The Married Man

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, subtly rendered novel of the human condition
Review: This novel captures the reader's interest from the very beginning; as it progresses, it gradually and delicately grows in power and depth of emotion, until the reader finishes the book with the feeling of having been enriched and very deeply moved. The story concerns Austin Smith, a fifty year old American academic living in Paris, who begins an affair with Julien, a much younger French man, and the relationship quickly develops into an intense partnership. As the novel progesses, Austin and Julien learn that Julien has an advanced case of AIDS, and Austin's role changes to that of caretaker. Simple as the plot is, the compelling and absorbing aspects of the book are the insightful portrayal of the psychological and emotional states of the characters, the quicksilver changes in Austin's and Julien's relationship, the intriguing and deftly depicted array of acquaintances, friends, past lovers (including Julien's wife), casual encounters, and family that surround Austin and Julien, the cultural and temperamental differences between Americans and the French, and the remarkable evocation of place.

Edmund White's prose is precise, beautiful and elegant. His writing is simple and spare, but contains vivid and sensuous images as well as thoughtful, contemplative passages. In a few skillful paragraphs, he captures the essence of places as different as Paris, Morocco, Rome, Key West, Venice, Providence, and Montreal, and can make the reader feel as if her were standing in and experiencing those places alongside the book's characters. The book also contains finely portrayed and detailed insights and observations about love, friendship, cultural determination of character, loneliness, aging, loyalty, jealousy, the struggle to find meaning in one's own life, and dying -- but in a restrained and understated way. The richness and power of the book becomes evident in contemplation, rather than by leaping off the page at the reader.

It is in his portrayal of characters that White really shines. The book contains an exceptional range of different people, all of them strikingly individual. White depicts each of them, whether major or incidental, in a manner that is simultaeously dispassionate and compassionate. He is able to reveal all that is unpleasant or unlikeable about these people, while at the same time exhibiting great empathy for their (and our) shared human condition. In Austin, he has an open and thoughtful protagonist. White captures the insecurities, loneliness, fears, and uncertainties of a middle-aged gay man, while at the same time revealing the values, intelligence, self-assurance and richness that Austin has acquired as a result of his age and experience. White doesn't shy away from Austin's unpleasant side (Austin can be unforgiving and needlessly stubborn), just as he presents Julien's considerable charm as well as his querulous, snobbish, and difficult qualities (which only grow worse as Julien becomes more ill). So many of the secondary or incidental characters also resonate -- including Austin's former lover, Peter (a New England WASP with a boyish air who is also dying of AIDS), a very affecting and sad ex-convict living in his beat-up truck, a wealthy and cultured American expatriate living a pampered life in Paris, and an elderly Parisienne, a perfume heiress crossing into old age who is considered to be a "legend" by the gay men with whom she now surrounds herself.

The last ten pages of the novel are extraordinary. Not much actually happens, and the final paragraph is merely a transient moment. But underneath the surface of these simple events in those last pages lie the joys and pains, the triviality and the intensity, of human experience. You might find yourself holding your breath as you close the book.

Rating:
Summary: no wonder gay guys get a bad wrap....
Review: this is a catch 22.... does ed write about the gay lifestyle because it truly is this way, or is his description fictional as well? the promiscuity, lack of personal direction, and lack of committment tell the world that (at least) austin can't seem to stay sober with one guy. he captures the differences between cultures in the u.s.a. and in france, excellently. france practices democracy and personal freedom, the u.s.a. does not. the story is a downer, although i do not hold that against the author--it is written well, i just have a problem with how the portrayal of adult gay life in this novel feeds the judgements by the "religious right." i'd rather they be proven wrong.

