JD by Mark Merlis

Madison : Terrace Books, 2015

Jonathan Ascher was a radical writer from the 1960s, who over the years has been largely forgotten. When Philip Marks inquires about access to Ascher's papers, it sets his widow Martha on a journey of discovery where she finds the husband she hardly knew.

Having simply sent all of her husbands papers to an archive after his death, she had no idea what might be found there. Combining large excerpts from Jonathan's journals from the 60s and 70s with Martha's present-day reactions, Merlis weaves a complex family drama in which she discovers her husband's bisexuality and realizes that she really knew nothing of his relationship with their son.

The novel is set in the 1960s literary scene of New York. In an interview with Lambda Literary, Merlis acknowledges that he has used actual writers from the time as jumping off points for some of the characters of the novel, but is quick to point out that they are literally that - jumping off points, not biographical sketches of the actual people. The source for Jonathan Ascher is Paul Goodman. Gore Vidal was immediately obvious in the character of Edgar Villard - no doubt a nod to Edgar Box, Vidal's 1950s literary pseudonym used during his exile for having published The City and Pillar.

While some will find parts of the story shocking, those who have read Paul Goodman's Parent's Day (1951) will see that both Goodman's life AND writing influenced this story.