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A review by fiendfull
A Previous Life by Edmund White
3.0
A Previous Life is a sprawling tale of love, sex, and beauty, as two bisexual lovers finally tell each other about their pasts. Sicilian musician Ruggero and his younger wife Constance have mostly kept their various pasts a secret, but after Ruggero is confined to bed, they decided to write out their memoirs and read them aloud to each other, sharing past loves and great affairs, until it is time to think about Ruggero's affair with the famous writer Edmund White.
I was intrigued by the idea of the book, having read White's famous A Boy's Own Story. The concept of the novel, ignoring the metafictional element of having Edmund White as a character, is straightforwardly intriguing, a chance to read about how two people unfold their romantic and sexual histories, defying boundaries and telling their own stories in particular ways. Though reading it gets a bit confusing at times (the pair narrate what they've written, but it is interjected with the others' thoughts and occasional conversation), it has a classic feel, like 20th century novels about relationships, which is probably the intended tone given Ruggero at least is meant to be aging.
The Edmund White elements, though hinted earlier on, come out more in the later part of the novel, which changes format slightly, and felt quite different at times to the earlier part. As the 'present' of the novel is in the future, this is the part of the past that gets up to COVID, making it an even more surreal experience, and as I found the earlier part started to drag, I perhaps was less engaged by this part, and wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to make of the metafictional parts given that they discuss White's death in the 'future' and mainly showed Ruggero's narcissism.
A Previous Life is a hard book to define, but one that has a timeless feel to the writing style even as it projects into the future. It has some interesting explorations of sexuality and polyamory, concluding in a way that really brings these to the forefront and generally thinking about how people love and age and define things, though there were a few odd moments (right at the end there's a trans child referenced, seemingly for their parent to use as a reflection on if it was 'revenge' for their own polyamory/sexuality). Personally, I found the book started to drag, especially as it is almost two books in one, and possibly that's the danger with trying to tell the stories of two different characters who have a lot going on throughout their lives. It's a hard one to know what my lingering thoughts of it will be.
I was intrigued by the idea of the book, having read White's famous A Boy's Own Story. The concept of the novel, ignoring the metafictional element of having Edmund White as a character, is straightforwardly intriguing, a chance to read about how two people unfold their romantic and sexual histories, defying boundaries and telling their own stories in particular ways. Though reading it gets a bit confusing at times (the pair narrate what they've written, but it is interjected with the others' thoughts and occasional conversation), it has a classic feel, like 20th century novels about relationships, which is probably the intended tone given Ruggero at least is meant to be aging.
The Edmund White elements, though hinted earlier on, come out more in the later part of the novel, which changes format slightly, and felt quite different at times to the earlier part. As the 'present' of the novel is in the future, this is the part of the past that gets up to COVID, making it an even more surreal experience, and as I found the earlier part started to drag, I perhaps was less engaged by this part, and wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to make of the metafictional parts given that they discuss White's death in the 'future' and mainly showed Ruggero's narcissism.
A Previous Life is a hard book to define, but one that has a timeless feel to the writing style even as it projects into the future. It has some interesting explorations of sexuality and polyamory, concluding in a way that really brings these to the forefront and generally thinking about how people love and age and define things, though there were a few odd moments (right at the end there's a trans child referenced, seemingly for their parent to use as a reflection on if it was 'revenge' for their own polyamory/sexuality). Personally, I found the book started to drag, especially as it is almost two books in one, and possibly that's the danger with trying to tell the stories of two different characters who have a lot going on throughout their lives. It's a hard one to know what my lingering thoughts of it will be.