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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two Fannys, November 12, 2003
Edmund White has published a trilogy of novels in a mode he has termed "autofiction" and another novel heavily based upon his experiences with one of his lovers who died of AIDS. He is currently working on his autobiography and later this year a book called Original Youth: The Real Story of Edmund White's Youth by Keith Fleming will be published. Stephen Barber has also published a biography of White. This profuse amount of material focusing on White's life uses it to examine how gay culture has evolved through decades of gradual liberation. It is a tribute to the complex way a gay identity does not only encompass one life, but many. White is also a skilful artist that is able to experiment in his narratives with different genres. Persistently, his focus is on particular lives and through them he excavates the ideologies of the time that impacted upon these people's lives. His new novel FANNY: A FICTION is on its surface a great departure from his earlier work, but when examined closely utilizes his greatest skills as a writer to tremendous success. It is a fictional biography of the cerebral Scottish pioneer Francis Wright who moved to America in the early 19th centuy to found a commune with the hope of dissolving slavery. It is narrated from the perspective of Francis Trollope who was a friend to Wright and a middle class women seeking to reverse the fortunes of her family as they sank into bankruptcy. She did so by publishing a non-fiction work titled Domestic Manners of the Americans which trashed the culture of the "New World". Given Wright's ecstatic love of America, this created a rift in the tempestuous friendship of the two which could never be healed. Trollope is writing this biography close to her own death, years after the death of Francis Wright. Still, the anger and resentment burns between these two revolutionary women. FANNY: A FICTION feels like some amazing drag act with White dressed as Mrs. Trollope. It is an incredibly entertaining read with pages overflowing with tantalizing gossip and fascinating observations. It's also much more sophisticated than just that because it's composed with such a tight structure and uses an elegant style with luscious detail to convey the effect of the early 1800s. What is does best is to examine how the details of a person's life work within the context of when they lived. While this novel includes almost none of the gay content White is famous for, it does point out the aching divisions that can exist within a minority group seeking equality. The abolitionist movement was long and complex with many disagreements about how the end of slavery should be achieved. From the vantage point of history it is easy to forget how groups that struggle for equality are inevitably made of individuals whose objectives may greatly differ. It can even inspire hatred between those who should be allies. Now that the movement for gay liberation has progressed this far with many of it's pioneers buried, it may be useful to think back upon some of the divisions within it and lay some ghosts to rest. White's new novel is a strong example of how this re-examination of history is not only necessary, but urgent.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tart and smart historical fiction, October 10, 2003
She was the first woman in America to address a mixed audience of men and women, the first woman to oppose slavery, the first leader of the first labor union. and the most radical journalist in the land. But who today remembers Frances Wright? Not surprising that she is forgotten, writes Frances Trollope in her "biography" of the flame-haired Scottish feminist. "She was too challenging, too uncomfortable to be remembered." And who today remembers Fanny Trollope, either? The author of bestselling non-fiction beloved for her piercing eye and skewering wit is now probably known only as the mother of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope. Edmund White explores the lives of two Englishwomen who had tremendous impact on the young United States, and in this clever, quirky novel, reminds us of the idealistic roots of our nation and the mythic lure of the American dream. By the time Fanny Trollope met Fanny Wright she was already in her fifties, living in a dank cottage with smoking fireplaces, too many children and a sick husband who had lost the family's money. She welcomes the visiting Fanny Wright who lights up the dismal homeplace with the power of her utopian idealism. Fanny T. is enchanted, and like so many others decides that America is the place where she can launch her oldest son in a career and take part in a noble experiment. What happens on this journey is the reason why, twenty-five years later, Fanny Trollope sits down to write this very ungenerous "biography" of the other Fanny. Trollope became famous for the book she wrote upon her return that lambasted the United States, a book that, if it is anything like what White describes here, must be a real hoot. Her views are acute and funny (a trip to the French town of Brie: "they make a smelly, runny cheese, a slutty mess that makes one long for chaste cheddar"). But like many people able to smartly sum up others, she is completely oblivious to what is going on with those directly around her. Shabby, with many of her teeth stuck to her gums with chunks of wax, incredibly astute and totally clueless, Fanny Trollope is an unlikely heroine. She is impossible not to like, but what is her fixation with Fanny Wright? This is a witty, tart, and ultimately moving look at a friendship gone awry, disappointment with utopian ideals, and the humanity of heroes. The last book I read by Edmund White was his bio of Jean Genet, so I would certainly have to agree with the critics that "Fanny" is a departure for him. He seems high on the oxygen of this new endeavor and writes with a lovely freedom and wit. Both the Fannys are a pleasure.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fanny Wright, "a blazing, ten log fire sans firescreen.", March 15, 2004
In this ambiguously entitled novel, Fanny Trollope, writer and mother of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, looks back almost thirty years to the late 1820s and her friendship with the notorious Fanny Wright, a utopian visionary who was the first woman to speak publicly as an abolitionist, the first leader of the first labor party, and a radical journalist. In this unfinished (imaginary) biography of the now almost-forgotten Fanny Wright, Fanny Trollope uses flashbacks to explain Wright's development as a firebrand, her association with the intellectual leaders of the day, and the friendship between the two women. Wright spent much time traveling the "paradise" of the United States, while the financially struggling Fanny Trollope remained in London and Paris, where she met Stendahl, Prosper Merimee, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, William Cullen Bryant, and eventually the revered Marquis de Lafayette. Fanny Wright and Lafayette had toured the United States together, and biographer Trollope records for posterity their travels and their meetings--with Thomas Jefferson about slavery, with Charles Bonaparte about the "atheistic, utopian, communistic society [of] Robert Owen," and with representatives of the Haitian government about a possible homeland for freed slaves. When Wright recruits Fanny Trollope to help her promote a 2000-acre colony called Nashoba, near Memphis, the relationship between Wright and Trollope (who brings three of her children with her) comes to life. Wright intends "to liberate the Negro" and to show that "white men and women can live together without God, money, marriage, or even occupation" in an idyllic community, but Fanny Trollope is shocked by the reality of the Nashoba "utopia" on her arrival. She notes "the general slovenliness of the people" and the poverty all along the Mississippi, and comments that she has to lift her skirts to avoid tobacco juice in public places throughout the US. She is horrified that in Robert Owen's New Harmony, small children see their parents only once or twice a year and that many newcomers are freeloaders with no motivation to work. As the two women and children travel throughout the country, the reader observes their increasingly fragile relationship. Trollope sees life whole, while Wright sees life in ideal terms, failing to recognize people as individuals while setting goals for humanity in general. Trollope is vividly drawn--resourceful, practical, and instinctively warm--while Wright, the subject of the biography, remains, unfortunately, aloof. Filled with the intellectual, social, and philosophical debates of mid-nineteenth century Europe and the United States, this novel is a fascinating study of two thoughtful, intelligent women who tried to make a difference. Mary Whipple
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