Through the curious life of Dick Kallman—a real-life celebrity striver, poisonously charming actor, & eventual murder victim—the unforgiving worlds of postwar showbiz & down-low gay sexuality are thrown into stark relief in this “page-turning blast” (James Ellroy, author ofWidespread Panic)Dick Kallmanwas an up-and-coming actor in the fifties & sixties—until he wasn’t. A costar onBroadway, a member ofLucille Ball’shistoricDesiluworkshop, & finally a primetime TV actor,Dickhad hustled to get his big break. But just as soon as his star began to rise, his roles began to dry up and he faded from the spotlight, his name out of tabloids & newspapers until his sensational murder in1980.Through the eyes of his occasional pianist & longtime acquaintanceMatt Liannetto, a tenderhearted but wry observer often on the fringes ofBroadway’sbig moments,Kallman’slife & death come into appallingly sharp focus. The actor’s yearslong, unrequited love for a fellow performer brings out a competitive, vindictive edge in him. Whenever a new door opens,Kallmanrushes unwittingly to close it. Even as he walks over other people, he can never get out of his own way.AsMattpores over the life of this handsome could-have-been,Up With the Sunre-creates the brassy, sometimes brutal world that shapedKallman, capturing his collisions with not onlyLucille Ball, but an array of stars fromSophie TuckertoJudy Garland&Johnny Carson. Part crime story, part showbiz history, & part love story, this is a crackling novel about personal demons & dangerously suppressed passions that spans 30 years of gay life—the whole tumultuous era from theKinsey ReportthroughStonewall& , finally,AIDS.°°°THOMAS MALLONis the author of eleven novels, includingHenry & Clara,Dewey Defeats Truman,Fellow Travelers,Watergate, &Landfall. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review.