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Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll
When Beth Carroll, a wealthy old woman, dies before signing her will, Phidias, the overseer of the estate, and David, the gay houseboy, work together to fulfill her last wish
277 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
4 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Paul Monette
43 books152 followersOnline Guide to Paul Monette's papers at UCLA:
http://findaid.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/...
In novels, poetry, and a memoir, Paul Monette wrote about gay men striving to fashion personal identities and, later, coping with the loss of a lover to AIDS.
Monette was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1945. He was educated at prestigious schools in New England: Phillips Andover Academy and Yale University, where he received his B.A. in 1967. He began his prolific writing career soon after graduating from Yale. For eight years, he wrote poetry exclusively.
After coming out in his late twenties, he met Roger Horwitz, who was to be his lover for over twenty years. Also during his late twenties, he grew disillusioned with poetry and shifted his interest to the novel, not to return to poetry until the 1980s.
In 1977, Monette and Horwitz moved to Los Angeles. Once in Hollywood, Monette wrote a number of screenplays that, though never produced, provided him the means to be a writer. Monette published four novels between 1978 and 1982. These novels were enormously successful and established his career as a writer of popular fiction. He also wrote several novelizations of films.
Monette's life changed dramatically when Roger Horwitz was diagnosed with AIDS in the early 1980s. After Horwitz's death in 1986, Monette wrote extensively about the years of their battles with AIDS (Borrowed Time, 1988) and how he himself coped with losing a lover to AIDS (Love Alone, 1988). These works are two of the most powerful accounts written about AIDS thus far.
Their publication catapulted Monette into the national arena as a spokesperson for AIDS. Along with fellow writer Larry Kramer, he emerged as one of the most familiar and outspoken AIDS activists of our time. Since very few out gay men have had the opportunity to address national issues in mainstream venues at any previous time in U.S. history, Monette's high-visibility profile was one of his most significant achievements. He went on to write two important novels about AIDS, Afterlife (1990) and Halfway Home (1991). He himself died of AIDS-related complications in 1995.
In his fiction, Monette unabashedly depicts gay men who strive to fashion personal identities that lead them to love, friendship, and self-fulfillment. His early novels generally begin where most coming-out novels end; his protagonists have already come to terms with their sexuality long before the novels' projected time frames. Monette has his characters negotiate family relations, societal expectations, and personal desires in light of their decisions to lead lives as openly gay men.
Two major motifs emerge in these novels: the spark of gay male relations and the dynamic alternative family structures that gay men create for themselves within a homophobic society. These themes are placed in literary forms that rely on the structures of romance, melodrama, and fantasy.
Monette's finest novel, Afterlife, combines the elements of traditional comedy and the resistance novel; it is the first gay novel written about AIDS that fuses personal love interests with political activism.
Monette's harrowing collection of deeply personal poems, Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog, conveys both the horrors of AIDS and the inconsolable pain of love lost. The elegies are an invaluable companion to Borrowed Time.
Before the publication and success of his memoir, Becoming a Man, it seemed inevitable that Monette would be remembered most for his writings on AIDS. Becoming a Man, however, focuses on the dilemmas of growing up gay. It provides at once an unsparing account of the nightmare of the closet and a moving and often humorous depiction of the struggle to come out. Becoming a Man won the 1992 National Book Award for nonfiction, a historical moment in the history
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 12, 2009
awww, sweet. a sensitive novel about sensitive gay folks doing sensitive things. but some surprisingly subtle, realistic characterizations. Monette seems like a tender-hearted guy, one who is perfectly willing to truly see and maybe even love all sides of a person. a commendable trait!
June 3, 2017
Paul Monette was such an important voice as a memoirist during the AIDS crisis, so I was curious about his novels. Taking Care of Mrs. Carrol, writte in 1978, is his first novel. It came out at an odd time when the idea of "gay literature" was just taking hold. No one was very sure what aspirations might exist for a body of "gay literature." Of course it would soon be eclipsed by AIDS-related issues. Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll is something of a mess: lovely and smart and muddled and wrong-headed. But I give it three stars because it is by Paul Monette, and there's was so much yet to come.
June 10, 2023
Two exes with a rocky past reunite in a plot to have an old movie scarlet pretend to be a rich woman who'd recently died. Their effort to keep her money-grubbing kids from ruining the house and property she loved becomes more and more complicated.
