______________ 'One of the best writers of my generation' - John Irving 'A playful yet
searching novel of gay life in the New York of Ed Koch and Studio 54' - Kirkus 'Smart worldly
erudite well-connected and funny' - New York Review of Books'Remarkable . America's most
significant gay writer' - Literary Review______________'Has everyone always been in love with
you? Of course they have who am I kidding? What did they say about Helen of Troy? That her
face launched a thousand ships? That's you you're that beautiful. A thousand ships'New York
City in the eighties and at its decadent heart is Guy. The darling of Fire Island's gay
community and one of New York's top male models Guy is gliding his way to riches that are a
world away from his modest provincial upbringing back home in France. Like some modern-day
Dorian Gray he seems untouched by time: the decades pass fashions change yet his beauty
remains as transcendent and captivating as ever.Such looks cannot help but bring him adoration.
From sweet yet pathetic Fred to the wealthy and masochistic Baron from the acerbic and cynical
Pierre-Georges to Andre fabricating Dalí fakes and hurtling towards prison and the abyss all
are in some way fixated on him. In return for the devotion and expensive gifts they lavish on
him he plays with unswerving loyalty whatever role they project onto him: unattainable idol
passionate lover malleable client. But just as the years are catching up on his smooth skin
and perfect body so his way of life is closing in on him and destroying the men he
loves.Edmund White has in Our Young Man created some of the richest representations of gay male
identity from the disco era to the age of AIDs. What links them all is the allure and
enchantment they find in beauty. Revelling in its magic Our Young Man nonetheless slips
beneath the seductive surface to examine its dangerous depths exploring its power to fascinate
enslave and deceive. Mesmerising blackly comic and delicately crafted this is an exquisite
novel from a contemporary master.
