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A review by faintgirl
The Beautiful Room Is Empty by Edmund White
2.0
Written as a part memoir of growing up homosexual in the USA of the 1950s, when such things weren't really accepted, this novel reads as a more sympathetic, but no less literate Hollinghurst. In the post HIV era, a lot of the description of the rather lonely, yet promiscuous life of the author reads more as an elegy for a closeted lifestyle that may be best forgotten in a more open society.
While a novel depicting such unfairness in a relatively modern era always causes some stirring of emotion, I thought the book fell apart a little when the author engaged in his first "real" relationships. I found myself yearning for any character to be a little less outrageous, someone who wasn't quite so disturbed by their lifestyle, perhaps content in their skin. Perhaps it stems from the times and from the persecution, but it's something I find difficult to comprehend now. By the time we reach Stonewall, which is thrown in with a couple of pages at the very end, I was struggling to find any sympathy for anyone.
While a novel depicting such unfairness in a relatively modern era always causes some stirring of emotion, I thought the book fell apart a little when the author engaged in his first "real" relationships. I found myself yearning for any character to be a little less outrageous, someone who wasn't quite so disturbed by their lifestyle, perhaps content in their skin. Perhaps it stems from the times and from the persecution, but it's something I find difficult to comprehend now. By the time we reach Stonewall, which is thrown in with a couple of pages at the very end, I was struggling to find any sympathy for anyone.