When Cuban fisherman first spotted the Key West lighthouse floating in Florida waters, they called her Stella Maris, Star of the Sea. It's a beacon that draws people from everywhere seeking the end-of-the-line bohemian oasis that can still be found amidst the condo share towers, chain stores, and Redneck Riviera clientele. And it's a mecca for gay men and the women who love them. Sue Kaufman Prize- winning author Michael Carroll knows the territory intimately. His stories wind in and out of the bars, guesthouses, and lives of this singular paradise: a memorial for a drag queen held at the vicar's Victorian leads to uneasy encounters; two southern sisters on a cruise ship holiday are up against the ravages of alcohol, estrangement, and deadly weather. Newly divorced gay men (already a phenomenon) lick their wounds and bask in the island's lasting social twilight. At the all-male, clothing-optional resort, guys of all ages fall into one another's paths, enjoy themselves as they please, and surprise one another on their views and preconceptions. Stella Maris is about the verities of illness and death. The past and its prisoners, AIDS, the young and not so young man's realization of his own mortality. It's about the unpredictable nature of life, and of survival. It's about new beginnings and final recognitions.
"Michael Carroll's stories, keenly-even cruelly-observant, occupy the verges of love and death where the truest and most recklessly aware emotions abide."
Joy Williams
"Michael Carroll openly insists that American manners make way for the unsayable, showing us over and over that our reticence got us into trouble in the first place. His superb Key West stories are the florid mirror of our national evasions, doubling their comic revelations into pathos, and catching us unexpectedly reflected in the erotic trance of self-invention."
Manuel Muñoz, author of What You See in the Dark and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue
