Friends Incarnate

Gable, though no Don Juan, is lover incarnate in age of baby-boomers. He is master of his own fate, but also a restless spirit haunted by the demons of his own psyche. His girlfriend Ethel gets married to his best friend Fabian, and thus begins the journey of his sinful passion and glorious madness. Remaining true to his love lost, he wades through the waters of a loveless marriage, then divorce, and finally into the furnace of adultery with his brother's wife. He tumbles down the rungs of depravity, clings to Ethel in his thoughts as one devotee to his patron saint. His sister commits suicide, his brother dies, and so does his friend Fabian, leaving open the gates of paradise for Gable and Ethel as Friends Incarnate. The first part of Gable's own villanelle sums up his mood of caprice and madness. "Let me sleep in peace, wake me up on judgment day."