It was of course, F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote that authors have “two or three great and moving experiences” in their lives:
“…experiences so great and moving that it doesn’t seem at the time anyone else has been so caught up so pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and rewarded and humbled in just that way before.”
For Garth Greenwell, his own “great and moving”experiences appear to revolve around the time he taught English in Sofia, Bulgaria, because Cleanness is his third book set here. It is also his best.
QueerReader is not the first reviewer to point out the resemblances between Garth Greenwell’s and Edmund White’s fiction–particularly Mr. White’s early classics: A Boy’s Own Story and The Beautiful Room is Empty. Like Mr. White’s, Mr. Greenwell’s fiction appears to be autobiographical–it feels like a true story. And like Mr. White, Mr. Greenwell doesn’t shy away from the sexual aspect of his personal story. But to this Queer Reader, Cleanness doesn’t read like erotica. These extensive descriptions are not written to arouse–rather, they illuminate the narrator’s character–drilling deep into his psyche. So don’t blame Mr. Greenwell if they turn you on.
The book begins in the English teacher’s world: a queer student reaching out for support–displaying all of the entitled narcissism of youth. What follows is a graphic description of a dangerous sado-masochistic sexual encounter–an encounter the narrator has somehow gotten himself into. From the beginning, this encounter doesn’t seem safe. From there the reader is swept up in the demonstrations in the streets, demonstrations that some are calling their own “Arab Spring”. The students’ optimism is infectious–few seem to resist it. And yet, a dark shadow looms over it all: the reactionary mobs whose chants of “Red trash”–and it’s variation, “Red faggots”–bear a troubling resonance to the chants of “Jews out!” in the nineteen-twenties.
Mr. Greenwell clearly knows the Bulgarian literary scene well. Writing in Bulgarian isn’t nearly as lucrative as writing in English, so all of these writers have day jobs. One of them is a priest who might be queer and might just be too spiritual for this world. Mr. Greenwell’s depiction of this magical character is one of the high points of this book.
There’s also a seemingly doomed romance and another potentially dangerous hook-up. But this Queer Reader won’t reveal any more–lest he spoil the pleasure of you discovering them for yourself. It should be added that while this “true fiction” style might imply a certain aimlessness or lack of structure, precisely the opposite is true. Mr. Greenwell knows exactly what he is doing. Though partially hidden for most of the book, in the end this structure is revealed.
Garth Greenwell’s Cleanness is published by Farrar Straus and Giroux.