adrift, Artie volunteers at GALS, a gay and lesbian senior center. After he has an accident and breaks his foot, he returns to GALS as a member and befriends the folks he was helping. He gets particularly chummy with Carson, a new member who offers the promise of romance and inspires Artie to write a sequel to Four Squares, the book he published about his friends when he was 30. Though the wistful digressions into Artie's past tend to lose momentum, he makes for an endearing protagonist, one who is deeply shaped by his evolving feelings for others in his life. Admirers of Finger's first book will love this.
Customer Reviews
Really liked it.
Worth a read for gay history built on families and stories. Genuinely enjoyed.
Provocative on several levels, invoking personal menmories
I like a story that takes to a place, especially real place, to which I’ve never been, but in many ways as personal as if I’d lived there. Artie can be an “every man” if you’ve lived much of your life and relive your journey in part or almost wholly. The jumping from his 30s to his 60s, back and forth, can make you relate if you’re older, but imagine how you might eventually experience life, too. The surprises along the way tend to hold up that other shoe that drops a bit later. People tend to be very complicated, even when you open doors that allow some blinding light into your carefully crafted protections. We only live once, and the people with whom we share our life experiences change as our life continues toward it’s conclusion, but their memories are often insights into whom you are and who you are yet to be. I’m very glad I read this book and expect it to provoke more memories and dreaming. Thank you.
Boring
Never ending