The Extra Man: A Novel - Hardcover

Ames, Jonathan

3.73

1,882 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684845040 ISBN 13: 9780684845043

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 1998

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Louis Ives, the narrator of The Extra Man, fancies himself a young gentleman fashioned after his heroes in the books of F. Scott Fitzgerald. He dresses the part - favoring neckties, blue blazers, and sport coats. But he also has a penchant for women's clothing, a weakness that causes him to lose his job as a teacher at a Princeton day school after a bizarre incident involving a colleague's brassiere. Thrust out of Princeton, he heads to New York where he rents a cheap room in the madly discombobulated apartment of Henry Harrison, a failed but brilliant playwright who dances alone to Ethel Merman records, sneaks into Broadway shows, and performs with great style the duties of a walker - an escort for the rich widows of the Upper East Side. The two men, separated in age by more than forty years, develop a relationship that is irascible mentor and eager apprentice, and they form a bond the depths of which neither expected. But Louis, when he's not with Henry, has fascinations that lead him to an unusual community on the fringes of the sex world of Times Square. He develops a secret life there, which he fears will be his undoing and which he must keep hidden from Henry at all costs.

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Review:

Louis Ives was leading a quiet life at the Pretty Brook County Day School in Princeton, New Jersey, until the spring of 1992, when he encountered the brassiere of his colleague Ms Jeffries. As the upshot of that unsavoury episode, Louis is propelled towards Manhattan, and life as the flatmate of the eccentric Henry Harrison, who ekes out a living in his grotty flat as an elderly gigolo, or (put more politely) "the extra man" at society gatherings. They discover a shared admiration of Mrs Slocombe of Are You Being Served fame, and this bizarre arrangement suits Louis fine until he can no longer ignore the urges of his cross-dressing fantasies.

The Extra Man hardly reads as a novel. Its plot slides in and out unobtrusively through a series of well-observed, hilarious anecdotes, full of ironic Manhattan wit. Enough names are dropped, however, to make you realise that this jollity has a serious side--with references to the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dr Krafft-Ebbing

Jonathan Ames has fashioned an unremittingly good-humoured book, whose constantly beaming face conceals its deeper purpose. Imagine sharing a two-room flat with Quentin Crisp. You're nearly there. --Alan Stewart

Review:

Francine Prose

"The New York Observer"

Ames has the one thing Fitzgerald lacked: a sense of humor..."The Extra Man" wins us over with its sheer energy and good will, its confidence in the ability of its own humor and intelligence to widen our ideas about the possibilities of love, and about the permissible range of inner and outer lives to which today's young gentleman may properly aspire.

"Booklist"

(starred review)

A miracle....This novel is not to be missed.

"Booklist"

(starred review)

A sort of "Odd Couple" for the next millennium.

"The Washington Post"

By updating the moral education of a young gentleman, Ames has written a "Bildungsroman" for the end of our century.

"The Village Voice"

The Louis and Henry show is honest, funny, and original, making the meaning of "human" deep and strange in the best way.

"The New York Times Book Review"

A sure-footed exploration of sexual confusion and a loopily elegant, surprisingly moving urban comedy of manners.

"The New York Times"

Ames makes it clear that his protagonist's sexual tentativeness and anxiety are really just flimsy covers for his passion and warmth. That's what makes "The Extra Man" work so well. Louis may feel as awkward as Milton Berle in drag, but inside he's really Fred Astaire -- he just doesn't know it yet.

Martha McPhee

author of "Bright Angel Time"

Wonderfully odd and charming, at times riotously funny, Jonathan Ames' "The Extra Man" strikes a perfect balance between sympathy and comedy, drawing upon deep reserves of compassion for the strange and unnamable urges that infiltrate the lives of his two remarkable characters.

Rick Moody

author of "Purple America"

Jonathan Ames has always been one of my favorite contemporary writers, both for his limpid and elegant Lost Generation prose style and for his utterly fearless commitment to the most demanding psychosexual comedies. "The Extra Man" extends his accomplishments considerably. This is one of the most charming and alarming books of recent years.

Jeffrey Eugenides

author of "The Virgin Suicides"

Not since "Harold and Maude" has there been such a lovable odd couple as Louis Ives and Henry Harrison. Told in a lucid, diverting prose style, "The Extra Man" is a picaresque tale of a young man's sentimental education (in subjects ranging from tuxedo studs to transsexuals). In Henry Harrison, Jonathan Ames has created a truly memorable character.

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