The Married Man.The Married Man * Edmund White Edmund Valentine White III (born January 13, 1940) is an American novelist, short-story writer and critic. He is a member of the faculty of Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing. * Knopf * $25 Edmund White is such a good writer and is so important when it comes to gay literature that it seems rather too churlish churl·ish adj. 1. Of, like, or befitting a churl; boorish or vulgar. 2. Having a bad disposition; surly: "as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear" Shakespeare. to point out his minor flaws--the occasional poetic image that comes out a little forced or--more crucially--the lack of a truly gripping narrative flow. You don't read Ed White because you want a good story. You read him to enter his world, where you will get the best description of the gay male psyche Psyche (sī`kē), in Greek mythology, personification of the human soul. She was so lovely that Eros (Cupid), the god of love, fell in love with her. of our time. So it's a pleasure to report that his latest novel, The Married Man, gives you not just White's world but a great story too. It's clean and simple and pared-down and grabs you on page 1. It's arguably ar·gu·a·ble adj. 1. Open to argument: an arguable question, still unresolved. 2. That can be argued plausibly; defensible in argument: three arguable points of law. his best novel yet. Our hero is, as usual, a White stand-in. This time he's an American furniture scholar named Austin, who is living in Paris. Austin is turning 50 (this is a real middle-aged-man kind of book) when he meets a handsome young Frenchman at the gym. Julien is married, but the two begin a friendship. And as their friendship turns into romance, what starts as an amusing comedy of manners comedy of manners Witty, ironic form of drama that satirizes the manners and fashions of a particular social class or set. Comedies of manners were usually written by sophisticated authors for members of their own social class, and they typically are concerned with social turns into something much more profound. There is a great deal of traveling in The Married Man, but its heart clearly belongs in Paris. Austin lives at that edge of society where the arts meet the rich, and his descriptions of dinner parties and salons and chic, worldly Frenchwomen are gorgeous and enthralling en·thrall tr.v. en·thralled, en·thrall·ing, en·thralls 1. To hold spellbound; captivate: The magic show enthralled the audience. 2. To enslave. , particularly if you live, as I do, in a small Florida town. But though The Married Man is a pleasure, it is a painful one. It climaxes with a miserable and chaotic AIDS death. By the time this happens, though, we see that it is really Austin who is the married man of the title, and that his journey there is what makes this book such a triumph. |
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