Brian Antoni: South Beach
A Good Book To Read
A Fantastic Author to Interview

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

I'm going to admit, I was shocked during the first few chapters of the book. It's very bold and leaves nothing to the imagination. However, as I got into the story I saw the absolute necessity of "telling it like it is." In order for readers to fully understand and appreciate life in South Beach, FL did you have to write with this startling honesty?

I am sorry I shocked you but I really was searching for the truth of what was South Beach. It was a very shocking, bizarre, sexual and surreal place. It was a place on the edge. I had endless fights with my agent at ICM who finally dropped me because I would not tame it down. I almost gave in and said "uncle" and sanitized it for the masses but I am very stubborn. I ended up selling it myself without an agent. My publisher then wanted me to remove things and I refused. They said, "No one would believe this scene ever happened." I replied, "I saw this happen twice last night." I was vindicated when two of the scenes my editor wanted me to cut were praised in a review in the New York Times Book Review. As my Mom always said. "It is always better to tell the truth." By the way, she was shocked also.

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

I know you've lived in South Beach for twenty years now, how much of this novel is based on personal experience? Are you any of the characters or are any of the main characters real people?

Well, my entire novel is based on personal experience. I basically lived this book. I carried a pad in my pocket at all times and took notes when something interesting happened. All of the characters are based on real people but they are mixtures of people. You can always make a real character better or more interesting. That is why I like fiction rather than nonfiction. The Italian designer character is based on Versace. I also mix in many real characters that were players in the South Beach world like Madonna and Sly Stallone and many others. This beach was crawling with fame acting badly and I couldn't leave them out and tell the complete story. I was really afraid I would be sued but so far so good. I thought one of my characters might do bodily harm to me but he just shook my hand. He was flattered. Go figure?

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

The idea that South Beach is "God's Waiting Room" is sad but seems true. It's a place where older people can retire in nice weather and where gay people are accepted without question. During the 90's was AIDS really such an epidemic in South Beach? Was it because people truly practiced unsafe sex, as if it were "uncool" to use protection?

Most people who came to the beach in the 90's got AIDS before anyone heard of "Safer Sex." They sold their insurance policies and came to party until they died. At that time, AIDS was a death sentence so they saw no reason to practice safer sex. I realized I would have to write this novel when I saw the beautiful families that were forming. You had old people taking care of sick young people and you had young people taking care of sick old people. They would even dress the same, because the young people would buy the old people's clothes in thrift shops. I saw such acts of kindness, I was brought to tears. Many of the elderly people were Holocaust survivors so they were able to really identify with the AIDS epidemic. When an ambulance pulled up to a building at that period, you never knew whether they were going to take away a beautiful young man or and elderly person. There are no old people left in South Beach. They have all died. The mean age of South Beach has gone from 75 years old to 35 years old since I have been living here.

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

A very important theme in this story is family. Gabriel, Marina, Pandora, Jesus, Skip, and Mrs. Levy show us that our family are the people we choose. Does it seem that many residents of South Beach don't have blood families or are running from them, making it easier to allow for a non-traditional family?

Well, people keep telling me what a "sweet" book I have written. I tried to show how decadence and sweetness are not mutually exclusive. The sweetness comes from the humanity I tried to show in my characters. I wanted to make readers identify with characters that are very different from themselves. Many of the people of South Beach were abandoned by their families because they were old or because they were gay or because they just different. This is why they formed non-traditional families. Many of the famous people were also estranged from their families. They were victims to their own celebrity.

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Is this a true account of the history of South Beach from the early 90s to present day?

This was as true an account as I could tell. It took me fifteen years struggling to get this truth out and I am still not satisfied. South Beach went from slum to brand name, from God's Waiting room to America's Riviera. I did a search of products named after South Beach and there are over twenty thousand. I try to show how this monster known as South Beach all grew out of a funky neighborhood filled with so called misfits and forgotten people and absolutely beautiful art deco architecture along an incredible beach. South Beach is the last great new city of the twentieth century.

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

How realistic is Jesus' story?

Well, I decided to tell the Jesus story one night when I was standing in front of the Versace store and there was a huge picture of a bunch of beautiful men and women on a raft. The raft was all covered in gilded gold. That same day a bunch of refugees had washed in on a raft dead. I realized they were making a fashion style out of misery. It was insane. I always could relate to insanity.

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Gabriel seems to have grown up a "spoiled rich kid" but he certainly doesn't act like one as soon as he steps foot in the Venus De Milo Arms. How did he learn to be humble?

I grew up a spoiled rich kid and learned how to be humble. Life teaches you humility. The characters in the Venus De Milo Arms turned him humble. His love for Marina taught him humility. The love Miss Levy showed him taught him humility. Skip's struggle with a deadly disease taught him humility. Pandora's struggle with her sexual identity taught him humility. Also when Gabriel arrives at the Venus, he has lost all his money and it is really his fault. That is a humbling experience. He learns from this.

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Another underlying theme is grabbing at love when you have the chance. Mrs. Levy's story is perfect proof of how we are sometimes our own worst enemies. How can our fears and insecurities ruin our chance for happiness?

Why are we so afraid of love? That is what I am trying to figure out. Love is the greatest emotion and we run from it and we deny it and we sabotage it and we fight it. Do we feel we are not good enough for love? I wish I knew the answer. If anyone know this answer, write to Bianantoni.com and tell me and make my life easier.

Good Book to Read: South Beach by Brian Antoni

Are you working on anything else right now that you can share with us?

I am working on turning South Beach into a movie. I am also writing a novel set in New Orleans. I am fascinated by places in transition. My first novel, Paradise Overdose, told the story of the island I grew up on going from an idyllic native community to a drug running port and a tourist trap. Then there was South Beach. Hurricane Katrina has set New Orleans in flux. I am fascinated by this.