"Two People" 1965 Windham, Donald

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WINDHAM, Donald

[252] pp.

Coward McCann

1965

8 3/8" x 5 3/4"

Jacket design by George Salter

"Two People" is … Read more WINDHAM, Donald

[252] pp.

Coward McCann

1965

8 3/8" x 5 3/4"

Jacket design by George Salter

"Two People" is about a love affair in Rome between a middle-aged American and a much younger Italian, but the word "people" in the title is both singular and plural, dealing with two cultures as well as with two individuals. First published in 1965, when the word "gay" in its sexual implications was little used or even recognized by heterosexuals, "Two People" anticipated many novels about same-sex relationships that followed. But Windham's gentle story was forgotten, in part because of the propriety of its manner and in part because it is as much a meditation on love and friendship as it is a recounting of the affair between Forrest and Marcello. "Love's power is that it lets you exist outside your own body," Windham observes through Forrest: "It is present in affection's most immaterial manifestations, in the knowledge that your thoughts contain another person, or that another person has you in his mind. Its biological end is the creation of a new body, and because of this it has been taught that the love between men should remain chaste. But life is not so clearly defined... See less