Paxton Court - Softcover

Gay pride meets the graying of America in Salvatore's (Not Telling Mother: Stories from a Life) fresh and funny novel about four gay couples who retire together. Leaving behind demanding careers and Manhattan mayhem for Lakeside Leisure, a Florida retirement community, long-term lovers and longtime friends Chris and Karen, Angie and Ruth, Lara and Helen and Rudy and Rich purchase neighboring houses on Paxton Court and paint them purple. But some of the local residents, led by nosy Bunny Seagirt, are horrified by the proximity of the "Lakeside Lesbos" and "Paxton perverts." Over the course of a few life-altering weeks, the issue grips the community. Some seniors immediately rally to the cause of the gay couples, some are won over, others merely adjust to their presence and some remain openly hostile. Still others reveal secret leanings of their own. As the eight newcomers adapt to retirement, each wrestles with regrets, agings and secret longings, as all affirm their love (erotic or platonic) for one another. Salvatore's lovers may be a bit too adoring of?and indistinct from?one another; but, thankfully, the author doesn't grandstand on gay issues but instead concentrates on the dynamics of senior-citizen love, proving herself wise in the ways of the heart, the mind and the libido.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"There goes the neighborhood," many say when two lesbian and two gay New York couples move into a quiet Florida retirement community. The 50-to 60-something newcomers have planned their retreat from fast-track careers and the AIDS epidemic, and they wish a quiet, comfortable life. Instead, one zealot circulates a petition barring the purple paint jobs on their new homes and, by implication, their lifestyle. The community clubhouse refuses a family discount to one of the lesbian couples, who sues. The stresses on the four couples become internal when post-retirement workaholism and passionate physical infidelities threaten the bonds between the eight committed friends. Having begun with slyly humorous send-ups of the local bigot and womanizer, the book turns especially serious as cracks in the protagonists' relationships threaten to become canyons and death invades despite the sunny locale. Salvatore has crafted an interesting exploration of the family-like ties among older gays and lesbians. Whitney Scott