Scan barcode
halschrieve's review against another edition
3.0
Okay, so I love Edmund White, and I love that at his age he can still sit down and write a sexy, dramatic story about gay men in the 1970s and 1980s.
White says this is supposed to be a Dorian Gray type story, where the narrator is undone by his moral degeneration or something of the kind. It deals with the fear gay men have of getting old and becoming undesirable or subjects of contempt, while also covering a lot of ground in terms of painting a fun, baroque portrait of gay life in the middle of the 20th century and acting as a kind of pressed-tin, distorted oral history of different periods in gay life. The main character, Guy, spends the latter half of the book being deeply unlikable and doing things that one would hope they personally would never do. He inherits from a lover who dies of AIDS--who Guy never loved, despite a passionate scene where the lover defends Guy as his real family. He betrays his lover who is in prison. He fucks a newly-out gay 20 something and ambiguously ruins the young man's life, or at least sets him up with a host of personal emotional problems.
It's a fun book, it's a historical book, and it represents White's mature fictional prose style (though I love his more frilly early fiction and spiky nonfiction writing).
The reason I Did Not give it five stars is this: White is pretty racist. He has a fetish for playing with racial stereotypes around black and Latino men, and while his character is clearly not meant to be a good person, these stereotypes grow distracting and begin to resemble a Mapplethorpian racialized fantasy by the end of the book. The Latin grad student who was clearly intelligent and who got into money trouble in order to be with Guy becomes a tough-talking, simple-minded tattooed masculine stalker in prison. No woman character of color in the book speaks more than twice, and there are very few female characters at all. I don't really know what's up with White in this regard, but I want to submit to him the concept of rereading Tennessee Williams' Desire And The Black Masseur one time less per week and instead having twenty minutes of mindful meditation.
White says this is supposed to be a Dorian Gray type story, where the narrator is undone by his moral degeneration or something of the kind. It deals with the fear gay men have of getting old and becoming undesirable or subjects of contempt, while also covering a lot of ground in terms of painting a fun, baroque portrait of gay life in the middle of the 20th century and acting as a kind of pressed-tin, distorted oral history of different periods in gay life. The main character, Guy, spends the latter half of the book being deeply unlikable and doing things that one would hope they personally would never do. He inherits from a lover who dies of AIDS--who Guy never loved, despite a passionate scene where the lover defends Guy as his real family. He betrays his lover who is in prison. He fucks a newly-out gay 20 something and ambiguously ruins the young man's life, or at least sets him up with a host of personal emotional problems.
It's a fun book, it's a historical book, and it represents White's mature fictional prose style (though I love his more frilly early fiction and spiky nonfiction writing).
The reason I Did Not give it five stars is this: White is pretty racist. He has a fetish for playing with racial stereotypes around black and Latino men, and while his character is clearly not meant to be a good person, these stereotypes grow distracting and begin to resemble a Mapplethorpian racialized fantasy by the end of the book. The Latin grad student who was clearly intelligent and who got into money trouble in order to be with Guy becomes a tough-talking, simple-minded tattooed masculine stalker in prison. No woman character of color in the book speaks more than twice, and there are very few female characters at all. I don't really know what's up with White in this regard, but I want to submit to him the concept of rereading Tennessee Williams' Desire And The Black Masseur one time less per week and instead having twenty minutes of mindful meditation.
lawli37's review
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
femke495's review
5.0
It’s really a “modern day Dorian Grey” and it was excellent.
The main character is very unlikable but the themes in this novel make him so real. Guy has only ever had and known his beauty, so of course he will do everything to “stay young for ever” also, any other character in this book is pretty unlikable too, but again, so human and real.
And Edmund White can write! I couldn’t put it down. In only 282 pages he describes the whole life of a gay model in the midst of the aids crisis in minor detail, without getting boring.
The main character is very unlikable but the themes in this novel make him so real. Guy has only ever had and known his beauty, so of course he will do everything to “stay young for ever” also, any other character in this book is pretty unlikable too, but again, so human and real.
