Loving Women

It is 1953. The Korean War is ending. The Eisenhower era is beginning. Patti Page and Frankie Laine sit at the top of the charts. And aspiring cartoonist Michael Devlin, Brooklyn born and bred, is heading south to become a man. Pete Hamill’s prose has always been praised for its energy and muscularity. But rarely, if ever, has he achieved the tough-and-tender lyricism and imagistic power of his sensual new novel, Loving Women.

When Michael arrives at the U.S. Navy supply base in Pensacola, Florida, he is immediately plunged into a world he’s never before encountered or imagined. Sensitive, street-smart, but wildly naive about the sadistic terrors of the service and the bigotry of the Deep South, he thrashes through a baptism of frustration and despair – until he meets Eden Santana. Eden is everything he’s ever dreamed of: older, wiser, nonplussed by his ingenuous ways – the perfect instructor for a Catholic virgin in the art of lovemaking, in sexual pleasure, confidence and courage. Though their steamy passion is destined to dissipate, there is no way Michael can prepare himself for the circumstances under which his enigmatic lover disappears. Their heartbreaking parting becomes entwined with frightening secrets about each other, the South and the friends they make along the way.

As compelling in narrative drive as it is utterly convincing in mood and tone, Loving Women’s cinematic immediacy and haunting storytelling signify Pete Hamill writing at the top of his talent.