Customer Reviews

The Married Man: A Novel

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Edmund White's gifts as an author are indisputable. Whether he sweeps us along in schlastic AND entertaining bigoraphies(Genet and Proust), explores the tenderness of gay relationships ( The Beautiful Room is Empty, A Boy's Own Story, The Farewell Symphony, etc) or just simply writes a novel like his current "The Married Man", he continues to affirm his gifts of powerful imagery, unique observation of the mundane, and just plain story telling. But I find this current book more than the sum of his gifts; I think we have a powerful parable here that addresses the vulnerability and indomitabilty of the human spirit in times of profound stress. Others have accomplished this in writing about the Great Plague of the Middle Ages, the Holocoaust of the last centtury, the countless wars that have produced some of our best poets ( Wilfrid Owen, Walt Whitman, WH Auden, Siegfried Sassoon, etc....). White draws upon the blight of the AIDS epidemic and its smoldering aftermath to place his characters at the stake and find redemption. This is a splendid love story (stories) that keeps us wondering about the bizarre reasons we choose our "soulmates", our lovers, until the final chapters.

A Married Man is more about how we elect to let the world know us, of how we hide who we are - at times even from ourselves. The inevitable disasters that accompany living with a mask are not condemned here, but whispered as an argument for how we survive despite our attempts to be self sufficient. If there is an overlying message in White's opus (and there, in truth, are many in this wise novel!) it is that compassion is our antidote to the inevitablity of death no matter what course our life takes.

Whether we have been care givers or care receivers during this time of AIDS, this book will touch even the flintiest reader.

"The Married Man" is Edmund White's finest. It's moving, lyrical (as his novels always are), passionate--and even has a plot (not to say I didn't enjoy his books that seemed to lack a plot). Never one to avoid or sugar-coat life's realities, in this novel White explores the challenges of a sero-discordant couple, the problems encountered when a former lover and a current one can't stand each other, and the issues that face couples of divergent ages, incomes, national origins, and native tongues. Anyone who's ever been in love knows that a romance is built on details, but White focuses on the details that matter: a nickname, a glance, how friends view the beloved, how anger or indifference or frustration affect the relationship. White's characters are never one-dimensional, but finely nuanced, alive and seared into memory.

In my opinion, no one writes place descriptions as vividly as White: One can almost imagine oneself at the café in Paris alongside his characters, listening to the haughty waiters spewing French, smelling the ubiquitous cigarette smoke, tasting the heavenly flavors of paté, a fine Sauternes, a delicate pastry. Winter in Providence never seemed so bleak or Key West so relentlessly sunny. And few writers can pack so much eroticism into one sentence (page 131 in case you want to check).

I was struck by the similarities between White's protagonist couple Austin and Julien and his own life with his former lover Hubert Sorin (as detailed in their co-authored book "Our Paris"). Both Julien and Hubert were French, similar in age, former architects, and each gave up his wife, his job, and his country to move to the States with his leading man. Austin's and Julien's trip to Morocco paralleled White's and Sorin's final trip; even their beloved basset hounds played a starring role (Ajax in "The Married Man"; Fred in real life). These similarities made the book even more moving as I realized how heartwrenching it must have been for White to relive so many memories.

This novel is by turns provocative, funny, maddening and heartbreaking. White delves deeper into human emotion and motivation than any writer I know of. What he reveals is not always pleasant or expected, but when you put down one of his novels--especially this one--you know you've been touched to the core.

I was just as transfixed by "The Married Man" as I was by "The Farewell Symphony," Edmumd White's previous novel. Although the two books have much in common, the major difference is that while "Symphony" is a decades-long account of White's life, "The Married Man" covers a briefer period, focusing closely upon his relationship with the French lover he met while living in Paris (who was married when White met him, hence the title).

When the main character (let's call him "White") meets the French man, Julien, who will become his lover, we're amused at how White can be so attracted to this quirky architect in his shabby lime-green coat. White likes to dwell on telling details, and his ability to describe these details so perfectly is what makes him a writer of such genius. He depicts Julien with affectionate satire, describing the architect's shabby clothing with the same relish that he describes what he loves about him -- from Julien's handsome looks, his child-like joy in traveling and painting and walking their pet dog Ajax, to the earnestness with which he spins tall tales about his "aristocratic" family. The novel becomes much darker as Julein dies of AIDS. Once you've read the account of Julien's last months, months he spends immersed in his painting, the cover of this novel will make sense to you -- you will be very touched by the depiction of the architect and his dog. The painting on the cover is meaningful because it's just like the paintings Julien does in the novel.

In addition to being a funny and sad account of his relationship with Julien, "The Married Man" is generally a fine account of White's years in Paris -- the struggles of fitting in to a foreign culture with limited language skills (making friends, finding an apartment, learning his way around the city). I've always loved the way White is capable of making his life seem so exotic while yet depicting himself as so fallible and human -- he describes his own insecurities with startling clarity. White talks about the nervous care with which he goes about assembling a small group of Parisian friends for dinner parties at his apartment; we see his bumbling attempt to enjoy and succeed in his visiting professor position in Providence, Rhode Island, which ends in embarrasment and minor failure; and finally, we see White confused and frustrated as he travels through Morocco with Julien, while Julien is dying of AIDS, while White desperately tries to help Julien keep his dignity as his body fails; it's painful to read of White's attempts to express his love for Julien during their last days together, when Julien's mind is failing.

White's spellbinding ability to capture the subtle nuances of characters and situations is in full flower in this novel, just as it was in "Symphony." In just a sentence or two, White can sketch a character so deftly that you feel as though you know them well. White is a master at capturing the quirks, eccentricities, gestures, loves, and irritating tics of the people around him -- and this ability to describe characters so accurately is what brings his novels to life. You will find these gem-like passages on every page of this new novel.