And Edmund White can write! I couldn’t put it down. In only 282 pages he describes the whole life of a gay model in the midst of the aids crisis in minor detail, without getting boring.
rossrevenge's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
cassiahf's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
puddingtaco's review against another edition
2.5
I was looking forward to this book and a bit disappointed it took me awhile to get into it. If you'd like to read yet another gay fiction that starts out with Fire Island in the '70s pre-AIDS, the first third of Our Young Man is for you. The story follows Guy, French model who comes to America to make it big. And he does! He's lovely. Everyone loves him. And he never ages. The story does pick up once Guy meets Andres, for whom he actually appears to have some sort of feelings. Guy's passivity is fine. He doesn't fade completely from his own story like some protagonists do while they meet the entire range of "gay characters" as they come of age. That bit could have been skipped over, actually, but it does humanize him a bit. The other two-thirds were good. Guy doesn't stop coasting through life but that's fine. Didn't blow me away but I was surprised at the ending. Pick it up if you don't have anything else pressing.
femke495's review against another edition
5.0
It’s really a “modern day Dorian Grey” and it was excellent.
The main character is very unlikable but the themes in this novel make him so real. Guy has only ever had and known his beauty, so of course he will do everything to “stay young for ever” also, any other character in this book is pretty unlikable too, but again, so human and real.
And Edmund White can write! I couldn’t put it down. In only 282 pages he describes the whole life of a gay model in the midst of the aids crisis in minor detail, without getting boring.
The main character is very unlikable but the themes in this novel make him so real. Guy has only ever had and known his beauty, so of course he will do everything to “stay young for ever” also, any other character in this book is pretty unlikable too, but again, so human and real.
And Edmund White can write! I couldn’t put it down. In only 282 pages he describes the whole life of a gay model in the midst of the aids crisis in minor detail, without getting boring.
anthroxagorus's review against another edition
5.0
I've been duped!
Edmund White, please see this and acknowledge me!!
I have a mess of feelings attached to this book. This is the first novel I've read from Edmund White, but certainly not the first book. I've been pouring through his biographical and autobiographical works this year. Obsessively. As much as I liked them, I was afraid I wouldn't like this book.
And, indeed, I was more than halfway through the book, wondering what exactly we're supposed to get out of the story. My first impression was perhaps it was a nod to Wilde, by creating a far more raunchy version of Dorian Gray, esp. in light of the uncensored release. Mayhaps. In another vein, it's obviously about gay culture in the 80s and in the time of GRID/AIDS. Some of it could act as a gay sex manual. After all, White is an expert in the matters! It's also White's time to shine and bring forth all of his love of France - the intricacies of the language, the culture, his breath of knowledge, etc.
For all those things, it is wonderful. Alas, it's much more than that! How could I ever doubt the gay master storyteller?
It was at that moment I was entirely in love with this book.
I mean, the Dorian Gray metaphor was certainly never shied away from, but then there's a bit of that wonderful unreliable narrator section (White's love for Nabokov maybe?), in which we always were routing for "our young man." And yet, the young man may well have been Kevin, as Guy names him at the very end: "You are the Perfect Young Man: honest, clean, virile." (HELLO! And the cover makes sense!!) Speaking of Kevin, what a wonderful nod to Wilde's duplicity and White's use of twins. Speaking of Dorian Gray, it seems that while Guy is Dorian, perhaps Pierre-Georges is Lord Henry? And who is Basil? Well, who had to die? Fred? Well, let's not stretch the metaphor.
So what do we really think of Guy by the end of the novel? Couldn't he have spared more money toward his mother than her pittance? She shouldn't have required government assistance!! And how was he with his lovers? He cheated on every one of them! And might've done more so if AIDS hadn't been a thing! He was more intelligent than one would assume a model to be, we're given an okay to like him, but gradually we learn about the rituals and routines he goes through in order to maintain his looks. It's Kevin that clues his in that Guy isn't as intelligent as he seems. It's through Kevin's eyes we watch Guy use cocaine to get onto a photoshoot that Pierre-Georges encourages, however clearly it affects Guy's health. The spell is broken as we watch Guy's train of thought, "hear" him babble incoherently. (Seriously, what a heartbreaking scene!)
