October 25, 2000

Class Notes

Class Notes Features:

Louis Bayard's novel explores gay life in D.C.
The Capitol Hill veteran avoids the political

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Louis Bayard's novel explores gay life in D.C.
The Capitol Hill veteran avoids the political

When Louis P. Bayard '85, a veteran of Capitol Hill's political wars, sat down to write his first novel, he made a point of writing the most apolitical book he could. "The red phones and the shadowy government cabals - I wanted no part of that," says Bayard, who has worked as communications director for Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and as press secretary for now-retired Representative Phil Sharp (D-Indiana). "And I didn't want it to be about what people did for a living. That drives so much of the talk in D.C."

Instead, Bayard wrote Fool's Errand (Alyson, 1999), a romantic comedy set in Washington's gay community. The novel tracks a 32-year-old protagonist, Patrick Beaton, as he sets out single-mindedly to find a guy in a cranberry-colored sweater whom he met groggily at a Sunday brunch. The Washington Post's reviewer called the novel "wise and sweet" and "damned likable."

"This is a good city to be gay in," says Bayard, who lives in Capitol Hill with Don Montuori, his partner of a dozen years. "It has a small-town feel. The novel has some strange plot twists, but in my experience, they're the kinds of things that happen here."

Bayard's second novel, Endangered Species, about a gay man who wants to produce an heir and so enters the world of alternative reproduction, will be published in the spring by Alyson.

Bayard grew up in northern Virginia. He majored in English and creative writing; his "undeclared major" was Triangle Club. At Princeton, "there was very much a sub-rosa quality to gay life," says Bayard, who only started telling people about his sexual orientation after earning a master's in journalism from Northwestern University.

Fool's Errand has sold 6,000 copies in the U.S. and 1,000 overseas - "not Harry Potter," he says, "but decent for a first novel."

By Louis Jacobson '92

Louis Jacobson writes often about books and arts for Washington CityPaper.

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