Rating:
Summary: the long journey to death
Review: A heartfelt, devastating and touching story, maybe the best White ever wrote.
Austin, learned middle-aged American living in Paris is in love with the city and with Julien, a young Parisian architect who is married to a woman and going to divorce her.
The relationship between two different worlds and different cultures becomes one of deep love and commitment.
When julien finds out that he has AIDS, Austin, HIV positive himself, helps his lover through the terrible predicament, accompanying him in a long voyage all over the world. The last quest for happiness and health.
Eventually the story ends in the Sahara desert.
Tragedy, romance, and a beautiful style.
Mr. White sees Paris through the eyes of a lover. I must admit that I shed more than a tear while reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: A more honest, personal Edmund White
Review: "The Married Man" is a distinct departure from most of White's previous work. Simplier in style, more intimate in tone and sentiment, "The Married Man" is the most accessable of White's work. The reaction of White's readers to such a shift will no doubt be mixed, but I find the change a welcome evolution in an already excellent author. While White's high style and often distant persona served his extensive "trilogy" well, the subject matter of "The Married Man" demands the simple yet eloquent style embodied in this novel. Poetic, brutally honest and deeply moving -- I can only hope that Mr. White's next work will be as satisfying and complete as this one.

Rating:
Summary: Um... what are we saying here
Review: Not to lable "gay" as a genre (Holly Hugheswould kill me for saying this), but it is a perspective on life and that perspective is judged by others, and while truth can exist in stereo-types, I'm not one to want to perpetuate them, and while I'm not interested in censoring, I am against misguided representations. All that said, I was both emotionally engaged and deeply moved by the reality created with in this novel, and while I do not know the personal life of White, I'm sure it must have took a lot out of him to write, since it is so jam packed with beautiful prose about horrifying situations, I too felt the localities were portrayed with wonderful perfection. My fault with the book has nothing to do with craft, its written quite well, however the ideas he presents and the connotations he proposes concerning the life a gay man, yes only one in millions, are quite unsettling and make "gays" out to beoverprivilaged. The main character, Austin, sems to be flowing in money and all his income is discretionary, they are over indulgent throughout the book and travel as if travel were a necessity. His insights upon the difference between America and Europe are so unfounded since it deals with a gentrified version of both. He also casually depicts my generation, the people who were going to Brown during Austin's tenure, as knowit all PC freaks, and while this may be true, its because theory has become important, in the way visual art has become important, not just for aestetic reasons, but because it furthers and intellectual debate. His style seems to mimic his disdain for theory as he does not seem to situate himself in any vein of queer idiology, not that one need a "purpose" in writing, but one should be aware of what they are doing. Creation without thought is a rough draft. Austin's character is so didactic and presumptuous and is so self conscious, one would think he'd have been aware of Foucault, especially considering the time he was in in Paris. I cannot get over the ease in which he received everything he needed whenever he was in a pinch. As well I, and I hope others, are tired of literture that portrays a white male hedgemony, whether gay or straight. I both learn names and dates and read primary sources, unlike the students in his novel, and I just hate the perception writers seem to have of my generation. In fact I believe its just that they do not want to spend the time both reading literature and theory. Not that one has to be over educated to justify writing, but when the author creates an over educated environment and is openly hostile to new ideas, its seems a huge comment on writing as well as self justification. I might be a cranky young man (and forced to have read all this theory not long ago), but Gay, white, mostly upperclass people jaunting around the world because they are entitled, because the world hates them for being gay and diseased, is just outdated. It's like the movie Philedelphia, which should have come out in the eighties instead of the nineties. Basically the book was good, but written in a time when other books are more interesting and deal with the same topics, without dealing with stereotypes (and making people ex patriots, does not make them anymore dynamic) to get across the message. I was hugely disappointed, though it did make me cry and care about the characters. Also, and this is the end, if you want a well written, bourgeoise novel, with interesting witty characters, a tear jerker ending, foreign locations, dealing with a "hard issue." This is the book for you, but if you want more, like innovation or complex ideas, keep searching.

Rating:
Summary: THE WRITING IS EXQUISITE
Review: THE MARRIED MAN is not only a tribute to Edmund White's lover who died of AIDS. It is also and, perhaps more importantly, a novel of real love and loss and, interestingly enough, in these times of great tragedy and uncertainty in our country and in the world, it is a novel which teaches us that each day must be lived fully.

