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Publisher:
Vintage Books |
Release
Date: September 11, 2001 |
ISBN:
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Awards:
Ferro-Grumley Award from the Publishing Triangle |
Format
Reviewed: Paperback |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Fiction – Literary – Contemporary |
Reviewer:
Kristin Johnson |
Reviewer
Notes: Reviewer Kristin Johnson is the author of Butterfly
Wings: A Love Story, Christmas and Cookies Are For
Giving. |
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The
Married Man
By Edmund
White
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 Île St. Louis, or irritating PC maniac
students of American universities. His largest commitment in life
is to his former lover Peter, dying of AIDS and similar to Ralph
Touchett in Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady---idle and childish,
a great crime in the functional, harried American society.
Chubby,
fussy but somehow likable loser Austin seeks the love of his life,
and finds it in a chance encounter at the gym with the married French
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.
As Julien
slowly dies, Austin’s struggle with the AIDS disease is complicated
by follies of “extramarital” desire---for it is Julien
and Austin’s relationship that the book title refers to---conflicts
over Austin’s loyalty to Peter, bizarre but wickedly funny
supporting characters, and the hazards of international romance.
Yet at the core, Austin’s day-to-day valiant efforts and his
convoluted feelings of loyalty, love and resentment will be familiar
to everyone who has been a caregiver for a loved one, particularly
in an intimate relationship.
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.
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