 "The Independent on Sunday (London, England)")
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Books: From degradation to saintliness; MEMOIR: My Lives By Edmund White BLOOMSBURY pounds 17.99 pounds 16.99 (P&P FREE) 08700 798 897; Justin Cartwright considered himself a fairly worldly fellow " until he read this unflinching chronicle of sexual misery.(Features)
From:
The Independent on Sunday (London, England)
| Date:
September 25, 2005| Author:
| COPYRIGHT 2005 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information
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Byline: Justin Cartwright
'In the mid-1950s, when I was fourteen or fifteen, I told my mother I was homosexual: that was the word, back then, homosexual, in its full satanic majesty, cloaked in ether fumes, a combination of evil and sickness.' These are the opening lines of Edmund White's remarkable autobiography, which is divided into sections entitled My Shrinks, My Father, My Mother, My Hustlers, My Blonds, My Master, and My Friends.
It is an autobiography in which homosexuality is central: it is treated as something heroic but also obsessional and at times degrading. ...