Though I vastly prefer characters to plot, I'm not accustomed to 90% characters and 10% plot. It's like literary fiction, except for the sex. There is constant mentioning of sex. Thinking about sex, reminiscing about it, sizing people up, talking about it. Despite that erotica tone, there is only one really explicit sex scene. Everything else is quick or past tense memories. The two leads are outrageously promiscuous, and it's delivered in a very blunt and clinical way, something like: "I once bumped into a random guy on a train. As I gave him a hand job in the backseat, he told me...." This sort of thing is constant, and always distant and detached.
At one point, the narrator, whose been in his feelings, stumbles on his ex just banging someone else on the beach. The copulating pair both see him, he stands there and watches them, and then there's some casual talking afterwards. The blunt approach to sex eventually made me feel a numbness I didn't enjoy at all.
So you wouldn't think I'd describe a book like that as boring, but thats what it was. Boring. No one does anything. There'll be a line of dialogue, a small movement or gesture, and then three paragraphs of introspection. Characters sit around, eat, talk, walk, swim, and think, think ,think. I don't need an explosion on every page, but there's zero tension. They're all committing fraud but none of them seem overly concerned, and the occasional kink in their plan (between talking and eating and walking and lounging) is quickly resolved. They aren't worried, and neither was I.
I will say, these are the most multi-faceted and fleshed-out characters I've ever read. They feel like real people. But that wasn't great for me either. I don't like real people. I don't like their complexities and their moral ambiguity. I read fiction to escape the layers real people have.
I can't say this book was bad, but I have no idea who the audience is. It sure wasn't me.
Though I vastly prefer characters to plot, I'm not accustomed to 90% characters and 10% plot. It's like literary fiction, except for the sex. There is constant mentioning of sex. Thinking about sex, reminiscing about it, sizing people up, talking about it. Despite that erotica tone, there is only one really explicit sex scene. Everything else is quick or past tense memories. The two leads are outrageously promiscuous, and it's delivered in a very blunt and clinical way, something like: "I once bumped into a random guy on a train. As I gave him a hand job in the backseat, he told me...." This sort of thing is constant, and always distant and detached.
At one point, the narrator, whose been in his feelings, stumbles on his ex just banging someone else on the beach. The copulating pair both see him, he stands there and watches them, and then there's some casual talking afterwards. The blunt approach to sex eventually made me feel a numbness I didn't enjoy at all.
So you wouldn't think I'd describe a book like that as boring, but thats what it was. Boring. No one does anything. There'll be a line of dialogue, a small movement or gesture, and then three paragraphs of introspection. Characters sit around, eat, talk, walk, swim, and think, think ,think. I don't need an explosion on every page, but there's zero tension. They're all committing fraud but none of them seem overly concerned, and the occasional kink in their plan (between talking and eating and walking and lounging) is quickly resolved. They aren't worried, and neither was I.
I will say, these are the most multi-faceted and fleshed-out characters I've ever read. They feel like real people. But that wasn't great for me either. I don't like real people. I don't like their complexities and their moral ambiguity. I read fiction to escape the layers real people have.
I can't say this book was bad, but I have no idea who the audience is. It sure wasn't me.
April 5, 2025
“HOW WE GOT THROUGH THE SUMMER”
Originally published in 1978, Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll, Paul Monette’s first novel, was in good company that year. Also published in 1978 were Andrew Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance, Larry Kramer’s Faggots, Edmund White’s Nocturnes for the King of Naples, and Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. Monette, as quoted in his New York Times obituary, describes Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll as one of his “glib and silly little novels.” I agree. It’s not a gay literary classic like these other books published in 1978.
The plot of Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll consists of an improbable scam. Madeleine Cosquer, an aging actress/chanteuse, is asked to impersonate Mrs. Carroll, a rich lady who has inconveniently died before her will can be signed. Her will has stipulations to keep her estate out of the hands of developers and her children. As the story progresses, surprising revelations are made about past and present connections between the various characters. The novel seems to be narrated by Rick (his name isn’t given until page 36), but I had to totally surrender my sense of disbelief because he is not in many of the scenes. How does he know who says what to whom?
My favorite character is Madeleine. Although she’s been acting all her life, she has learned what is real and what is not. And she can whisper at great distances. I also liked Phidias, who was Mrs. Carroll’s overseer. He is a stalwart and shrewd man to have around the Carroll estate. I didn’t much care for Rick or David. They seemed to be stock gay characters. Rick doesn’t have a job because he has money, and David, Rick’s ex-lover, had a quasi-job as Mrs. Carroll’s live-in companion. They don’t seem to have any interest in anything but being gay and witty and chasing after men and sex.
