Bloomsbury Home
- Home
- FICTION
- General & Literary Fiction
- Our Young Man
Our Young Man
For information on how we process your data, read our Privacy Policy
Thank you. We will email you when this book is available to order
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
Description
'Has everyone always been in love with you? Of course they have, who am I kidding? What did they say about Helen of Troy? That her face launched a thousand ships? That's you, you're that beautiful. A thousand ships'
New York City in the eighties, and at its decadent heart is Guy. The darling of Fire Island's gay community and one of New York's top male models, Guy is gliding his way to riches that are a world away from his modest provincial upbringing back home in France. Like some modern-day Dorian Gray he seems untouched by time: the decades pass, fashions change, yet his beauty remains as transcendent and captivating as ever.
Such looks cannot help but bring him adoration. From sweet yet pathetic Fred to the wealthy and masochistic Baron, from the acerbic and cynical Pierre-Georges to Andre, fabricating Dalí fakes and hurtling towards prison and the abyss, all are in some way fixated on him. In return for the devotion and expensive gifts they lavish on him, he plays with unswerving loyalty whatever role they project onto him: unattainable idol, passionate lover, malleable client. But just as the years are catching up on his smooth skin and perfect body, so his way of life is closing in on him and destroying the men he loves.
Edmund White has in Our Young Man created some of the richest representations of gay male identity, from the disco era to the age of AIDs. What links them all is the allure and enchantment they find in beauty. Revelling in its magic, Our Young Man nonetheless slips beneath the seductive surface to examine its dangerous depths, exploring its power to fascinate, enslave and deceive. Mesmerising, blackly comic, and delicately crafted, this is an exquisite novel from a contemporary master.
Product details
Published | 02 Jun 2016 |
---|---|
Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 304 |
ISBN | 9781408858950 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Paperbacks |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
-
White's prose is as fresh as a series of slaps to the face, filled with reckless energy . . . [Our Young Man] plays with [Oscar] Wilde's conceit in wily, unexpected ways as it speeds you along with its winningly hectic prose.
New York Times Book Review
-
White wastes no time delving into the dark, uniquely funny side of the fashion world . . . [A] sad, heartfelt, and comic coming-of-age story.
Interview
-
White has proven himself again and again to be one of the finest storytellers of his generation . . . an author who entices his readers with plots that come honey-drizzled in language to which the rest of us can only aspire. White's latest, Our Young Man, displays an author at his peak and fully in control . . . Sleek, witty, a bit raunchy, and fully enticing and entertaining.
New York Journal of Books
-
We meet Guy at the dawn of the AIDS crisis, but the novel does the remarkable work of telling Guy's story with playfulness and enough air that although it's a substantial work of storytelling, it floats.
Gawker
-
Artful . . . An amused tale of our endless capacity for idiocy in the face of stunning beauty . . . All human life is here . . . Trauma, misunderstanding and self-regard: out of these materials White creates not a tragedy but a little human comedy.
Times Literary Supplement