Scan barcode
A review by inthelunaseas
A Previous Life by Edmund White
2.0
This book is a bit like a sucker punch. I'm genuinely stuck between rating this two or three stars, and I'm looking forward to talking about this with my queer book club.
The first- what? half? two thirds?- of the book is just smut. Pure smut. Ruggero and Constance, our leads, read verbatim their memoirs about their previous relationships. It's a weird set up, and even more peculiar that most of their discussions are about the sex therein, and it gave me very big Lady Chatterley's Lover vibes (and I was glad to see this book referenced in here).
The sex scenes are so bad. God. I have never read 'meatus' in porn before, and I never want to again. When I reached the second page and Edmund was stroking Ruggero's dick with a twenty dollar bill, I had to put the book down and go for a walk. The second damn page.
It was also written in a rather curious way. It was a combination of pure dialogue and then 'Constance thought: [text]' or 'Ruggero read: [text]'. This chapter- chapter 4- is also the bulk of the book and takes up a good 150 or so pages. And though the characters here are talking about themselves, it's actually difficult to know who they are. Yes, we know what their past was like and the actions they took, but who are they are? What are their personalities, their feelings? They're both narcissists, but what else?
Time also moves in this strange, liquid manner and I can't help but feel White wasn't sure how old Ruggero was meant to be. Ruggero mentions losing people to the AIDS crisis, but he was born in 1979 - yes, it's entirely fathomable he did lose friends to AIDS at some point through his life, but it does feel like a bit of a stretch.
The second 'part' of the book, after Constance and Ruggero have gone their separate ways, actually carried some wait. I still find Edmund's inclusion as a character, both as himself and as a metafiction version of himself, to waver between poignant and an eye roll. He references this book by title, he is very degrading about himself, reference his piss fetish and micro dick, plus his fungal smell, and he's very tongue in cheek about what he's doing... but it also felt very skewed with the first section. If the second section was actually the novel itself and the whole thing played into the metafiction without the graphic descriptions of sex, I might be able to appreciate this book more.
This, ultimately, is my problem with the book. The first portion was just too much. Two very wealthy people, who I personally wouldn't stand if I met them, having a lot of sex and spending copious amounts of money to travel. The second section... I mightn't like it, but it has more feeling. More emotion.
This is a book I want to talk about, but not one I'd recommend for an enjoyable read.
The first- what? half? two thirds?- of the book is just smut. Pure smut. Ruggero and Constance, our leads, read verbatim their memoirs about their previous relationships. It's a weird set up, and even more peculiar that most of their discussions are about the sex therein, and it gave me very big Lady Chatterley's Lover vibes (and I was glad to see this book referenced in here).
The sex scenes are so bad. God. I have never read 'meatus' in porn before, and I never want to again. When I reached the second page and Edmund was stroking Ruggero's dick with a twenty dollar bill, I had to put the book down and go for a walk. The second damn page.
It was also written in a rather curious way. It was a combination of pure dialogue and then 'Constance thought: [text]' or 'Ruggero read: [text]'. This chapter- chapter 4- is also the bulk of the book and takes up a good 150 or so pages. And though the characters here are talking about themselves, it's actually difficult to know who they are. Yes, we know what their past was like and the actions they took, but who are they are? What are their personalities, their feelings? They're both narcissists, but what else?
Time also moves in this strange, liquid manner and I can't help but feel White wasn't sure how old Ruggero was meant to be. Ruggero mentions losing people to the AIDS crisis, but he was born in 1979 - yes, it's entirely fathomable he did lose friends to AIDS at some point through his life, but it does feel like a bit of a stretch.
The second 'part' of the book, after Constance and Ruggero have gone their separate ways, actually carried some wait. I still find Edmund's inclusion as a character, both as himself and as a metafiction version of himself, to waver between poignant and an eye roll. He references this book by title, he is very degrading about himself, reference his piss fetish and micro dick, plus his fungal smell, and he's very tongue in cheek about what he's doing... but it also felt very skewed with the first section. If the second section was actually the novel itself and the whole thing played into the metafiction without the graphic descriptions of sex, I might be able to appreciate this book more.
This, ultimately, is my problem with the book. The first portion was just too much. Two very wealthy people, who I personally wouldn't stand if I met them, having a lot of sex and spending copious amounts of money to travel. The second section... I mightn't like it, but it has more feeling. More emotion.
This is a book I want to talk about, but not one I'd recommend for an enjoyable read.