And yet part of us was endeared with him when he rushes to the Baron's side, asking if he's okay. On reflection, we might note what an absolute idiot he was being for not comprehending the scene. And whereever he makes bad decisions, we find his reasoning valid. That is, he accepts the Baron's attentions when he gets to smooch on the hot guy, when he reasons to himself to be building income when his modeling career ends, as it should.
Now that I think about it, perhaps Guy was someone worthy of us to root for, but later we watched him get corrupted, certainly let it happen. Like how Kevin reverts to a different self when he visits home, so too do we see Guy revert. Like Guy, we've forgotten the plight of his poor family, but when he's home, we celebrate him feeling guilty, purchasing his mother a car, and think of him as a "good person." We know he sends money back home to his mother, and doubles it after the visit. Before this visit, there's little contact it seems. Guy visits with Fred in the hospital and visits Andrés in the hospital - to this, we owe respect, but we know, also, he is more motivated by guilt than love. When we think about him taking in Vince, we were told he was motivated by "keeping things interesting" rather than genuine concern or loyalty to Andrés (besides, not making a scene.)
But at the same time, I'm not even sure if I blame Guy or if it would be fair to blame him.
And maybe I'm getting some things wrong, mixing up the second half with what happened in the first half of the book. What I can say is that I feel this book deserves to be read over and over again. So catch me revising this review on the reread!
Edmund White, please see this and acknowledge me!!
I have a mess of feelings attached to this book. This is the first novel I've read from Edmund White, but certainly not the first book. I've been pouring through his biographical and autobiographical works this year. Obsessively. As much as I liked them, I was afraid I wouldn't like this book.
And, indeed, I was more than halfway through the book, wondering what exactly we're supposed to get out of the story. My first impression was perhaps it was a nod to Wilde, by creating a far more raunchy version of Dorian Gray, esp. in light of the uncensored release. Mayhaps. In another vein, it's obviously about gay culture in the 80s and in the time of GRID/AIDS. Some of it could act as a gay sex manual. After all, White is an expert in the matters! It's also White's time to shine and bring forth all of his love of France - the intricacies of the language, the culture, his breath of knowledge, etc.
For all those things, it is wonderful. Alas, it's much more than that! How could I ever doubt the gay master storyteller?
Spoiler
"[Guy] was sick of his beauty, his 'eternal' beauty. People thought he was purer, more intelligent, kinder, nobler than he was because they ascribed all these virtues to him. What if he were stripped of his looks, if he stabbed the grotesque painting in the attic? If they saw him for what he really was--empty-headed, vicieux (how did you translate that? "Riddled with vices?"), narcisse? Used to being indulged and pursued, terrified he'd outlive his fatal appeal and yet longing to be free of it?"
It was at that moment I was entirely in love with this book.
I mean, the Dorian Gray metaphor was certainly never shied away from, but then there's a bit of that wonderful unreliable narrator section (White's love for Nabokov maybe?), in which we always were routing for "our young man." And yet, the young man may well have been Kevin, as Guy names him at the very end: "You are the Perfect Young Man: honest, clean, virile." (HELLO! And the cover makes sense!!) Speaking of Kevin, what a wonderful nod to Wilde's duplicity and White's use of twins. Speaking of Dorian Gray, it seems that while Guy is Dorian, perhaps Pierre-Georges is Lord Henry? And who is Basil? Well, who had to die? Fred? Well, let's not stretch the metaphor.
So what do we really think of Guy by the end of the novel? Couldn't he have spared more money toward his mother than her pittance? She shouldn't have required government assistance!! And how was he with his lovers? He cheated on every one of them! And might've done more so if AIDS hadn't been a thing! He was more intelligent than one would assume a model to be, we're given an okay to like him, but gradually we learn about the rituals and routines he goes through in order to maintain his looks. It's Kevin that clues his in that Guy isn't as intelligent as he seems. It's through Kevin's eyes we watch Guy use cocaine to get onto a photoshoot that Pierre-Georges encourages, however clearly it affects Guy's health. The spell is broken as we watch Guy's train of thought, "hear" him babble incoherently. (Seriously, what a heartbreaking scene!)
And yet part of us was endeared with him when he rushes to the Baron's side, asking if he's okay. On reflection, we might note what an absolute idiot he was being for not comprehending the scene. And whereever he makes bad decisions, we find his reasoning valid. That is, he accepts the Baron's attentions when he gets to smooch on the hot guy, when he reasons to himself to be building income when his modeling career ends, as it should.
