White continues his legacy as a pioneer of queer literature with this mesmerizingly erotic tragicomedy.” —Buzzfeed
“The work of Edmund White stands as an unignorable achievement in the past half century of American literature. It is astonishing to see him, in his ninth decade, after more than a dozen novels, writing with such daring and abandon, with the true artist's bracing, vivifying disregard for the stifling canons of good taste. He is one of our living treasures, an inspiration, and a wonder.” —Garth Greenwell, author of CLEANNESS and WHAT BELONGS TO YOU
“Love may be universal, but no one writes about love quite like Edmund White. The veteran author returns with an outrageous, tender novel that complicates contemporary ideas of what traditional, 'appropriate' desires and relationships look like . . . this novel is as mischievous as it is thought-provoking. It is Edmund White at his very best.” —BookPage, Starred Review
“Studded with endless witticisms and brilliant social comedy, this book is likely the most clever and creative pornographic novel ever written by an octogenarian . . . Everything you love about White, explicit sex, French champagne, and insouciant murder included.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Hot, sexual, desirous, and disastrously doomed . . . there is a cinematic plot, a narrative arc, and a scandalous conclusion driving this showstopper, but White's uniquely freaky unrestrained creativity is the main reason to buy a front row seat.” —Bay Area Reporter
★ 01/09/2023
In White’s audacious latest (after A Previous Life), wealthy Manhattanite Aldwych West pursues the younger August Dupond, principal dancer for the New York City Ballet. The 80-year-old’s aching desire for the 20-year-old enfant terrible leads to a live-in relationship that upends each of their lives. August prefers Gatorade to champagne, brings home other lovers, and engages in hardcore BDSM with his partners. Aldwych, meanwhile, hatches a plan to win August’s affections that involves launching a new ballet company, which would allow August to fulfill his creative potential. Philanthropic investment banker Bryce gets involved with the project, and Bryce’s dominatrix wife, Ernestine, arranges for an “afternoon of pleasure and pain” with herself, August, and a sex worker. As the sexual paths of these “perfidious lovers” continue to cross, Aldwych stumbles through his increasingly quixotic endeavor, and White brings it all together in a shocking and baroque conclusion. As ever, White is a master of social comedy and wry observations (on the source of Aldwych’s wealth: “His family had invented the microwave, or maybe something older, like the kitchen stove”). Explicit descriptions of August’s sex life, meanwhile, not only titillate but add poignancy to the portrayal of Aldwych’s elusive desire. Readers will delight in this immersion into a lurid world of passion. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (May)
06/02/2023
In White's latest, a wild, sex-filled, multigenerational balletic taunt, August is a leading dancer with the New York City ballet. Aldwych is a wealthy benefactor of the ballet, very much an admirer of August, and very, very much his elder. At the outset, the age difference doesn't seem to bother August. Indeed, he appears not to give a second thought to becoming Aldwych's roommate when the offer is extended. Free room and board, sign August up! Of course, Aldwych wishes for romance but doesn't force it, instead allowing August to take up with other men and women. In a final effort to secure August's affection, Aldwych goes so far as to drain away all his wealth by forming a startup ballet company in which, of course, August would be the star. When August makes other plans, Aldwych quickly descends into madness. The ending of the story is abrupt and unsettling, not entirely satisfying and yet, somehow, sort of perfect. VERDICT All told, this is a quirky journey from White, recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, that will undoubtedly deliver to devotees as well as those new to the prolific author.—Joel D. Shoemaker
2023-03-14
A gay older gentleman’s passion for a handsome ballet dancer assumes mythic proportions, with mythic consequences.
“His mother used to say there were only four good subjects for conversation in a disparate group: very complicated Indian food, a baby, a puppy, or the weather,” recalls Aldwych West early in this narrative of his doomed and desperate passion for 20-year-old August Dupond. There are times in White’s latest when readers might find themselves wishing for a vignette concerning one of these anodyne topics. Studded with endless witticisms and brilliant social comedy, this book is likely the most clever and creative pornographic novel ever written by an octogenarian. No, it’s not all sex—there’s also ballet. August and his female friend Zaza are principal dancers in the New York City Ballet, and both the artistic and business aspects play a role here. Aldwych at first has the impression that French Canadian August is a bit of a dolt, but after the two men become chaste roommates in Aldwych’s spacious apartment, August opens up and speaks eloquently about dancing. Aldwych watches in pain as August takes up with Pablo, then with Ernestine, an evil, shallow dominatrix who is married to Aldwych’s nephew. When Aldwych senses that August is losing interest, he devises a plan to start his own ballet company with his idol at its center—kicking off the most energetic phase of life he’s ever known, complete with a staff and meetings and the possibility that he should stop drinking. (He doesn’t.) Unfortunately, Ernestine’s ruinous schemes are well underway. White has perhaps taken Nijinsky as his model here, whose late career also inspires his main character: “Like a dragonfly who has only fifty days to live, he must do something remarkable with each one, something scandalous, something new.”
Everything you love about White, explicit sex, French champagne, and insouciant murder included.
