Just out., June 21, 1996, Page 33, Image 33

ju st out ▼ ju M 2 1 . 1 9 9 0 ▼ 3 3
INTERVIEW
t’s not an AIDS memoir. It is a love story
in which one of the persons happens to
have HIV,” says Fenton Johnson of his
autobiographical Geography o f the Heart,
San Francisco novelist Fenton Johnson unveils his first
recently released by Scribner. “Even though
significant portions of the book are engaged with
memoir, Geography of the Heart
the facts of Larry’s illness and his death, equal or
T
greater portions of the book are engaged with
by Daniel Vaillancourt
how two strong-willed men set up a relationship
and build a love in the late 20th century.”
that, of course, sounds
writing it, literally, on the plane
cliched, particularly in late-
on the way back from France
20th-century Hollywood-
after Larry died. I had no choice
driven culture, but I think it’s
but to write. Even though 1 had
particularly relevant for gays
barely slept in three weeks or
and lesbians because I think
so, I couldn’t sleep on the
Fenton Johnson— Kentucky-born, raised
many of us devalue or under­
plane. And so, I turned to what
Catholic, the youngest of the nine children of a
value the power of love in our
I do when I’m on a plane,
whiskey maker and his wife— met Larry Rose—
lives in ways that we’re hardly
which is to write. I wrote a
a teacher, bom and raised in Los Angeles, the
conscious of. Even when
eulogy for his memorial ser­
only child of German Jews who survived the
we’re engaged in a powerful
vice in Los Angeles. I knew it
Holocaust—at the August 1987 memorial of a
love—whether it be a roman-
had
to
be
good,
because
I
was
mutual friend in their adopted San Francisco.
§ tic love that has a sexual com-
speaking to his parents, who
Tentative at first, Johnson ultimately yielded to
“ ponent, or other kinds of
had
just
lost
their
only
child....
Rose’s passionate pursuit. On their third date,
| love—at times we may un-
I did manage to say something
Johnson informed Rose he wasn’t quite ready to
> dervalue that because of the
that
helped
to
comfort
them,
commit. An instant later, Rose revealed that he
CO
P subliminal lack of respect, and
and that became the founda­
was HIV positive. The men continued to see each
$
certainly a cultural lack of
tion
for
the
book.
I
was,
at
that
other. Offers the author: “Lesson one of the
celebration, of our loves. The
point, halfway through Scis­ Fenton Johnson
geography of the heart: how love chooses us, if
power of [love] was so large
sors,
Paper,
Rock,
and
I
spent
we will let it, rather than the other way around.”
and all-encompassing that it demonstrated to me
the next couple of years concentrating on finish­
Johnson and Rose lived separately for the first
manifestly the importance and significance of men’s
ing
[it].
But
I
always
knew
that
this
book
was
two and a half years of their relationship. On
love for men, and women’s love for women. That
going to be written. Significant portions of the
March 1, 1990, they both moved into an apart­
is,
in fact, another reason why I wrote this book.
book are inspired by letters I had written during
ment in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights. Less
We need that kind of history.
the time I had known Larry, and after that. I’ve
than eight months later—in the midst of the
always been conscious of using letters as a form
couple’s third journey to France—Rose died un­
I love the part in the book where you are
of journal. Some people keep a journal; I write
expectedly in the intensive care unit of the Ameri­
driving
along the banks of the Loire River. You
letters, and keep copies of the letters.
can Hospital in Paris.
turn to Larry, whom you describe as so silent
“Love can be, in some ways, the most political
and so ill. You ask him if he is in pain, and he
You spent little more than three years with
of acts,” says Johnson, who believes he is not as
answers,
“I’m happy being quiet here with you.”
Larry.
In
the
memoir,
you
write,
“Anyone
overtly polemical a writer as Michelangelo
Speaking of what I learned out of the relation­
who’s had the good fortune to love and be loved
Signorile, for instance. “In writing this book, I felt
ship,
that was a profound place to get to. Is it
for
10
or
20
or
40
and
more
years
may
doubt
that the most powerful political statement I could
possible to define love any more accuiately than
the significance of such a short time, and in
make was to tell what is a love story—a very
that?
I don’t think so.... I would hope that some­
light
of
those
years,
I
understand.