In a recently published biography of Edmund White, White is quoted as saying, "All of my plots are only scrapbooks of my life." True to that model, "The Married Man" makes a fine addition to White's series of fictional scrapbooks. I highly recommend it.

I'm writing this out of indignation at the spiteful customer review headlined Sick People are Boring Too. Well, what's really boring is people who insist on making mean, highly personal judgments about great literature. Should Ed White's job really be to dumb down his stories so that they don't awaken the envy of readers like the anonymous reader from New York (who just might be a frustated novelist)? Mr. White is one of our finest, most intelligent observers of the social scene and I consider myself lucky each time he publishes more of his wonderful pages.

What would we do without Edmund White? All of us who came of age in the seventies and survived. He is our chronicler. This is one of his best books so far. Although the story is quite singular and even ordinary, it resonates deeply with gay lives -- and their contradictions -- everywhere. I disagree with the other reviewers who feel the book is pretentious, and gets lost in its bicultural characters. It is a delicate, sad, wise, and hopeful book.

I was dazzled by this book from the very first page. The characters are beautifully drawn in all their complexities and contradictions. As always, White's prose is luminous, the sort of writing you read aloud to friends. And the novel is deeply moving to boot. I've been enormously frustrated with some newspaper reviews I've read of "Married Man" -- some critics have dismissed it as "another gay novel." The number of gay populated novels is minuscule compared to the thousands of hetero novels out ecah year. Do we call them just "another straight novel"? This is a beautiful book, and Edmund White's best work.

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.

Edmund White has written a very beautiful book on a very dark subject. I agree with most of the 5 star reviews that praised this book and the 2 star reviews that were disappointed with parts of this book. Yes, I am very conflicted about this book. I felt very cheated with the way this book ended. I actually kept looking over the blank pages at the end of the book to make sure an extra chapter or an epilogue wasn't accidently left out. I felt like I didn't get an ending at all. I know, I know, life isn't like that. It goes on and on no matter what tragedies happen in your life. And people do things with no explanations but I wanted an explanation, dang it! But maybe that's me. I read fiction because I want everything nice and neat. A reason for every action. I also wanted a happy ending as impossible as it might be in real life under these settings. I wanted that silver lining. That, I did not get. But I am not at all sorry that I read this book. Far from it, I recommend it. Just know that the ending is very unexpected. I expected it way before or else a reason for going on to that point.

Mr White is a very detailed story-teller full of rich descriptions and a very clear easy-to-picture images. But I never felt like I knew who the main character Austin was. I know what foods he served when he entertained but not how he felt about always being on the giving end. Austin's lover Julian I knew even less. How did Austin really feel about Julian? What did Julian really think about Austin? Sure, I knew all about the motions they went thru but the dialogue between them was lacking at best.

Both Austin and Julian seemed almost shallow only because I knew what clothes they wore more than what they really felt. This book read more like a non-fiction (detailed descriptions)than a fiction (detailed emotions and feelings). Heck, I knew more about how Austin felt about a past lover of his than how he really felt about his current lover who he was with all throughout this book.

When I finished reading the Married Man, I knew I enjoyed reading the book but I didn't have that satisfied full feeling. I felt cheated somehow. I wanted more revealing emotions. I want to write Mr White and ask him a million questions about Julian's motivation for his deception or his lack of explanations. Again, I know things in real life are not spelled out just as it was in this book and we should draw the obvious conclusions based on the few details and hints that were revealed to us. Julian would probably call me a spoiled lazy helpless American who has to be spoon-fed everything.

For those of you who would rather draw your own conclusions, connect your own dots and would consider it an insult to have to be spoon-fed the obvious will really devour The Married Man and the realistic story-telling of this exotic book.

On a pet-peeve side note: I really liked the hardback cover of the man and his dog.(It also relates to, and fits the overall mood of the story) I wish the cover art had not been changed on the paperback edition.

Austin Smith has picked the wrong century to be a furniture scholar and intellectual. He's pushing fifty, lacking direction, and his biggest claim to fame is hosting parties for the Parisian youth in his apartment on the Īle St. Louis, or irritating PC maniac students of American universities. His largest commitment in life is to his former lover Peter, dying of AIDS. Until he meets younger married architect Julien, whose lack of known-last-name typifies his character. He is an enigma for much of the book, steadfast only in his devotion to his secrets and to Austin, to whom he says during an intimate pillow-talk session, "I chose you, Petit, and after that there were no other choices to make." The master of artifice who dislikes American big-toothed girls, Julien shows depth by telling Austin, when he discovers Austin's HIV status, "I'm going to stay with you. I'll take care of you...You're the way a man your age should look. I don't want a starved little queen." However, in an elaborate twist of irony, Julien develops AIDS and needs Austin's constant devotion.

Acclaimed award-winning writer Edmund White pens a deeply moving love story of two individuals with illusions about their own lives that create a real, solid and enduring love.

Mr White has created a complex, if slightly mannered, world. Though the characters can be guarded and jaded, there is true love between them. What speaks volumes is the dedication of Austin and Julien to each other, their friends, family and past lovers. As in real life, people don't always treat each other nicely, but the caring shines through the hurt. In some places I wished for much less detail. In others I felt I missed whole chapters. In the end Mr White tells the story of a beautiful, complicated romance. Finally, I'd like to say that I try to avoid AIDS memoirs - as common now as coming out stories - but this novel rises above the feel-good "group of gay friends" genre.