The Hollywood lore was entertaining, as were the campy references to movies. When straight Phidias says, “People had faces then, didn’t they?” Rick observes, “It surprised me because it was such a gay line.”
I really enjoyed chapter 5 when Madeleine’s impersonation of Mrs. Carroll fools Mr. Farley, the lawyer who comes for the signing of the will. Chapter 8 was suspenseful when Tony, Mrs. Carroll’s youngest son, unexpectedly comes home and Madeleine has to perform as Mrs. Carroll for the second time. Can she pull it off again?
At the beginning of the novel, Rick says, “Now that I know what happened, I suddenly didn’t know what anyone’s motives were. That is why this is a story after all. It is about how we got through the summer.” At the conclusion of the novel, the characters assemble at a picnic on the beach with fireworks courtesy of Phidias. It’s the end of the summer. Their scam has been a success, and they won’t be going to jail. They all philosophize and talk about what they’re going to do next. Everyone has their moment of truth. Rick says, “I would never tell her [Madeleine] this, but she looked just then like none of the women she’d played. She looked like their mother. As for me, I wasn’t worried at all that we’d blow our best lines. We’ve survived, I thought, because we don’t remember to be afraid.”
Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll is a fun and shallow read.
Originally published in 1978, Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll, Paul Monette’s first novel, was in good company that year. Also published in 1978 were Andrew Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance, Larry Kramer’s Faggots, Edmund White’s Nocturnes for the King of Naples, and Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. Monette, as quoted in his New York Times obituary, describes Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll as one of his “glib and silly little novels.” I agree. It’s not a gay literary classic like these other books published in 1978.
The plot of Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll consists of an improbable scam. Madeleine Cosquer, an aging actress/chanteuse, is asked to impersonate Mrs. Carroll, a rich lady who has inconveniently died before her will can be signed. Her will has stipulations to keep her estate out of the hands of developers and her children. As the story progresses, surprising revelations are made about past and present connections between the various characters. The novel seems to be narrated by Rick (his name isn’t given until page 36), but I had to totally surrender my sense of disbelief because he is not in many of the scenes. How does he know who says what to whom?
My favorite character is Madeleine. Although she’s been acting all her life, she has learned what is real and what is not. And she can whisper at great distances. I also liked Phidias, who was Mrs. Carroll’s overseer. He is a stalwart and shrewd man to have around the Carroll estate. I didn’t much care for Rick or David. They seemed to be stock gay characters. Rick doesn’t have a job because he has money, and David, Rick’s ex-lover, had a quasi-job as Mrs. Carroll’s live-in companion. They don’t seem to have any interest in anything but being gay and witty and chasing after men and sex.
The Hollywood lore was entertaining, as were the campy references to movies. When straight Phidias says, “People had faces then, didn’t they?” Rick observes, “It surprised me because it was such a gay line.”
I really enjoyed chapter 5 when Madeleine’s impersonation of Mrs. Carroll fools Mr. Farley, the lawyer who comes for the signing of the will. Chapter 8 was suspenseful when Tony, Mrs. Carroll’s youngest son, unexpectedly comes home and Madeleine has to perform as Mrs. Carroll for the second time. Can she pull it off again?
At the beginning of the novel, Rick says, “Now that I know what happened, I suddenly didn’t know what anyone’s motives were. That is why this is a story after all. It is about how we got through the summer.” At the conclusion of the novel, the characters assemble at a picnic on the beach with fireworks courtesy of Phidias. It’s the end of the summer. Their scam has been a success, and they won’t be going to jail. They all philosophize and talk about what they’re going to do next. Everyone has their moment of truth. Rick says, “I would never tell her [Madeleine] this, but she looked just then like none of the women she’d played. She looked like their mother. As for me, I wasn’t worried at all that we’d blow our best lines. We’ve survived, I thought, because we don’t remember to be afraid.”
Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll is a fun and shallow read.
August 22, 2023
The books is really two stories -- one involving the love relationship gone awry between two of the characters, and the other involving the story referred to in the title. When Mrs. Carroll dies early in the novel, a handful of characters resolve to hide her death from relatives. The story grows from there, and in my view could have been interesting in its own right from that point. But throwing in the love story confuses the plot. Indeed, there are many times when the reader must literally read between the lines to try to figure out why the relationship was so bad between the two to begin with, and what that has to do with the rest of the plot. There are also a few other plot lines that are poorly developed, such as the really bad relationship between Mrs. Carroll and her adult children -- why do they hate her so? The reader really never finds out.
