Four Squares

"That’s what the book’s about, right? The pleasure of finding your people?"

This book is about Artie, a man in New York trying to make it as a writer writing his first book, hanging out with his friends at a local bar, dealing with complex relationship issues, and just generally living life as a gay 20-something in a big city. This book is also about Artie, an approaching-elderly man 30 years later, trying to make the best of things without his close friends and lovers, attempting to make himself useful by volunteering at GALS, the local LGBTQ senior center and falling (literally) into a new group of friends he has to navigate now. We bounce between these two time periods as Artie’s story is fleshed out, following him through high and low points, and just generally getting to know this man’s life story.

I’m not even in the demographic this book is about, and I thought this book was delightful. There’s something about following a person through their life that really gets to me sometimes, and I thought the author did an incredibly good job of making me feel invested in Artie, both in the past 90s period and the current 2022 period. There’s occasional dark moments in Artie’s life, but the author does a good job of making even these low points seem worthwhile and meaningful in his life. The 90s period especially brings up a lot of tough topics surrounding the AIDS crisis and the impact it has on their community, but I thought it was very respectfully done.

Just a book about a guy and his found family, delightful and heartwarming.

I won a free copy of this ARC from Goodreads Giveaways.