()utol‘asyyarnpol‘relationships and rarnil‘ieations lii\irl\ ing Rl-"s entourage: Ralph. an inetteetual hanger-on. his aeid secretary .on ee. protegee Kate and authoritatiye biographer Nicola. there emerges a story ol tension and despair. In the melaneholy and galling surroundings ol Rl5‘s \‘y'iltshire home. a sort oi 'l'ardis \\ here the inmates ll\ e .is mueh on memories and past eontlit'ts as in the present. l’eterstri‘.es to 11nd hoth hiinsell and the man hehind the
Longbetore the lastpostsounded on the Jazz Age 3 generaton of American writers sheathedtheirquills and headed tor Europe. Most converged on Paris where. according to Edmund White, the dollarwas strong. the living easyand alcohol unprohibited. Hemingway and Fitzgerald and other penurious penpushers kept pretty much to themselves. mostly shunning the French andtheirlanguage. Though there are lewer of them Edmund White believesthatthe eighties‘ expats are more sympathetique towardstheir adopted home.
The author of A Boy‘s Own Story and thejust-published Caracole moved to his ‘1avourite city' over two years ago afteriirstsampling Rome. and he despatches his observations of life in France in a regular ‘Lettertrom Paris' torstateside Vogue.
This particularCincinnati kid came late tojournalism atteran illustrious academic career. He was born in 1940 and much of his early lite filtered into A Boy’s Own Story. an autobiographically- inclined novel oia young gay‘s growing up. in the United States—‘still a repressive society—it was a moderate success but hereabouts140.000 copies vanished from bookshop shelves, a contributory lactor no doubt to the author's sojourn in a Maytairhotel.
White believes that the novel appealed not only to homosexuals but alsoto ‘sensitive adolescents who feel they are outsiders‘. Nabokov. Isherwood, Susan Sontag and Gore Vidal all had a good word tor it and inevitablythere were comparisons with Catcherinthe Rye. When I mentioned this White kept his own counsel but he waxed lyrical when we moved on to the new book, Caracole. Louis Malle. the French tilm director. is interested in it particularly because “it captures very well the atmosphere of waiting. lite is suspended, everything compromised.‘ Again White has a homosexual hero, Gabriel, (‘the boy in my book is always
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going to be gay‘) whom he sets down in an imaginary citythoughthere are resonances oiNazi-occupied Paris or Venice underlhe Austrians. “In part. it is'. says White. "about the young as victimsbutalsoabouthowtheir success in life can mean the decline of others.
It's also. i suppose. an intergenerational love atlair.‘
Itsoundedtoocomplicatedto paraphrase so I asked how he felt about criticism from gays who regarde
States 01 DesirezTravels in Gay America. duetorUKpublication later thisyear. as middle—class and anti—lesbian. ‘I write aboutwhatl know. It‘s the class I know, the one in America which ofteredthe necessary conditionstorcoming out. You needed independent means. It's true even more so now with the AIDS scare. It has been suggestedthatityou‘re antibody positive you should betattooed. Shades otAuschwitx.‘
Meanwhile Edmund White sitsitout in Paris comfortable ina literary climate ‘wherethe conciergetakes you seriously iishe knows you'rea writer.‘ Isn‘tthathowitisinthe US?He humphed, ‘There. the landlady would thinkyou were a crook.‘ (Alan Taylor)
FIRST OF COME To
FIRST
FOR BOOKS WITH
US
A DIFFERENCE :
\\}\'lilfl{SlL )\’l{'S lit it tliSlCl .l .liltf
DELIA SMITH
will he talking about and signing l
THE FOOD AID COOKERY BOOK (Copies: £3.95)
at
Waterstone’s
Monday 7th April. lose 7.3(Plllllllpm ('I‘ielx'ets £2.50 each; includes rel‘reshments)
ALL PROCEEDS TO FOOD AID
*Delia Smith will also he signing eopies in the shop on Tuesday 8th April. 1-2pm.
Come along or ‘phone to reserve your eopy.
We are open until lllpm Weekdays and until 7pm Saturday and Sunday
FOOD AID
A U
114 — 116 George Street, Edinburgh 031 225 3436
i
J The List 21 Mar — 3 Apr 43