October 1, 2020
This is a beautiful story. Well written. The characters develop well. There are amazing sentences, clever and in some way, funny.
Even this is fiction, the author gives the reader a sense of reality. You may feel that this story actually happened. There are references of actors, movies and singers; which, depending on your age, you might need to google or check on youtube.
Obviously, there are good sex scenes and drama. The internal dialogues are well developed and somehow relatable.
Give it a try. It's a good LGBT one.
Even this is fiction, the author gives the reader a sense of reality. You may feel that this story actually happened. There are references of actors, movies and singers; which, depending on your age, you might need to google or check on youtube.
Obviously, there are good sex scenes and drama. The internal dialogues are well developed and somehow relatable.
Give it a try. It's a good LGBT one.
October 14, 2025
Not Sure?
I am on the fence somewhat on rating this book. I picked this book because I am trying to understand the lifestyle of the gay community. Though I cannot condone this way of living I truly want to understand it. Reading this particular book was at times confusing to me. But in saying that I did have moments of some clarity as well. By the end of the story I suppose I only felt deep sorrow. I still don’t understand but I’m trying.
I am on the fence somewhat on rating this book. I picked this book because I am trying to understand the lifestyle of the gay community. Though I cannot condone this way of living I truly want to understand it. Reading this particular book was at times confusing to me. But in saying that I did have moments of some clarity as well. By the end of the story I suppose I only felt deep sorrow. I still don’t understand but I’m trying.
March 10, 2024
this is the kinda shit that makes you fall in love with language and writing and stories as a concept. it's painful when, based purely on how they write, you know with SUCH certainty that you could have been great friends with an author if only you could have been alive at the same time. genuinely such beautiful and inspiring prose my god
May 8, 2012
Not terrible, but not good.
Monette came into his own with the HIV virus, Borrowed Time and Becoming a Man are both masterpieces and introduced a sense of urgency into his work, and a relatabilty that was absent in this work. The same thing happened with Larry Kramer and Andrew Holleran, their writing went past the next level into the next stratosphere with the AIDS crisis.
There are a couple of good points in this book. The characters are comfortable with being gay, they are realistic for the time, and there are occasional moments when you care about them.
There are far more negatives, the writing is dry, no character is likeable, and the book goes beyond the standard "nothing happens" complaint in that so little happens you wonder why the book could possibly have been written. A couple times you think something might happen, but it fizzles out. The big reveal that the whole book is leading up to is talked about for maybe 2 paragraphs, then we're left with a slow, slow, SLOW decline to the end.
I give this 2 stars for the couple of VERY brief flashes of what Monette will one day be, but be warned, you have to look hard, and don't be expecting many of them. Really, don't be expecting anything at all.
Monette came into his own with the HIV virus, Borrowed Time and Becoming a Man are both masterpieces and introduced a sense of urgency into his work, and a relatabilty that was absent in this work. The same thing happened with Larry Kramer and Andrew Holleran, their writing went past the next level into the next stratosphere with the AIDS crisis.
There are a couple of good points in this book. The characters are comfortable with being gay, they are realistic for the time, and there are occasional moments when you care about them.
There are far more negatives, the writing is dry, no character is likeable, and the book goes beyond the standard "nothing happens" complaint in that so little happens you wonder why the book could possibly have been written. A couple times you think something might happen, but it fizzles out. The big reveal that the whole book is leading up to is talked about for maybe 2 paragraphs, then we're left with a slow, slow, SLOW decline to the end.
I give this 2 stars for the couple of VERY brief flashes of what Monette will one day be, but be warned, you have to look hard, and don't be expecting many of them. Really, don't be expecting anything at all.
August 11, 2013
I am lucky enough to have a signed copy from the author. I purchased it in 1993 at Lambda Rising (R.I.P.) in Washington, D.C., where the author was signing books. The back cover text is actually what made me choose that one to buy and have signed; it was a fun read 20 years ago -- but it was a little different this time. I still am envious of his seemingly effortless writing style: the plot moved just as apace as it did on the first reading and it is still clever and engaging.
Being 20 years older now, some of the more philosophical statements made by the characters are far more obvious and meaningful now; or, perhaps I just had forgotten them. As great a STORY as it was, still is, the characters are so well crafted that.....well.....I actually would not want to know them, even the attorney who has a VERY minor role. I mean this as a compliment to the author. They are pretty dreadful people.
