French Literary Biography, General & Miscellaneous Literary Criticism, Gay & Lesbian Studies, Gay & Lesbian Biographies

Genet: A Biography

Name: Genet: A Biography
Author: Edmund White
ISBN: 9780679754794

by Edmund White

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Overview

A meticulously researched biography of Jean Genet, one of France's most notorious writers. Acclaimed novelist and essayist Edmund White illuminates Genet's experiences in the worlds of crime, homosexuality, politics, and high culture, and gives a compelling analysis of Genet's plays, novels, and essays. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.

Synopsis

Publishers Weekly

The NBCC Award-winning biography of Genet will be released in paperback in conjunction with two of White's novels, The Beautiful Room Is Empty ($11 ISBN -75540-3) and Forgetting Elena ($10 ISBN -75573-X). (Oct.)

About the Author, Edmund White

Edmund White was born in Cincinnati in 1940. His previous books include Forgetting Elena, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, States of Desire: Travels in Gay America, A Boy's Own Story, Caracole and The Beautiful Room Is Empty. He lives in Paris.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Library Journal

French writer Jean Genet (1910-86) was a petty thief who produced some of the most revolutionary novels and plays of our time. White's massive biography illuminates the life and works of this ``deeply contradictory man,'' although many events from his early years of vagabondage and prostitution are beyond retrieval. A greater mystery--which even White, an accomplished novelist ( A Boy's Own Story , LJ 9/1/82; The Beautiful Room Is Empty , LJ 3/1/88), cannot solve--is how someone of Genet's limited education could have produced a first novel of such magnitude as Our Lady of the Flowers ( LJ 11/1/63). (Parallels with the case of Shakespeare are not far-fetched.) This work is a labor of love and admiration. Essential for collections of modern literature. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/93.-- Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.

From Barnes & Noble

A biography of one of the great and controversial figures of twentieth-century literature, Jean Genet. Documents all Genet's permutations: poet, dandy, homosexual, thief, "thug of genius," political activist, and playwright/author extraordinaire. B&W photos.