The Humble Lover
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Average rating3
From National Book Award-honored author Edmund White, a wildly hilarious and irreverent novel about a rich older man who falls in love with a young ballerino. Aldwych West, an eighty-year-old modern-day aristocrat living alone in his Manhattan townhouse, is used to having what he wants. And when he sets eyes on August Dupond, a strong, stunningly beautiful soloist in the New York City Ballet, he decides he must have him. Soon they strike up a closeness that falls between the blurry lines of friendship, sponsorship, and love, and August moves in with Aldwych. But eventually August starts bringing home other men, and a formidable woman in Aldwych's circle named Ernestine also takes a deep interest in the young, enchanting star. Messy entanglements and fierce rivalries ensue, and the result is an unforgettable, outrageous tragicomedy that explores the many layers of love and sexual desire as only Edmund White can.
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Aldwych West, een homo op leeftijd krijgt vaak wat hij wil, en nu wil hij graag August, een jonge danser van het NY City Ballet.
“Aldwych was vastly rich; his family had invented the microwave, or maybe something older, like the kitchen stove.“
De danser lijkt daar soort-van wel wat voor te voelen, en trekt bij hem in, al blijft het allemaal platonisch.
““Congratulate your nephew for us.” It suddenly dawned on him that they might be a lesbian couple and that she saw through the “nephew” alibi. Once in Paris he'd introduced a young hustler as his nephew to another old queen. “Yes,” the queen had said, “we know each other. Last year he was my nephew.”
Daarna ontspoort de boel een beetje als August een andere man mee naar huis neemt, en Ernestine, de nogal op sex-gefocuste vrouw van Aldwych's neef ook een oogje op hem laat vallen.
“Ernestine thought it was hard to find a general subject with poor people. You couldn't ask them for their itineraries because they didn't go anywhere. As Fran Liebowitz said once, “They summer where they winter.” Nor could they complain about their parents' cute little foibles, since their parents were brutal or alcoholic or absent or exhausted. They couldn't complain about their “staff,” since they didn't have any.“
Tegen het einde van boek kan je het “beetje” wel weglaten bij het ontsporen, en is het eigenlijk een heel ander boek geworden dan waar je dacht dat je aan begon...
Misschien toch wel 3*, het blijft toch een beetje onduidelijk wat ik nou van het boek vind :-)