Here are 2 of my "Top 15 Wow Statements":
The beauty in nature seems willful to me.
A moral act was an act, pure and simple....[H]e seemed to feel that talking too much could rob the act of its moral clarity.
I have my own 15 and I am sure, gay or straight or bi, you will find some of your own. Take this to the beach, or camping, or to a chair on a rainy day. I recommend it.
Being 20 years older now, some of the more philosophical statements made by the characters are far more obvious and meaningful now; or, perhaps I just had forgotten them. As great a STORY as it was, still is, the characters are so well crafted that.....well.....I actually would not want to know them, even the attorney who has a VERY minor role. I mean this as a compliment to the author. They are pretty dreadful people.
Here are 2 of my "Top 15 Wow Statements":
The beauty in nature seems willful to me.
A moral act was an act, pure and simple....[H]e seemed to feel that talking too much could rob the act of its moral clarity.
I have my own 15 and I am sure, gay or straight or bi, you will find some of your own. Take this to the beach, or camping, or to a chair on a rainy day. I recommend it.
August 18, 2013
Here's to a novel without any hang-ups! Recently read Paul Monette's TAKING CARE OF MRS. CARROLL for the first time -- a wonderful, unique, summery gay novel from 1978.
I bought it in 1987 when I was 20 years old, and it sat on my shelf unread until now! Readers seem all over the map on this one, but I absolutely loved it. I do think it helped that I waited until I was 46 to read it (I probably wouldn't have been able to appreciate its subtlety when I was 20). Nothing beats the power of Monette's AIDS memoir BORROWED TIME, but for anyone wishing to be transported back to a carefree sexy summer in the late '70s, I highly recommend taking a dip into TAKING CARE OF MRS. CARROLL! Exquisite and masterful!
I bought it in 1987 when I was 20 years old, and it sat on my shelf unread until now! Readers seem all over the map on this one, but I absolutely loved it. I do think it helped that I waited until I was 46 to read it (I probably wouldn't have been able to appreciate its subtlety when I was 20). Nothing beats the power of Monette's AIDS memoir BORROWED TIME, but for anyone wishing to be transported back to a carefree sexy summer in the late '70s, I highly recommend taking a dip into TAKING CARE OF MRS. CARROLL! Exquisite and masterful!
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March 7, 2015I liked the idea for this book much more than the execution. The first person narration was implausible given the narrator was only present for about 40 percent of the plot. He's telling us remembered conversations with the actual dialog. It seems like a bad dream. It was indulgent and unrealistic with everyone dropping everything in their lives to get this scheme going. Then when it all boils down, there's no real drama. The scheme seemed utterly pointless. All said, an anticlimactic letdown with lots of pointless purple prose.
December 21, 2018
Paul Monette comes into his own post his HIV diagnosis, but if you take early work for what it is, an indulgent summer romp, it’s hard not to love it. This is one of my favourite early summer reads, the backstory is more preposterous than Augusten Burrough’s Sellivision, and quite possibly more fun. There’s an air of tenderness and solid writing behind the vacuity. Grab a frozen seventies cocktail with an umbrella and enjoy.
February 15, 2012
After reading Paul Monette's outstanding memoir, "Becoming A Man", I set about collecting all his titles, expecting the same level of brilliance. While most of them were extraordinary, I struggled through this novel about an elderly lady cared for by a gay houseboy. It seemed pretentious, nothing happened, and at the end, I couldn't work out why I'd bothered to read it.
September 14, 2007
anyone who wants to know what a good writer Monette was before he hit us all with borrowed time. This is a good novel and a real thriller. Good Charecters. Good setting. Realistic.
August 21, 2009
Early Paul.Immediately engaging.Read without high expectations,this is a great "summer" book, light and fun. Definitely can see as a film.
August 24, 2010
Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll (Stonewall Inn Editions) by Paul Monette (1988)
January 17, 2013
Melodramatic and flamboyant in many places, but the novel contains a memorable line: "He came looking into the sun." Compared with today's hack lit, this is golden.
December 13, 2014
Early novel, 1978. A light, easy read. Felt like a kid again. Yet Monette’s skills as a writer far outweigh the subject of this novel. Promise of better things to come, which he, of course, delivers.
August 3, 2025
Another one I read long ago. I remember this as a fun read, expanding on a gay couple's interest in a former movie star-singer like Marlene Dietrich.
December 22, 2023
A bit disappointing. The sex scenes are dropped in, some at inopportune places. Monette's non-fiction is superior to his fiction.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews