City Boy
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Review
`This splendid book is at once fascinating social history and sublimely detailed gossip. A wise and humane treatise on the delicate differences between love and friendship ... he writes about them with an irreproachable kindness and affection'
--John Irving
`City Boy, plain-spoken and knowing, is a survivor's tale, a missive from one of those antlered boys of that era to the others who are gone: this is who we were, this is how it was, this was our city'
--Stacey D'Erasmo, New York Times Books Review
`City Boy seems effortless in its tone; it is seamless, wise, funny and charming. The New York described in the book is history now, but history that has made an essential difference to the way we live now. Edmund White evokes the main players in the culture of the city, all of whom he knew, with clarity and with brilliantly-chosen detail and sense of the moment'
--Colm Toibin
'Edmund White paints a fascinating picture of gay and literary life in 60s and 70s Manhattan in his latest memoir, City Boy ... White has become not only a stylist of eminence and influence but perhaps our most imaginative examiner of life -- The Observer, January 2010
'White ... is a fabulously funny and adroit memoirists.' -- Evening Standard
'... he writes fascinatingly, movingly and amusingly. His erudition is paramount, his references exquisite ... White's mind sees everything, absorbs everything, learns everything, retains everything.' -- Spectator, January 2010 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--John Irving
`City Boy, plain-spoken and knowing, is a survivor's tale, a missive from one of those antlered boys of that era to the others who are gone: this is who we were, this is how it was, this was our city'
--Stacey D'Erasmo, New York Times Books Review
`City Boy seems effortless in its tone; it is seamless, wise, funny and charming. The New York described in the book is history now, but history that has made an essential difference to the way we live now. Edmund White evokes the main players in the culture of the city, all of whom he knew, with clarity and with brilliantly-chosen detail and sense of the moment'
--Colm Toibin
'Edmund White paints a fascinating picture of gay and literary life in 60s and 70s Manhattan in his latest memoir, City Boy ... White has become not only a stylist of eminence and influence but perhaps our most imaginative examiner of life -- The Observer, January 2010
'White ... is a fabulously funny and adroit memoirists.' -- Evening Standard
'... he writes fascinatingly, movingly and amusingly. His erudition is paramount, his references exquisite ... White's mind sees everything, absorbs everything, learns everything, retains everything.' -- Spectator, January 2010 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'An open-throttled tour of New York City during the bad old days of the 1960s and early '70s... it's all here in exacting and eye-popping detail' New York Times 'Energetic evocation of Manhatten in the Sixties and Seventies...an absorbing insight into the life alongside a constellation of greats of the American literary and gay scenes' Harper's Bazaar 'This splendid book is at once fascinating social history and sublimely detailed gossip' John Irving 'A wonderful deepening and broadening of Edmund White's great life-work ... Everything he says about love and friendship is so penetrating and true ... a marvellous book' Alan Hollinghurst A graceful memoir of a decidedly ungraceful time in the life of New York City... A welcome portrait of a time and place long past, and much yearned for. Kirkus Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Although I'm a great fan of Edmund White, I hesitated before getting "City Boy". After all, White has already written in detail about his life in New York in the novels "The Beautiful Room is Empty" and "The Farewell Symphony", and in the memoire "My Lives" (which has the benefit of photographs). Can he possibly find anything new to say? Well, yes, in some ways he can.
So what's new? Mainly the evocation of New York in the 1960s and 1970s, squalid, bankrupt and violent, but with a dynamic arts scene; and nostalgia for the vie de boheme (!) lived there in those years. "It seemed those exciting days of youth and independence and exaltation would never end". But the book also reminds us of a time when there was no gay pride, and fear, isolation and self-hatred blighted lives. White is eloquent in describing his heroic-sounding struggles to establish himself as a writer, attempting to balance his desire for publication against the search for an authentic voice.
His reminiscences of famous cultural figures like Elizabeth Bishop, Nabokov, Balanchine, Mapplethorpe, Foucault, are intriguing, but European readers may find the time spent on lesser-known personalities rather tedious.
Added to this there is some fine writing on friendship, which all in all makes this a book worth reading, but surely this must be the end of the line for White's autobiographical material?
So what's new? Mainly the evocation of New York in the 1960s and 1970s, squalid, bankrupt and violent, but with a dynamic arts scene; and nostalgia for the vie de boheme (!) lived there in those years. "It seemed those exciting days of youth and independence and exaltation would never end". But the book also reminds us of a time when there was no gay pride, and fear, isolation and self-hatred blighted lives. White is eloquent in describing his heroic-sounding struggles to establish himself as a writer, attempting to balance his desire for publication against the search for an authentic voice.
His reminiscences of famous cultural figures like Elizabeth Bishop, Nabokov, Balanchine, Mapplethorpe, Foucault, are intriguing, but European readers may find the time spent on lesser-known personalities rather tedious.
Added to this there is some fine writing on friendship, which all in all makes this a book worth reading, but surely this must be the end of the line for White's autobiographical material?
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Edmund White has a unique way of describing the unusual in a dead pan way and of investing the ordinary with magic. Thus, his relationship with one of his boyfriends: when they meet in the evening the hand down the back of White's pants is not affection, but investigation to see if White is wet from having sex on the way home. This is related as other might debate the relative merits of travelling by train versus bus. White finds it hard to understand jealousy. His own search for multiple partners is a reflection of a clear distinction between tricks and longer term sex buddies on the one hand, and friendships on the other. The latter are the real relationships, to which sex, as opposed to sexuality, is the least importatn aspect.
The magic is in the way White brings New York of the 60s and 70s to life, a life which would have been remote to many New Yorkers themselves but which he conjures up vividly, wittily - but rarely bitchily - and occasionally powerfully, as he tests positive and many of his closest friends die of AIDS.
Many of the characters conjured up here will be known to British readers - Susan Sontag and Mabblethorpe among them - but this is primarily an American cast, leavened by scenes from life in Paris and Venice (the latter especially entertaining). White's writing is both laconic and intense and this is a book to read more than once.
The magic is in the way White brings New York of the 60s and 70s to life, a life which would have been remote to many New Yorkers themselves but which he conjures up vividly, wittily - but rarely bitchily - and occasionally powerfully, as he tests positive and many of his closest friends die of AIDS.
Many of the characters conjured up here will be known to British readers - Susan Sontag and Mabblethorpe among them - but this is primarily an American cast, leavened by scenes from life in Paris and Venice (the latter especially entertaining). White's writing is both laconic and intense and this is a book to read more than once.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have all of Edmund Whites books, and if like me you've read them all there is a lot of going over old ground here, characters and events from most of his greatest works..but that doesnt really take away from the overall enjoyment in reading, it actually probably enhances and builds on the earlier works through letting you get to know the real characters better. This isnt just a "gay" book, for anyone interested in New York in the 1960's/1970's its a genuinely atmospheric look at a city on the edge, the narrative is as usual well written, and its really a good read for anyone interested in human relationships in general. I would have liked some more pictures (so i didnt have to sit with a huge pile of his other books to see who he was talking about), but it was an evening well spent reading it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
city boy
This book is an excellent read with a well balanced, incisive, and retrospective look at the 60's & 70's. Read more
Published 3 months ago by K. O'rourke
writing and sexuality
City Boy is another autobiographical work by Edmund White, one of my favourite authors. As the previous book My Lives, it is a memoir, this time focused on New York experiences of... Read more
Published 9 months ago by bagoas
Name Drops and Poses
O.K. it may be a little unfair to retitle this "Name Drops and Poses" , after all what do you expect from someones life story? Read more
Published 14 months ago by A. J. Russell-pattison
Interesting
This is an interesting slice of NYC life in the 60's. It captures the pace and feel of the times. Some of the celebrities discussed may not be known to everyone, but it's still a... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mr. J. H. Owen
A Commentary on a Period Becomes a Novel
For openers to readers who opt to add another book by Edmund White to their library comes this quotation from John Irving: 'Edmund White, a master of the erotic confession, is our... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Grady Harp
It does exactly what it says on the label (book cover)
Why buy a autobiographical book written by a gay author I've never heard of about his life and times in New York in the 60s and 70s, when I am straight and lived through those... Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2010 by A. M. Bretherton
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