Edmund White: Our Young Man

This is a re-working/re-visiting of the Dorian Gray story, in this version the ultimate A-list gay model. White cleverly manages to convey the essential blankness of the central character onto whom his acquaintances project their feelings and what they think Dorian/Guy is like. He does not seem to have any true friends as there is invariably an exploitative element in all his relationships – either one sided or mutual. He is something of a cipher – boring almost -  and I admired the way White managed to convey this while still maintaining interest. It’s difficult to write about someone being boring without it actually becoming so.

There is embedded throughout the novel something of a knowledgeable overview of the 70’s and onward and Dorian, in another respect, is something of an Everyman figure. There is some characteristically vividly gem-like writing – ‘muted sort of bitchiness’, the description of models being prepared and lining up to walk (P.142 – too long to quote), the vivid description of Kevin at the close of chapter 7 which combines eroticism and wonderfully vivid use of language – again, read the whole paragraph – a brief quotation would not do it justice and wonderful imagery such as ‘Again, the bucket of blood immersed in the pint of milk: a blush’. Wonderful stuff.

In the last few chapters, the focus shifted from Guy to his young partner/lover Kevin. Initially, I thought this a flaw but on reflection I think it absolutely matches the essence of the story – the seemingly immortal Guy (at least in terms of his appearance) just withdraws, like a mist vanishing with only memories left for those that knew him – if anyone ever really did.