There are unafraid depictions of the first stirrings of male-male adolescent lust, a lust never to be recaptured, the way a kid’s first Christmas morning or the first springtimes of our lives can never be recaptured no matter how hard we try. For example, with an economy of brush strokes, White paints an indelible portrait of Ruggero’s grandfather I will remember this fellow for years to come. White is possessed of sprezzatura, that magic act of inhabiting so fully his characters, their milieus, the reader is easily, instantly drawn to them. This opens the door to multiple characters, each a composite drawn from those people White has known, or now knows. But then the hallmarks of his style emerged: the easy juggling of plotline intricacies, the multi-character interactions, the trademark allusions to world art, classical composers, opera – White could handily depose Ken Jennings on Jeopardy so vast is his knowledge of culture, politics, history.Īt the center of his story: a married couple, Ruggero and Constance, two people very much in love who nevertheless want and need to explore other desires. A Previous Life is unlike anything Edmund White has written, In fact, for the first thirty pages or so, I was sure the work couldn’t be White’s.
0 kommentar(er)
