Dark Reflections


Dark Reflections is a novel by Samuel R. Delany, published in 2007 by Carroll & Graf, an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group. In 2008 it received a Stonewall Book Award and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Fiction.

Plot

Dark Reflections tells the story of Arnold Hawley, a gay African-American poet who lives most of his life in New York City. The novel is divided into three sections, each illustrating a period in Arnold's life. Where most novels would start in youth and move towards old age, Dark Reflections begins, instead, with Arnold between the ages of 52 and 68, then moves backwards to his middle 30s, and finally recounts his early college days.

Themes

Dark Reflections centers on themes of loneliness, sexual repression, fear, and the difficult and often unrewarding life of the artist. As in many other Delany works, a writer is a character in the novel, in this case the protagonist.