But
love
powerful love story—as simply as I could, with as
one would finish this book with a sense of peace
doesn’t measure itself by the calendar.” Tell
little embellishment as possible.”
and comfort. Bharati Mukheijee, who gives a
me
more
about
what
your
time
with
Larry
Johnson has succeeded in his mission.
blurb on the dust jacket, says “I wept without
brought you, taught you.
“It’s possible to live a lifetime of love in three
being
depressed.” When I read that, I thought,
[Laughs]
You
won’t
think
me
flip
when
I
say,
years— for many gay men in these times, not only
“That’s exactly the reaction I would want people
of course, that the answer to that question is, “Read
possible but necessary,” he writes in the Pro-
to
have to this book.”
the
book.”
I
suppose
the
essence
of
what
it
has
Iogue/Postscript to Geography o f the Heart. “What
taught me is to live for the moment, of course. To
follows are stories from those years: how [Larry],
Throughout the book, you share with the
worry less about what is going to be happening in
a teacher, taught me how to love; how, slowly, I
reader how close you and Larry were to your
the distant future, and more about what is happen­
learned what he had to teach.”
respective parents, and to each other’s family.
ing
in
the
here
and
now.
I
think
that
is
the
great
Recently, from his home in San Francisco,
lesson that most HIV-posi ti ve people have to teach, Many gay men and lesbians are not so fortu­
Johnson— 42, currently single, and still HIV nega­
nate. Any comment on gay men, lesbians and
and
most teach it quite well. Incidentally, I want to
tive— spoke to me further about love, Larry Rose
their
families of origin?
emphasize that I think that Larry’s access to that
and Geography o f the Heart.
I’ve been interviewing people around the coun­
lesson came partly from his HIV status. But it also
try
as
part of a piece I’m doing on lesbian and gay
came from having been raised as the only child of
Having written two well-received novels—
marriage, and I’ve specifically sought out people
Holocaust survivors. I know that to be true.
Scissors, Paper, Rock and Crossing the River—
who do not live in Los Angeles, San Francisco or
The other thing that I learned, which had
what made you decide to write a memoir?
New York. I’ve tried to find people who live in
nothing to do with HI V, is the power of love. And
Well, this book had to be written. I started
I
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small towns. I think gay people are much more
engaged with family than is often presented to be
the case. Now, what you discover in those places
where people have stayed close to their biological
families is that in many cases they are not out to
their families, and in at least as many cases I would
say everyone knows but no one talks about it. That
situation isextremely common. It iscommon within
my own family. There are members of my family,
whom I know to be gay, who are not publicly
acknowledged as such within the family.
Another motivation—not only just in writing
this book, but in my writing as a whole—is to try to
provide those people the courage to live their lives
in a way that is appropriate to them, to push that
envelope. Not to do what they cannot do, I would
not ask that of anyone. But to push the envelope of
what they can do. And in that case, I think that
means, in fact, bringing one’s family—both bio­
logical and chosen— more intimately into the circle
of what one’s life and loves are about. I guess that’s
a more complex way of saying “to come out.” But
1 think the phrase has a sense of a single moment.
You tell somebody with whom you’ve not spoken
about it that you’re gay, and that’s coming out.
Whereas what I’m trying to describe is something
that’s much more complex and ongoing.
“Being” out, perhaps?
Yeah. And one thing I think it’s important to
acknowledge— that we don’t acknowledge
enough— is that that’s a very different state of
being in Topeka, Kansas, than it is in Los Angeles
and San Francisco. I’d like to think that this book
has something to say to people in Los Angeles and
San Francisco, but also something to say to people
in Topeka who might read it and think about the
possibilities of engaging both their chosen and
biological families more intimately in their lives.
As an HIV-negative man, in light of your
experience with Larry, would you shy away
from again becoming deeply involved with
someone who is HIV positive?
Well, of course, that question is hanging out
there. I’ve thought about how to answer it. I really
can’t answer it because it is a question of ongoing
significance in my life. I have answered it in
different ways with different men since Larry
died. And I assume that will continue to be the
case. It’s really just too personal of a question to
answer in some public medium, because it de­
pends so entirely and totally on the circumstances.
In order to answer the question, I would have to
have gotten to know reasonably well this hypo­
thetical man you’re speaking of. So I guess the
answer to the question is, “It depends.”
Geography of the Heart by Fenton Johnson.
Scribner, 1996; $22 cloth.
Johnson will read from his new book at
7:30 pm on Tuesday, July 9, at Powell’s City o f
Books, 1005 W Burnside St. The event is free.
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