City Boy

In the New York of the 1970s, in the wake of Stonewall and in the midst of economic collapse, you might find the likes of Jasper Johns and William Burroughs at the next cocktail party, and you were as likely to be caught arguing Marx at the New York City Ballet as cruising for sex in the warehouses and parked trucks along the Hudson. This is the New York that Edmund White portrays in "City Boy": a place of enormous intrigue and artistic tumult. Combining the no-holds-barred confession and yearning of "A Boy's Own Story" with the easy erudition and sense of place of "The Flaneur", this is the story of White's years in 1970s New York, bouncing from intellectual encounters with Susan Sontag and Harold Brodkey to erotic entanglements downtown to the burgeoning gay scene of artists and writers. It's a moving, candid, brilliant portrait of a time and place, full of encounters with famous names and cultural icons. Critical Praise: '"City Boy" seems effortless in its tone; it is seamless, wise, funny and charming. The New York described in the book is history now, but history that has made an essential difference to the way we live now. Edmund White evokes the main players in the culture of the city, all of whom he knew, with clarity and with brilliantly-chosen detail and sense of the moment' - Colm Toibin.

ISBN 1408809427   Pages 304 ISBN13 9781408809426 (What's this?)   Published in London Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC   Height (mm) 198 Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC   Width (mm) 129 Format Paperback   Spine width (mm) 18 Publication date 04 Jan 2011   Academic level General DEWEY 813.54   Reading age From DEWEY edition DC22

'An open-throttled tour of New York City during the bad old days of the 1960s and early '70s... it's all here in exacting and eye-popping detail' New York Times 'Energetic evocation of Manhatten in the Sixties and Seventies...an absorbing insight into the life alongside a constellation of greats of the American literary and gay scenes' Harper's Bazaar 'This splendid book is at once fascinating social history and sublimely detailed gossip' John Irving 'A wonderful deepening and broadening of Edmund White's great life-work ... Everything he says about love and friendship is so penetrating and true ... a marvellous book' Alan Hollinghurst A graceful memoir of a decidedly ungraceful time in the life of New York City... A welcome portrait of a time and place long past, and much yearned for. Kirkus Reviews

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