Edmund White in his novella CHAOS covers much of the material he wrote about in his recent MY LIVES: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY so it's probably safe to assume that some of this story is autobiographical. Jack is 66, teaches at a university, is more in demand for blurbs he writes for other writers' books -- although since his computer crashed, he often has to ask for their last names-- occasionally gets one of his old novels translated, and spends a lot of his time worrying about his dwindling income and his eternal quest for sex. He of course is attracted to men 40 years his junior and prefers Craig's List rather than Silverdaddies as a source for finding them. He is willing to pay for sex; he mets Seth, a tall, blond Mormon with aspirations of being a writer and has no problem dishing out over a hundred dollars for each session with him even after they become friends. Then there is a young Italian, etc., etc., etc. Jack lives for "a cultural life, good food and a supply of available men." He, however, is also a good friend, perhaps the saving grace of this man with a truly chaotic life, particularly to his friend Marie-Helene who is diagnosed with cancer.
Regardless of whether or not you sympathize with White's characters, you have to marvel at his language. His prose can be as dense as anything Henry James wrote and as transparent as the writing of Truman Capote. His description of memory loss, particularly forgetting names, is both scary and sounds too familiar: "He made lists of things to do but forgot to consult them. Nothing yet was completely lost, but he had to write down his appointments right away or they would escape him an hour after he'd worked them out in detail and he'd have to make a humiliating second call ('Did we say Tuesday at three?' 'No, a week from Thursday at four.'). You also have to grudgingly admire White's chutzpah for letting Marie-Helene describe Alan Hollinghurst as the greatest critic "if he weren't already the greatest novelist." Aren't White and Hollinghurst good friends?
In addition to CHAOS, there are three short stories, two about older men and younger "boys," and a third one about a lonely adolescent who listens to classical music in the 1950's.
Mr. White supposedly is working on a novel about the writer Stephen Crane. We can only hope that gets published soon.
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