A simple plot: a single, lonely, gay American living in Paris meets and falls in love with another lonely, gay man. To complicate things, the lover is married, nearly half the American's age and claims to be bisexual. The men flee Paris when the American gets a teaching job in Providence, Rhode Island, and from there they run to Key West, Montreal, Venice and Morocco, in search of anything which could prolong their romance and, indeed, the married man's life.

As usual with White, the writing is exquisite. THE MARRIED MAN is right there on a par with the best of his books which are, to my mind, the AIDS memoir/novel THE FAREWELL SYMPHONY and the wonderful short stories collected in SKINNED ALIVE. THE MARRIED MAN is heartbreaking and tragic and it is also, at times, very, very funny, almost, indeed, a comedy of gay manners. It is also at its core a tremendously moving, honest, human love story about two courageous men. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and not deep enough
Review: I really wanted to like this book, I had looked forward to reading a meaningful novel of our time and genre, and I hoped that I could connect with (at best) or visualise (at a minimum) fully-fleshed characters at the heart of the book. But it was a major disappointment.

This is a shame, because Edmund White certainly has the talent - he was wonderfully lyrical descriptive abilities, he clearly understands the ambiguities of individuals, and he can provide a sense of time and place with the best of them.

But he doesn't take his talent far enough - I don't know whether it is laziness or temporary suspension of ability, or even being too close to the real people these characters are based on - regardless, the work hasn't been done to make this a solid book. Specifically, the characters remain far too shallow and ultimately mere ciphers for what should be a very exciting group of individuals who grow and change, the plotting is capricious and the emotions come across as statements, not feelings.

Mr. White, I challenge you to go deeper - you are the writer who first truly expressed the hope and angst of young sexual blossoming, and you have clearly lived a full life, yet you are not capturing enough on paper - and you have a huge potential readership ready for it. I urge you, go deeper within yourself, emerge and pull the pieces together, use your talent, and surprise us with your next book - I really would like to see it.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth it
Review: Beyond pretentious. I've not bothered to look at the publishing date, but if was late eighties, it's aged badly and not contemporary. Otherwise offensive to those of us who spend a lot of time in Paris in, patronising to the rest.

Rating:
Summary: This book spoke to me
Review: I found this book to be an incredibly insightful, descriptive and well-written work that seems to occur on many levels at once. I could put myself in the place of almost every character and truly relate to the situation they found themselves in. The difficulty of balancing important relationships from different epochs of one's life that have come together in one place is a situation that we all find ourselves in. As a gay man, I saw an unselfconscious treatment of male sex that was surprising in its forthrightness. At the same time, it was presented in such a matter-of-fact way that it almost seems to transcend the taboo of gay sex, that Hollywood finds so titallating. White seems to step outside of his American view of gay life and relationships and it is through the eyes of other cultures that we see ourselves so clearly and also so differently. Nevertheless, the story that White weaves is universal for any gay reader. The main character, Austin, experiences so many of the pressures that a middle-aged man faces (his age, weight, loneliness, the trade-offs to secure love and acceptance) that I could not help but feel my view broadened by the carefully driven plot and character development. In the end, I have concluded that the story here is so brutally honest in its treatment of friendship and sexual relations, death and decline that many people cannot help but see their own lives in it and reject it for its truth: no one wants to be the unmarried man...

Rating:
Summary: Depressing, shallow, (and that is the good news)
Review: I am sorry, but just had to finish this book. Why? because I am eternal optomist. I truly thought that at some point this book would become interesting and possibly find some type of "in-depth" story line.

Instead what I found, to "the bitter end", was one depressing page after another with the leaps and jumps in the "story" that made it almost laughable at times.

I can truly say that I have ever read such a more depressing book in my lifetime (age 58 MBA business man etc.)

And to think I spent $25.00 (USD) on this. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your money.