Now that I think about it, perhaps Guy was someone worthy of us to root for, but later we watched him get corrupted, certainly let it happen. Like how Kevin reverts to a different self when he visits home, so too do we see Guy revert. Like Guy, we've forgotten the plight of his poor family, but when he's home, we celebrate him feeling guilty, purchasing his mother a car, and think of him as a "good person." We know he sends money back home to his mother, and doubles it after the visit. Before this visit, there's little contact it seems. Guy visits with Fred in the hospital and visits Andrés in the hospital - to this, we owe respect, but we know, also, he is more motivated by guilt than love. When we think about him taking in Vince, we were told he was motivated by "keeping things interesting" rather than genuine concern or loyalty to Andrés (besides, not making a scene.)
But at the same time, I'm not even sure if I blame Guy or if it would be fair to blame him.
And maybe I'm getting some things wrong, mixing up the second half with what happened in the first half of the book. What I can say is that I feel this book deserves to be read over and over again. So catch me revising this review on the reread!
eleanor_333's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
quirkycynic's review against another edition
2.0
It's hard for me to get my head around what it is I truly think about Edmund White. I think he's an incredibly talented writer, of course, but at the same time I don't think I've ever been truly emotionally satisfied by one of his works. Even A Boy's Own Story left me out in the cold in a way that I never really got from other books of that type from his contemporaries, like Felice Picano for instance.
Part of me thinks that it has something to do with the fact that he might just be a better biographer than he is a fiction writer -- when I realised that his novels are written like biographies of fictional characters, the whole thing started to click for me. His subject here is Guy, a beautiful and intrepid French model who is snapped up from a grim industrial town in the 70s and made the toast of the jet-set New York fashion scene of the 80s before he (or the reader) knows it. Extend this to about 300 pages, and you pretty much have the book's entire plot.
Honestly, what helped in reading this book was the knowledge that it more or less plays out like a modern picaresque novel -- Guy is the naive but carefree protagonist who we follow through a bizarre and decadent society, beset on all sides by the grotesque and the carnivalesque. It also helped to think of the book as a satire, and it does have some truly funny moments (a scene involving some misguided BDSM and coprophagia might truly be one of the funniest I've read all year) but at the same time has some very grim and off-putting epsiodes too (a supporting character being given AIDs through no fault of his own gave me pause, and forced me to take a break for a while before I was ready to pick the book back up again -- what chilled me wasn't his disease, but how callously and hollowly the other characters reacted to it).
So, in all, I'm conflicted. I can't even say that I enjoyed Our Young Man in the traditional sense. Maybe that was White's intention. Maybe he's trying to write beyond simple "enjoyment". If that is indeed the case, maybe I can safely go on and look past the rest of his books.
Part of me thinks that it has something to do with the fact that he might just be a better biographer than he is a fiction writer -- when I realised that his novels are written like biographies of fictional characters, the whole thing started to click for me. His subject here is Guy, a beautiful and intrepid French model who is snapped up from a grim industrial town in the 70s and made the toast of the jet-set New York fashion scene of the 80s before he (or the reader) knows it. Extend this to about 300 pages, and you pretty much have the book's entire plot.
Honestly, what helped in reading this book was the knowledge that it more or less plays out like a modern picaresque novel -- Guy is the naive but carefree protagonist who we follow through a bizarre and decadent society, beset on all sides by the grotesque and the carnivalesque. It also helped to think of the book as a satire, and it does have some truly funny moments (a scene involving some misguided BDSM and coprophagia might truly be one of the funniest I've read all year) but at the same time has some very grim and off-putting epsiodes too (a supporting character being given AIDs through no fault of his own gave me pause, and forced me to take a break for a while before I was ready to pick the book back up again -- what chilled me wasn't his disease, but how callously and hollowly the other characters reacted to it).
So, in all, I'm conflicted. I can't even say that I enjoyed Our Young Man in the traditional sense. Maybe that was White's intention. Maybe he's trying to write beyond simple "enjoyment". If that is indeed the case, maybe I can safely go on and look past the rest of his books.