The Man on the Third Floor
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Walter Samson is a successful book editor in post World War Two New York. He has more than money, an interesting wife, Phyllis, two smart children and reason to believe he's leading the good American life. That is, until he meets Barry Rogers by chance. Barry is blue collar, handsome, single and poor.
Walter is instantly drawn to Barry and, despite the considerable risks, installs him in the Samson's three story house on the the Upper East Side, where the two men try to keep their amorous relationship secret.
Against a backdrop of McCarthy-era fear with its doleful consequences and with society's pervasive homophobia, Walter manages to alter the direction and course of his life, losing much, gaining more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her 10th novel (after Short Pleasures), Bernays deftly articulates the difficulties faced by homosexuals during the McCarthy witch-hunt years. Walter Samson is a senior editor at Griffin House, a respected Manhattan publisher, where he discovers the right-wing "cash cow" author Edgar Fleming. Walter also meets Barry Rogers, a carpet-layer who, like Walter, is a closeted homosexual, and Walter soon persuades Barry to accept a position as handyman and chauffeur for the Samsons and to move into their home. Sheltered under one roof, the duo covertly indulge one another's sexual appetites, and while Walter confesses that Barry is "the deepest, most satisfying love of my life," he also fears losing his social standing and family. Walter's daughter grows wise to her father's exploits, followed by their blackmailing cook. After hearing word of Communist sympathizers in Griffin's employ, Edgar abandons his publisher in a huff, and Walter's "snake pit" deepens after a reporter exposes his affair. Bernays explores a dramatic era in American history and the psyches of her characters with equal ease in this well-written and entertaining new novel.
