White’s literary soap opera is engaging and compulsively readable, and in typical White fashion, there is more than a soupçon of sex—much more in fact, and much of it graphic. Despite everything, Aldwych remains in love with August to the end. He has our sympathy.
An outrageous, tender novel that complicates contemporary ideas of what traditional, 'appropriate' desires and relationships look like ... White forces readers to become intimate with what they might otherwise denounce ... White keeps his journey engaging, hilarious and moving throughout ... This novel is as mischievous as it is thought-provoking. It is Edmund White at his very best.
Audacious ... White is a master of social comedy and wry observations ... Explicit descriptions of August’s sex life, meanwhile, not only titillate but add poignancy to the portrayal of Aldwych’s elusive desire. Readers will delight in this immersion into a lurid world of passion.
