In Lazarus Rising (Delphinium Books), 92-year-old prize-winning author and playwright Joseph Caldwell paints a grim but gripping portrait of a young woman dying of AIDS in the 90s amid the vivid backdrop of Manhattan.
When artist Dempsey Coates returns to her loft in Tribeca from a gallery opening, she meets firemen trying to extinguish the blaze at the nearby Haviland Piano Factory building. Two days later, one fireman from that night — Johnny Donegan — returns to her building to see her again and falls in love. After a brief affair, they separate, only to meet again years later after Dempsey’s diagnosis as HIV positive. Upon learning this, Johnny becomes determined to live the rest of his life with Dempsey, even knowing her infection would later transform into AIDS.
Dempsey approaches her illness with stoic resignation. It was her fault she contracted the disease, and she acknowledges her guilt in its presence. The choices that have led her to this place are as tragic as they were avoidable, and she cannot forgive herself. “She was deserving of any scorn that was heaped upon her, and she accepted and approved of what awaited her, not just her death but a death brought on by any number of the horrors included in the AIDS repertory.” Dempsey welcomes the illness to do its worst and lives with a dark “knowledge that she vowed would never be ignored.”
LIFE, DEATH AND SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN
As a memorial to her friend Jamey, a talented artist who’d died of AIDS, Dempsey plans to fulfill his idea for a series of Lazarus paintings — “Lazarus Afflicted,” “Lazarus Being Cared for by His Sisters,” “The Burial of Lazarus,” and “The Raising of Lazarus,” using Johnny as her model. If only she could raise Jamey like she would raise Lazarus. But she’s unsure if her disease will let her finish her tribute. Each day brings the knowledge that her body might begin to unravel and never stop.
“An unearned weariness, a yeasty thickening in her mouth, the sudden soiling of her underclothes, all were warnings — sometimes blared, sometimes whispered — that the next great battle might already be engaged.”
One day, Johnny fears he recognizes HIV-related dementia setting in: “The connections available to the disconnecting mind, the summoned logic, the dazzling, darting thought, sparking from one point to another, a pattern of sanity, a web of reason in which to entangle those too stunned, too caring to make a quick escape.”
Johnny wants nothing more than to marry Dempsey in the Catholic Church — marriage is a sacrament that will give the couple special grace, and they need divine help, even though Dempsey believes nothing of the sort. But the use of condoms would prevent the consecration of their marriage. In desperation, Johnny “vowed that he’d protect himself no more. Nothing that Dempsey had to offer would he refuse — including death itself.” But Dempsey insists they use protection so he won’t contract her illness. How could the Church he’s loved for a lifetime not agree to bless their union?
LUCK CRUMBLES IN FATE’S IRON GRIP
The love affair between Dempsey and Johnny winds its way through the streets of New York City and the AIDS epidemic that relentlessly attacked so many. Can Johnny’s devotion improve the life Dempsey is determined to live fully until her last breath? Will his care grant her reprieve from pain and suffering?
Then the unimaginable happens. When “the couple is finally blessed with an unexpected stroke of good luck,” fate takes hold with a cast-iron grip, squeezing the final bit of irony from their lives.
Johnny’s job was to rescue people. “That’s what we do,” he always said. And that’s what he did for Dempsey, just not in the way he’d hoped.
Caldwell gives readers a realistic glimpse into the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic and the devastation left in its wake. Writing New York City into the story as an integral character — from the Staten Island Ferry and Battery Park to Tribeca and the soup kitchen at St. Patrick’s Cathedral — he allows us to feel intimately connected to not only its beauty and charm but its parallel grit and ruthlessness.
Caldwell’s arresting and lyrical prose grips our hearts and minds, threatening to wring out every ounce of empathy and sorrow for those dying of a devastating and fatal disease. Dempsey’s story will be a haunting echo not soon forgotten.
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About Joseph Caldwell:
Joseph Caldwell is an acclaimed playwright and novelist who was awarded the Rome Prize for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the author of five novels in addition to The Pig Trilogy, a humorous mystery series featuring a crime-solving pig. His most recent memoir, In the Shadow of the Bridge, was published by Delphinium in 2019. Caldwell lives in New York City.
