Synopses & Reviews
No one has been more frank, lucid, rueful and entertaining about growing up gay in Middle America than Edmund White. Best known for his autobiographical novels, starting with A Boy's Own Story, White here takes fiction out of his story and delivers the facts of his life in all their shocking and absorbing verity.
From an adolescence in the 1950s, an era that tried to cure his homosexuality but found him unsalvageable, he emerged into a 1960s society that redesignated his orientation as acceptable (nearly). He describes a life touched by psychotherapy in every decade, starting with his flamboyant and demanding therapist mother, who considered him her own personal test case -- and personal escort to cocktail lounges after her divorce. His father thought that even wearing a wristwatch was effeminate, though custodial visits to Dad in Cincinnati inadvertently initiated White into the culture of hustlers and johns that changed his life.
In My Lives, White shares his enthusiasms and his passions -- for Paris, for London, for Jean Genet -- and introduces us to his lovers and predilections, past and present. Now that I'm sixty-five, writes White, I think this is a good moment to write a memoir. . . . Sixty-five is the right time for casting a backward glance, while one is still fully engaged in one's life.
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“One of the most brilliant and distinguished authors at work in America today.” Patrick McGrath
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“My Lives is a brave book because White lets it all hang out.” Rocky Mountain News
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“The great strength of My Lives is its ruthless honesty.” San Francisco Chronicle
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“Delicious reading...the story of Whites life is fully engrossing.” Boston Sunday Globe
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“White the humane observer and eloquent stylist can make you stand up and cheer.” The Oregonian (Portland)
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“Edmund White gave up drinking, smoking, and Paris, too, despite which hes writing better than ever.” Harper's Magazine
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“It is Whites astounding use of language and structure that makes My Lives a scintillating read.” Associated Press
Synopsis
No one has been more frank, lucid, and entertaining about growing up gay in Middle America than Edmund White. Best known for his autobiographical novels, starting with A Boy's Own Story, White here takes fiction out of his story and delivers the facts of his life in all their shocking and absorbing verity. In My Lives, White shares his enthusiasms and his passions, and he introduces us to his lovers and predilections.
About the Author
Edmund White's novels include Fanny: A Fiction, A Boy's Own Story, The Farewell Symphony, and A Married Man. He is also the author of a biography of Jean Genet, a study of Marcel Proust, The Flâneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, and, most recently, his memoir, My Lives. Having lived in Paris for many years, he is now a New Yorker and teaches at Princeton University.