The Hour Between

From New York Times bestselling author Sebastian Stuart comes a funny, moving cross between Prep and Breakfast at Tiffany’s

The Hour Between: A Novel
Sebastian Stuart

When Arthur McDougal is kicked out of Manhattan’s toniest boys’ school, his parents ship him off to the only place that will take him in – the Christian Science inflected Spooner School. There, in the woods of Connecticut, Arthur meets Katrina Felt, the charming, troubled daughter of a Hollywood movie star. As Arthur struggles with his sexuality and Katrina’s beauty and talent land her in a Broadway musical, the two forge a tender friendship. But while Arthur’s confidence grows, Katrina is pulled down by the heartbreaking secrets and sorrows of her past. By year’s end, their lives will be changed forever, and their friendship will be over. Set in the late 1960s, The Hour Between is a compelling portrait of a time and place, replete with drugs, sex, Andy Warhol, a cast of truly memorable secondary characters, and some of the sharpest and funniest dialogue in recent memory.

Sebastian Stuart has written novels, plays, and screenplays. His last novel was ghostwritten (with acknowledgment): Charm! by Kendall Hart, a character on the soap opera All My Children. Charm! spent five weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. A native New Yorker, Stuart now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with novelist Stephen McCauley.

Advance Praise

"A cross between A Separate Peace and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Hour Between is charming, hilarious, effervescent, and dead serious. I read it in one sitting and adored it.”—Anita Shreve, author of Testimony

“I fell in love with The Hour Between on page one, and by novel's end had appointed myself president of Sebastian Stuart's fan club. This story is all heart—at the same time it's layered with wit, sorrow, and pitch-perfect satire. Arthur MacDougal, I think, is inside all of us, and rivals Holden Caulfield as one of the dearest characters who ever prepped.”—Elinor Lipman, author of The Family Man

“Sebastian Stuart’s characters are poised on the cliff’s-edge cusp of adulthood, at a time when America, too, teetered on the verge of seismic change. The book sparkles with Summer of Love details, but its concerns — friendship, sex, self-discovery — are timeless. A witty, wistful, and ultimately wise novel.”—Michael Lowenthal, author of Charity Girl

"I loved this book! Filled with personality, compassion, and fabulous atmosphere, it's a compelling tale of friendship between cracked but lovable people.”—Michael Musto, Village Voice columnist and author of La Dolce Musto

Book Marks

by Richard Labonte
August 24, 2009

When nascent queer Arthur McDougal skips classes too often for his parents and the posh Manhattan private school that bores him, it’s off to a faintly religious rural Connecticut academy – with loose admission standards – for him. That’s the late ‘60s setting for Stuart’s intelligently nuanced take on the standard queer coming out trope, which – despite the characters’ youth – is aimed at not-so-young adults. Young Arthur gravitates to the school’s more louche crowd, most notably emotionally troubled Katrina Felt, daughter of a Hollywood movie star, who knows her new friend is a gay boy before he does, and Sapphire, the era’s quintessential, lusty hetero-hippy chick – with hunky townie Lenny added to the mix to fire up Arthur’s hormones. Stuart’s depiction of their inevitable end-of-adolescence sexual escapades, drug dalliances and cocky rebellion against school authority propels the narrative. But the real power of this stylish solo debut – Stuart has co-written one novel, ghostwritten another – lies in how its characters evolve from boys and girls to men and women, with all the strengths and flaws that process involves.

Interview with Sebastian Stuart

Q. The Hour Between begins with the narrator, Arthur MacDougal, arriving at a boarding school in Connecticut after being expelled from Collegiate, Manhattan’s fanciest boys’ school. Were you expelled from Collegiate?

A. No. I was “asked to leave” Collegiate. I was going through a rebellious phase -- unfortunately, it lasted about 40 years -- and I was politely told I didn’t fit in. Collegiate represented everything I thought was dull and constricting. I was a wild kid, I craved adventure and bohemia, even danger. In retrospect, I realize I didn’t know my ass from my elbow. Arthur is a lot less impulsive than I was – not to mention smarter, funnier and better looking.

Q. What was it like growing up gay in Manhattan in the Sixties?

A. I certainly never thought I was the only gay person in the world. We lived on Central Park West, which at that time was one of the most famous cruising areas in the country. Our apartment was on the third floor and my bedroom faced the park, so every night I looked across the street and saw hundreds of men on the prowl! I caught on pretty quickly. I got my first blow job at Radio City Music Hall. During a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie.

Q. The boarding school Arthur attends is so eccentric and vivid, it becomes a character in The Hour Between. Is it based on a school you attended?

A. Right after Collegiate, I went to Charles Evans Hughes, a public high school on West 18th Street. It was built for 2500 students and had 4100, about 95 percent black. Some of the girls had these cool names like LeRae and Jaybird. There was this incredibly sexy, macho kid who paraded around the lunchroom with vamping queens on his arm. I loved it there. My parents felt differently. For my senior year they convinced me to go to the school in Connecticut that inspired The Hour Between. It was housed in an old cabin motel, and run by a half-mad Christian Scientist. As in the novel, most of the students were misfits of one sort of another. It was a last stop for most of us, a final chance to get a diploma.

Q. And was the school as wild as the one depicted in your book?

A. It was pretty crazy. But the sixties were a strange time, very open and free, at least on the surface. All the drugs and sex seemed pretty innocent. It was fun at the time, but these days I tend to think that kids, like dogs, do best with limits. A lot of the friends I made at the school burned out in one way or another. There was a drug bust. After that, the place fell apart. I googled it -- the campus is now a townhouse development.

Q. Katrina Felt, the narrator’s best friend in the novel, is the daughter of a movie star. Was she inspired by someone in particular?

A. My mom was the Entertainment editor of Life Magazine for many years and my dad was in the movie business, so I had friends from show-business families. Katrina, like all the characters, is a composite, a mix of about a half dozen girls I’ve known and loved -- talented, funny, kind, gutsy chicks who seem to have everything going for them but are always one step away from a complete breakdown.

Q. How would you describe the theme of the novel?

A. I actually never thought about theme when I was writing the book. Don’t forget, I was a really bad student. Mostly I wanted to tell a good story and, hopefully, entertain the reader. But I think the book is about friendship and how certain people you meet change you forever, especially when you’re young. Everything is so heightened and intense for teenagers. I wanted to capture something of the sadness and beauty of those long-ago friendships. That’s the heart of the book for me.