R.S. Jones
Robert S. Jones was an American novelist and editor. He was born in Santa Monica, California on March 3, 1954. He graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1976 and went on to receive a master's degree from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. After graduate school Jones taught courses in Women's Studies, Art History, and Literature part-time at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and in a college program for inmates at Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. At the height of the AIDS crisis in the U.S., Jones was the media coordinator of the New York chapter of the ACT UP AIDS Awareness Organization. Jones began work as an editor at HarperCollins (then Harper & Row) in 1985, and at the time of his death in 2001 was Editor in Chief. In addition to his work as an editor, Jones published two novels, Force of Gravity (1991) and Walking on Air (1995). Jones also wrote a number of short stories which appeared in Q and in Best American Gay Fiction 1996. He died in New York on August 13, 2001.
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Force of GravityA Novel
The cat was making friends. The previous day when Emmet returned home, he had found four other cats loitering near his building. He worried what would happen if the cats jumped him when he left the house. The cats understood his language, but what passed among their heads was impenetrable to him. He had observed their movements all summer and listened to their sighs and spits and sounds, but he was no closer to infiltrating any part of it as a sign.
Force of Gravity:A Novel -
Force of GravityA Novel
“My whole family is locked up,” Emily said matter-of-factly, as she might say that her family had attended the same university. “I don’t mean there’s millions of us. There’s just three, aside from some cousins I don’t know. My brother is the only one who tried to make a life. He got married. It worked for a few years, but then he got tired. One night he killed his wife, her mother, and their child while they took naps on the living room floor. Then he walked into the street and sat down, hugging his axe.”
Force of Gravity:A Novel -
Force of GravityA Novel
The other patients began to stampede, knocking Emmet flat against the carpet. As they scrambled over him, he shielded his head with hands. Some sidestepped his body; some planted their feet directly on his back. The procession seemed interminable, as if one of them had opened a trap door in the back of the ward, inviting every person in the city to enter and file purposefully over his body. He did not turn or look or lift his head as the shoes hammered down upon him, for fear someone would kick his face. He cowered there until the last foot made its way past his head.
Force of Gravity:A Novel
“A moving, acutely intelligent story . . . The fact that it rings like poetry as it burrows deep into madness lifts it to another stratum.” —Michael Cunningham, The Philadelphia Inquirer [on Force of Gravity]
“Force of Gravity, which begins as an artful construct, ends as a work of art. The author has discovered the sinew, the passion, the intimacy and the individuality under the estranging clouds of mental illness.” —Richer Eder, Los Angeles Times
“A beautiful, terrifying tale of a quiet descent into insanity. The moving and weirdly funny details of daily life add to the cool horror. A remarkable book.” —Iris Murdoch [on Force of Gravity]
