A SAINT FROM TEXAS
By Edmund White This new novel’s plot is reminiscent of Henry James’ A Portrait Of A Lady: an American heiress travels to Europe and marries an aesthete with exquisite taste who is in dire need of her money. Except in White’s accomplished hands everything is much more heightened (the sex, the gossip, the wealth, the excess) and much more entertaining! And we have not one but two oil-money heiresses, twin sisters: Yvonne, who conquers Parisienne society and Yvette, who embraces religious faith to endure and ultimately escape an abusive situation.
White’s gay male readers may be disappointed that there is little specific content for them in this novel (a couple of secondary gay male characters) yet they should be placated by such a witty and diverting romp through Parisienne high society. Yvonne ascends into the French aristocracy by marrying Baron Adhéaume de Courcy, only to see her wealth frittered away as he buys up Louis XV commodes and hosts a three-milliondollar party for the Shah of Iran “who looked absolutely bewildered, especially when the Mme de Montargis came in on a bejewelled elephant, which promptly defecated in the ballroom”.
Yvonne’s children are her solace, although Addy insisted their son be given the “extraordinary name” of Foulques, which is sometimes misheard as fuck! The two children are also the weapon that Addy manipulates to prevent Yvonne from seeking a divorce.
The novel focuses on Yvonne, who narrates. Yvette chimes in occasionally by letter, although she provides one of the most startling and devastating scenes in the novel at an extended family reunion in Paris.
White draws on his impressive intellect and erudition to deliver this nuanced exploration of the spirit and the flesh across the decades through these two superbly realised and captivating characters. – Graeme
BENT STREET: LOVE FROM A DISTANCE, INTIMACY AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE TIME OF COVID-19, AUSTRALIAN LGBTIQA+ ART, WRITING & IDEAS
Edited by Power, von Dousa and Jones
What does the current lockdown teach us about bodies, sexualities and selfhood? How do technologies shape or even subvert the ways we experience intimacy during the pandemic? Is it correct to say that the role of technologies in mediating queer intimacy is something new to queer communities? What if public toilets, AIDS campaigns, and gay saunas had also influenced how gay communities understood and conceptualised what “intimacy” could be mean?
Love From A Distance is a collection of creative works from writers, academics and artists that explore the role of technology in shaping our intimacies both inside and outside of the COVID pandemic.
Gay academic Dennis Altman writes of his separation from his boyfriend in Ecuador. Gary Dowsett looks at how gay porn has transformed not only our relations with others but with ourselves. Articles by Tiffany Jones, Emiel Maliepaard and Rainicorn explore how memes have reflected the geopolitical dimension of the coronavirus, how bi+ people navigate their sexuality online, and how digital spaces transform the ways dominant and submissive enact their roles in everyday life. – Hendri