The Farewell Symphony

Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly written book about a man's place in time.
Review: I'm always intrugued by White's work and his singular ability to capture not only his stories but mine and those of many other gay men. As a raconteur of the dawning and tarnishing of gaylife, he is peerless. He leaves me breathless, having to re-read the last paragraph over & over.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed feelings
Review: Kind of interesting, but at other times dull. One thing that struck me was, after I read an article in the Gay & Lesbian Review that described who several of the characters in this novel were (most probably, anyway) in real life, I began to wonder about several references in the book to a "Norwegian Steward".

White's narrative overlaps the time of the purported Patient Zero, who was really a flight attendant from Canada. Not that I believe wholeheartedly in the Patient Zero myth, but you have to wonder if White's life overlapped that of the flight attendant who was called Patient Zero.

Quote: "... humor and sex. I put him in my old studio apartment, which I'd been subletting to someone else (the Norwegian steward) all these years." This steward came and went and used this rented apartment when he was in town.

And "... having sex with a sleepy-eyed Native American I'd met through Kevin. He and I would make love to a blond steward from Norway - and sometimes with a hairless translator from the French who affected a crewcut and policeman's shiny shoes."

Well, you have to wonder. It's not unlikely that someone who lived White's varied and (usually) interesting life could have crossed paths with the person who is called Patient Zero. Even if I don't believe that Patient Zero, if he exists, is necessarily to "blame" for the spread of HIV.


Rating:
Summary: The Farewell Symphony
Review: This is the final volume of the trilogy that includes A Boy's Own Story and The Beautiful Room Is Empty.The book is much longer, covers a longer period and is more rambling than the other two. Some of the prose is intense to the point of eliciting disgust. This can be a turn off but you must remember that White is writing from much pain and from a perspective much closer to the events he is describing. There is a good deal of self-pity, but after all the AIDs epidemic hit the author very hard. I suppose this is a roman-a-clef and it can be fun trying to figure out who the characters represent.Don't read this book before you read the other two.

Rating:
Summary: A lucky pick...
Review: While shopping with an ex-lover of mine I found the Dutch print of this book. Bought it... read it... enjoyed it... told all my friends about it...

I have never been a person who liked to read books with an autobiographical point of view; but I am glad I have dared to look beyond my prejudices and go for it.

Nice words, beautifully written, Edmund White is a real craftsman. (Based solely on this novel, because he lost some magic when I read A Boys story).

A very helpfull and insightfull book. How did gay men live in the 50's up till the 80's... Really beautiful!

I spread the word about the book among almost all of my friends and even the heterosexual people really liked it. I think it's not only a gay-tale, but it's a tale about loving people, wheter they are male, female... whatever, it doesn't matter, because the one thing you can read between all the lines is that the writer must have really loved the people he wrote about.

Within a few weeks he'll be coming to the Netherlands for a presentation, most definitely I am one of the people being there and hanging on to every word he tells.

Rating:
Summary: One Violinist Remains...
Review: White chose the title to this novel from Haydn's The Farewell Symphony, in which, as the musical piece nears conclusion, the musicians leave the stage, one by one, until there is a sole violinist remaining, who finishes the work that so many others began.

In White's novel, we are taken on a tour of the protagonist's (White himself) 30's, 40's, and 50's as he climbs from unknown author to celebrated chronicler of gay life. Along the way, White bares his soul through his no-holds-barred sexual confessions, as we see him interract with friends, lovers, and back-alley liaisons.

Beginning post-Stonewall, and culminating in the AIDS crisis we witness White in many scenarios: best friend, object of desire, live-in lover, and even surrogate parent. White envelops each role with his particularly magical brand of prose, sentiment, and bravado, that is sometimes shocking, sometimes sad, but always entertaining.

As the novel carries on, and reaches the now 20 year old beginning of the AIDS epidemic, we see the significance and poignancy of the title, as the disease ravages the ranks of White's friends, and leaves him the one violinist remaining to chronicle their lives, as they intertwined with his own.

From backrooms to bedrooms, from parking lots to Paris, with stops in New York, Venice, and Morrocco along the way, White delivers another triumph in chronicling his life, and what began as A Boy's Own Story becomes the life of a man.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed masterpiece
Review: White's The Unfinished Symphony masterfully completes the trilogy begun with A Boy's Own Story. White's novels speak for a generation of gay men who witnessed the burgeoning of gay liberation and despaired at the devestation of AIDS on the community. It must be read in sequence with A Boy's Own Story and The Beautiful Room is Empty to fully feel the impact of the narrative.

The Unfinished Symphony sees a change in style from the other two novels. With clearer prose and less imagery than the previous two it at times loses some of the beauty of its predeccesors. Having said that this novel is more raw and grittier, more physical and forceful and as a result invokes a whole different range of sensory images than the first instalments.

In certain sections of the novel, the descriptive narrative tends to border on the mundane and dull but when White taps into the emotions of family and death the novel soars and speaks to you both as a human being and as a gay man. The recounting of the relationship with his sister and the illness of his mother is written from the heart and speaks a universal language. The emotional desolation wrought by the deaths of many friends to AIDS leaves the reader drained but feeling extremely human. The emotive passages as the novel nears completion make up for any over descriptive and dull passages earlier on.

I have referred to this book as a flawed masterpiece. Flawed, in my opinion, as a result of the decreased use of the imagery and senses used in the prior books. A masterpiece due to its rawness, its honesty and its ability to hurt, to make us ache and to make us feel human.

Rating:
Summary: Radiant And Poignant
Review: Wow being a gay male must be rough, so I can't go there. I found Edmund's so called "ramblings" as described by many reviewers to be beautifully written and real. Yes, the book was a bit hard to read and get through, but I found it poignant yet distressing. Most of his friends start dying, and his surrogate teenage children go back to Chicago. I found the chapter about Gabe and Ana rather interesting since it was retold again in The Boy With The Thorn In His Side (Gabe and Ana are Keith and Laura), in his version he describes all the love he feels for them as a mentor/parent. Not only is Edmund in the 70's, a gay cruiser, struggling writer, drug user, but he also has to struggle financially to parent two rambunctious teenagers that he rescues from horrid circumstances. Edmund writes from the heart, and is painfully honest as he writes about the many losses he goes through in this wonderful book.