Sarah Schulman’s struggle to keep her controversial ‘Child’ alive
By Adrienne Urbanski
Novelist Sarah Schulman isn’t afraid of going after what she wants. Her 1984 debut, “The Sophie Horowitz Story,” a new spin on the traditional detective story, was released when a strong lesbian presence in contemporary literature was rare. Twenty-three publishers rejected the manuscript before it was accepted, but Schulman persevered. She produced a steady stream of novels, including “People in Trouble,” one of the first to explore the AIDS epidemic in New York and its effect on the gay community.
During the nineties, her other novels (“Rat Bohemia,” “Shimmer,” “Empathy,” “Girls Visions Everything,” and “After Delores”) established a niche for lesbian protagonists, giving a voice to a previously marginalized group.
After a string of groundbreaking titles and critical success, however, Schulman encountered serious difficulty in publishing her eighth novel, “The Child.” She blamed the dilemma on the consolidation of publishing companies, which forced independent houses and imprints to close. It required eight tenacious years—and the help of a well-connected friend—to find a publisher willing to take on the work.
But shortly after the book’s publication, Carroll & Graf—the Avon imprint that published “The Child”—folded, leaving Schulman to find a way to get the book released into paperback. Certain the change would eventually lead publishers to stray from challenging works to take on safer texts instead, Schulman noted that the authentic voices of the GLBT community have been silenced by corporate marketing. “Gay and lesbian characters that are truly authentic…fully sexual, who experience homophobia as a piece of daily life, who have emotional consequences to that experience, rarely appear in corporate representation.”
The disappearance of independent bookstores also found Schulman excluded from New York City readings to promote “The Child.” Other than a conversation with Edmund White at a Barnes & Noble location and an event at Happy Ending, not a single bookstore has invited Schulman for a reading. She assumed the shutout was due to the fact that many consumers have stopped frequenting independent and GLBT bookstores, opting for the convenience of Amazon.com.
Of course, the difficulties Schulman faced may also have stemmed from the work’s subject: a teenage boy’s relationship with an adult lover later discovered by police and tried for pedophilia. Schulman based the plotline on the case of 15-year-old Sam Manzie, who strangled an 11-year-old neighborhood boy to death. In defense, Manzie’s parents claimed his sexual relationship with a 43-year-old man pushed their son over the edge.
Schulman maintained an objective perspective in the work, neither condoning nor criticizing her characters’ choices. Rather, she let them argue over the issues at hand. Schulman offered differing viewpoints of the relationship in the novel, even though she knew that homosexual relationships between teenagers and older men were once something that was accepted.
“When I was younger, it was very casual and common for gay men to openly speak about sexual relationships…with older guys when they were still teenagers. But as we have moved into a more conservative time…the stories have disappeared,” noted Schulman.
At the center of the story are two lawyers set to defend the boy’s older lover Hockey, a gay male who lost his partner to AIDS and lived with the disease, and Eva, a lesbian who was faced with possible breast cancer and a troubled relationship. The book examines life for those in the GLBT community in an era when homophobia is supposedly gone, and the Internet and technology has taken up a dominating presence in life.
“In ‘The Child,’ I am looking at the emotional consequences of having just survived the epicenter of the AIDS crisis and what needs that creates in the characters’ lives—how that gravitas and knowledge makes certain kinds of cruelties—whether familial homophobia or the way gay people internalize trauma and take it out on each other,” Schulman said.
Schulman focused on the lives and interactions of her two main characters rather than those involved in the case, examining the state of life for those in the gay community during the late nineties (when Schulman had originally intended to publish “The Child”).
The novel itself is a stylistic departure from the author’s other works. While Eva is the protagonist of her book, Schulman also displayed an ability to enter the minds of every character to show their motivations and opinions. “In terms of craft, ‘The Child’ is a very advanced novel,” Schulman said. “The point of view changes very frequently in a manner that opens up moments to multiple experiences without being obvious about it. It’s like a swirling camera watching everyone in the room and then settling back into one person’s perspective. ”
While the subject matter of “The Child” may not be initially palatable to some readers, the novel is significant for its stark examination of the gay community during an era when AIDS is less of a looming threat and homophobia supposedly a thing of the past.
In the meantime, Schulman has still been pushing for publicity, hard at work trying to get the novel released in paperback—something that will finally happen in the fall. “I am thrilled,” she said, “that ‘The Child’ now has an opportunity to find its audience.”
Photo by Bradford Louryk
