Our Young Man
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4.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Our Young Man follows the life of a gorgeous Frenchman, Guy, as he goes from the industrial city of Clermont-Ferrand to the top of the modeling profession in New York City's fashion world, becoming the darling of Fire Island's gay community. Like Wilde's Dorian Grey, Guy never seems to age; at thirty-five he is still modeling, still enjoying lavish gifts from older men who believe he's twenty-three--though their attentions always come at a price. Ambivalently, Guy lets them believe, driven especially by the memory of growing up poor, until he finds he needs the lie to secure not only wealth, but love itself. Surveying the full spectrum of gay amorous life through the disco era and into the age of AIDS, Edmund White (who worked at Vogue for ten years) explores the power of physical beauty--to fascinate, to enslave, and to deceive--with sparkling wit and pathos.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Guy, a beautiful young man from the French countryside, is picked up by a modeling scout on a church trip to Paris; he rapidly ascends through the Parisian modeling world and crosses the Atlantic with plans to make it big in the New York fashion scene. Guy is gay, which raised no concerns while living in his native France, but upon arrival in New York the apocalyptic bloom of AIDS is just beginning. Both horrified by the epidemic and charmed by the swinging life on Fire Island, Guy must tiptoe carefully as he becomes a fixture of high-spending fashion circles. This balancing act becomes ever more precarious as he develops a relationship with "the baron," a wealthy hedonist who takes an uncanny interest in the aspiring model. In spite of his adventurous lifestyle, Guy maintains an angelic na vet and somewhat provincial moral compass scruples that trip him up as he navigates this new, extravagant world. Handsome and charming, he is a vulnerable target, consistently manipulated by the powerful characters attracted to him. Although the dialogue falters in places, White renders a beautiful portrait of a time in America that was prosperous, carefree, and increasingly toxic. Suffused with sensual writing and wry cultural observations, White's tale of disco-era Fire Island is a vibrant portrait of a tumultuous age.
