Two pale blonde women, dressed identically in white, sit on a bed at Truman Capote’s party in Portofino. One holds a white Maltese.
“One of these women is the mother and one is the daughter,” Tennessee Williams says to his lover, Frank. “I dare you to tell me which is which.”
The answer is quite clear to Frank, but his diplomatic handling of the moment is the beginning of a long, fate-altering friendship between Tenn, Frank, and Anja Blomgren, the daughter, who becomes Anja Bloom, famous actress.
Christopher Castellani’s daring new novel, Leading Men, leaps across decades, oceans, and the truth-fiction divide to talk about art as it should be and love as it is.
Frank lies alone in a hospital, years after the party, waiting for Tenn to show.
Anja roams her apartment alone, an old woman now, waiting for her new young friend, Sandrino, who arrives every Monday to hear all about her life. About the play she has in her apartment, written only for her.
This book piles risk upon swaying risk—oh, the author is going to throw in a fake Tennessee Williams play, and oh, then we are going to read the fake Tennessee Williams play in its entirety, and then— PLEASE READ
