No one has been more frank, lucid, rueful and enertaining about growing up gay in Middle America than that master of letters, Edmund White. Best known for his autobiographical novels, starting with 'A Boy's own Story', White here takes the fiction out of his story and delivers the facts in all their shocking and absorbing verity.
From a adolescence in the 1950's, an era that tried to 'cure' homosexuality but found him 'unsalvageable', he emerged into a 1960s society which re-designated his orientation as 'acceptable (nearly)'. He describes a life touched by psychotherapy in every decade, starting with his flamboyant and demanding therapist mother, who considered him her own personal test case - not to mention her escort to cocktail lounges after her divorce.
His father thought that even wearing a wristwatch was effeminate, though custodial visits to Dad in Cincinnnati inadvertently initiated White into the culture of 'hustlers and johns' that changed his life.
White shares his enthusiasm for England, his passion for Paris and introduces us to his lovers and predilections - past and present. On the way we learn so much about his striking and eloquent opinions on art and life that not only his fans, but also those who have to read him will be drawn to his outstanding body of work - fiction and non-fiction. 'My Lives' is a spectacular treat: by turns moving and hilarious, outrageous and enlightening.