The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is a 1988 novel by American author Michael Chabon. The story is a coming-of-age tale set during the early 1980s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

It was Chabon's first novel, which he began writing when he was a twenty-one-year-old undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh. He continued to work on it during his studies (1985–1987) in the Creative Writing Program of the Department of English at the University of California, Irvine, where he submitted it as his thesis for the Master of Fine Arts degree. One of his advisors, the novelist MacDonald Harris, sent it to his literary agent. It was published in 1988 and became a bestseller.

A film adaptation—starring Jon Foster, Sienna Miller, Peter Sarsgaard, and Nick Nolte—was released in 2009.

Plot summary

Art Bechstein is the son of a mob money launderer. Bechstein's father wants him to succeed in a legitimate career, but when he graduates from his Pittsburgh college, he has only a vague hope for a summer of adventure before he commits to the rest of his life. Bechstein almost immediately meets a charming young gay man, Arthur Lecomte, and his friend, a highly literate biker named Cleveland Arning, who become his partners in many summer adventures. Bechstein begins a relationship with an insecure young woman named Phlox Lombardi. As his attraction to Arthur grows over time, it destabilizes both relationships and reveals his possible bisexuality. Bechstein is also troubled when Cleveland begins moving deeper into the city's organized crime families, drawing him closer to his father's dangerous mafia connections. All of Bechstein's relationships with his family, friends, and lovers become more and more entangled, causing a series of falling outs and unforeseen consequences.

Settings

The novel takes place during summer. It begins in April, just after Bechstein has finished his four-year undergraduate education at the University of Pittsburgh. Specific settings include Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham College, Hillman Library, Lake Erie, Presbyterian University Hospital, Schenley Park, Schenley Bridge, and the Pittsburgh neighborhoods of Oakland, Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Downtown, Mount Washington, East Liberty, Fox Chapel, and Highland Park. A boiler plant, informally labeled The Cloud Factory, located in Junction Hollow between Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, plays a special role in the novel.

Literary significance and criticism

Because of the book's straightforward, even playful treatment of gay love and bisexuality, Chabon was early-on identified as a gay writer. Chabon has frequently been asked if this identification concerned him; his usual reply is that he worried gay readers might feel he was being presented to them under false pretenses as one of their own.

A recently-reissued edition of the book featured an author's note in the back; entitled "P.S.", it details some of the inspiration, problems and process by which the novel was written. For example, when writing portions of the novel, he often had to balance his early-model computer precariously on an old tool table to type properly. Many fans of his work had questioned Chabon's sexuality, due to the presence of gay characters in his novels. On page twelve of the expanded notes section he reveals that, although he is currently married to a woman, he has had same-sex relations in the past.^[1]

References