Jack Holmes and His Friend

Thought provoking look at friendship and identity and how our past shapes us. Beautifully written at times. Graphic sex scenes of all kinds, but not gratuitous. Set in NYC in the 60s and 70s so there is obviously a lot of turbulence and change, but it's not about that.

This book was given to me so I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it.

It's my first Edmund White novel and makes me disinclined to read another.

The novel depicts a friendship between two American men, one gay, one straight, of the generation that came of age in the late 1950s and 60s. They are both privileged and seem to be oblivious to the social or cultural changes that make this such an interesting era of history. But these are not characters who pay attention to things like the Civil Rights movement, or the Vietnam War, let alone the Stonewall Riots.

It also doesn't help matters both of the main characters in this book come across as rather shallow, boring, and narcissistic. And they don't seem to really like one another very much, show more either.

There are better American novels about the New York gay experience in the 1960s and 70s: "Dancer From the Dance" by Andrew Holleran is one.

(It's probably misleading, and maybe even irresponsible, to suggest as White clearly does that gay men who are "tops" do not need to worry about contracting HIV/AIDS.) show less

As usual, White's prose is stunning and his characters well-drawn, but that wasn't enough to get me through this tale of a straight man's sexual crises. There's a lot of meditations on the differences between straight and gay relationships, which I thought were interesting but would have made a better essay. People with more tolerance than I for the standard character-driven modern novel will probably like this more than I did.

The book follows Jack and Will through two decades. Their friendship is both intimate and destructive. Jack is not-so-secretly in love with Will, who enjoys the attention and - for much of time - doesn't really see Jack as an individual.

The book used different perspectives tell their joint story as well as their individual ones. Jack's story was one of discovery and evolution. Will seemed to flounder. Altogether an entertaining read.

Pitch perfect. I prefer Jack's story to Will's which isn't as well told. White feels more at home with Jack than with Will.

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Romanzo di formazione: ricerca, scoperta e agito del'orientamento sessuale di Jack Holmes. Buon romanzo!