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Book Detail
Able Was I
Drew Banks
In reality Napoleon Bonaparte never said, "Able was I ere I saw Elba," but the famous palindrome persists and indeed, evokes myriad imaginings of his 1814 exile to the tiny island.
Grey Tigrett discovers Elba under different circumstances and in another century. It's 1985: he's on a college graduation trip, a vacation on which he hopes to transfer his sexual desire from Pete, his best friend, to Miriam, his girlfriend. Nothing goes as planned. A mishap sidetracks them to Elba where Grey's sexual desire is indeed transferred – not to Miriam but to Antonio, a married Italian man who opens his home to the threesome when they can't find a hotel room. To avoid facing the implication of his actions, Grey retreats to the exile of his dreamy, analytic mind.
Fifteen years later Grey is a successful computer sales executive with a longtime boyfriend, living in New York's trendy meatpacking district. On paper he has it all, but in truth he is more disabled than ever. Grey and Scott have constructed a fabulous life that is totally alien to Grey, and to escape it he withdraws further into himself. In his rationalized world he is emotionally impotent, yet he becomes intrigued with a few people outside his social circle-a teenager who walks his dog, an addict who frequents his stoop, and his Gen-Y temp secretary who refuses a permanent position-and fantasizes them safe role models of an engaged, vicarious life.
During an annual sales conference cruise, the Mediterranean reawakens Grey. He disrupts the comforting predictability of his business life by challenging his boss and opening up to a colleague, something he hasn't done since college. When a storm redirects the ship to Elba, a second unexpected adventure on the island requires that Grey retrace his steps and consider the repercussions of fifteen years prior.
After his return to New York, three pivotal events transform the lives of his vicarious trio and destroy Grey's psychological safety net. Rather than meeting Scott for their millennium vacation, Grey disappears to Elba. While on this third visit, Grey gets the opportunity to recast his life. On the island he forges new relationships with ties to the past that only he can understand. The compelling resolution of his journey is as unpredictable as it is inspiring.
In the end-like Napoleon before him-Grey is forced to examine the depths of his exile. For both men, Elba marks a critical turning point from which they either exhaust or draw their power.
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IR Staff Review
IR Says: "Banks does not take the predictable route and use that fact to inject a false exoticism into his narrative."
Able Was I begins by introducing us to Grey Tigrett, an American college student tooling around Italy for a summer before graduation. On the island of Elba (yes, Napoleon's Elba) Grey, who came to the island with a longtime girlfriend, has a brief but significant amorous encounter with an Italian man named Antonio. The narrative then skips ahead 14 years, where we find Grey in New York, with all the trappings of a comfortable life-a lucrative job, a long-term relationship (with a man), and a swank West Side apartment-but unable to shake his profound sense of alienation and discontentment. Grey is defined in large part by his dreaminess, by his aloofness, and by the bored, perfunctory quality of most of his interactions. Despite the intimate look we get into Grey's life and his thoughts, his personality always remains somewhat muted, somewhat nebulous. It is to the author's credit then that rather than thinking the character incomplete or inconsistently drawn, we accept it as realistic, believable. The book feels inclusive where, in someone else's hands, it could have been alienating. Adding to its charm are lovingly drawn, evocative depictions of New York City and Italy.
Grey's homosexuality is never treated as outlandish, nor does it in any way define him. This means that, while readers who happen to be gay should immediately identify with the character, everyone else will also quickly be won over. Grey's plight is universal. Since many people are, by definition, amateur escape-artists, the character's discontent and self-imposed isolation will resonate broadly.