Edmund White’s new novel might be his sexiest yet. And that’s saying a lot. In A Previous Life, Ruggero, a Sicilian aristocrat, and his young wife, Constance, decide that in order to be totally honest with each other, they must write down all of their previous sexual encounters. These reminiscences–and their partners’ reactions to reading them–form the bulk of this book. The sexual acts described are gay, straight, bisexual. There are threesomes. And here it should be acknowledged that all of this is very hot (sigh), but Mr. White’s intention isn’t to turn the reader on, but to illuminate his characters–which he does splendidly.About half-way through the book, Mr. White enters the story. And for perhaps the last time in a novel, he has the opportunity to draw a full-fledged portrait of himself. Here he is brave, unflinching. His description of his own physical body is explicit and even troubling. While his (perceived) physical defects far outnumber his few character defects, Chelsea pays much attention to the former and barely notices the latter.
It must be said. There’s something special about this novel. Mr. White gives it the subtitle, Another Posthumous Novel. The novel begins in the year 2050. We soon learn that Constance was born in the year 2020. There’s humor in this device, for sure. But also something more serious. The question that looms: how will we be remembered when we’re gone? What will we be remembered for? Perhaps with that in mind, Mr. White puts something extra into this novel. Faites attention. Edmund White has quite a few things to say. About music, art, publishing and the nature of literary celebrity.
Needless to say, QueerReader strongly recommends this delightful novel.
Edmund White’s A Previous Life is published by Bloomsbury.
2/15/2022