A Candid Look Back: On Edmund White’s “The Loves of My Life”

"The Loves of My Life"

Edmund White has never let any barriers get in his way, not in his public life, not in his writing.

In his upcoming memoir, The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir, he chronicles a lifetime of sexual adventures: his furtive explorations with other similarly closeted boys, growing up in the Midwest, his not-unpleasant dalliances with women, in an attempt to “go straight”, his myriad sexual conquests once he had come fully out as a gay man, many of them men who would become the models for characters in his many fine novels. In this new book, White displays his trademark courage for taking on taboo subject matter, here writing so explicitly about sex that one wonders how the reading public in these ridiculously PC, “woke” times will react. But this was Mr. White’s life. And if a writer can’t write about his/her own life, what is he left to write about?

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Mary B. Sellers on Launching Libre

Libre issue two

When speculative writer Mary Buchanan Sellers founded Libre in 2024, she didn’t imagine it would become such a success. Originally just a girl and her blog, the magazine now consists of a team of writers and artists, all of whom work to support the magazine’s unique mission. Libre aims to uplift the voices of the mentally ill by publishing fiction, poetry, and visual art by people with mental health issues and their loved ones. In creating the magazine, Mary Buchanan’s talents extend beyond the literary—she designs vibrant graphics that accompany each published prose or poetry piece. The design of the website itself is a celebration: the stylish Libre logo on the homepage is situated above a candy-pink brain and an animated turquoise background. The About Section features a cartoon replication of a frowning Grecian bust, with (comically) the brain popping off the head. With these joyous graphics, Mary Buchanan honors the effervescent qualities of people with mental illness: their quick minds, their ability to create, penning words and pictures that are evidence not of any deficit, but of their capacity for resilience. 

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Books of the Month: December 2024

December 2024 books

Well, it’s December. We’ll level with you: December can be a weird time to write about new releases. That makes it a little more of a challenge, though, and there’s a certain joy that comes from assembling a “hey! new books!” list at the same time as you might see year-end lists popping up elsewhere. Here are ten books we’re keeping an eye out for this month, from surreal literary fiction to detailed explorations of literary movements.

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Transcendence Has a Cost: On Tara Isabella Burton’s “Here In Avalon”

"Here In Avalon"

In October, I sat inside James Turrell’s installation Hind Sight for the first time. This is what it was like: I followed a railing along a winding pathway before arriving at a chair, where I sat. I then stared across the room at something imperceptible: something made out of light, something not designed to be perceived by human eyes under normal light. I left the room with a greater understanding of friends and family who have had genuinely religious experiences. In Hind Sight, there was the sense of perceiving something utterly ineffable and yet utterly present.

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Constant Delirium: Reading Jean-Pierre Martinet’s “With Their Hearts In Their Boots”

"With Their Hearts In Their Boots"
Credit where credit is due: I picked up Jean-Pierre Martinet’s With Their Hearts In Their Boots (translated by Alex Andriesse) in no small part due to the fact that its introduction was by William Boyle. Boyle’s cultural recommendations, whether literary or cinematic, are often spot-on, and reading his description of this “[h]hard-boiled, funny, dangerous” short novel piqued my interest for what was to follow.

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From Bereavement to Betterment: A Review of Charles Bock’s “I Will Do Better”

"I Will Do Better"

Charles Bock hails from Las Vegas.  And it’s clear right from the opening pages of this memoir, that he’s been dealt a tough hand. He’s a reluctant father and working novelist, and his beloved wife Diane has just passed away from leukemia, leaving him to care for his three-year old daughter, Lily.  And things will only get worse before you leave Chapter One.  The book has a Sisyphean feel to it because nothing is ever easy in this story, except the clear, persistent love the writer has for his daughter. That drives the narrative and allows you to see struggle, self-doubt, and sacrifice as the essential journey we’re on with this family.

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Political Histories: On Ronnie A. Grinberg’s “Write like a Man”

"Write like a Man"

Increasingly, the podcast Know Your Enemy has become one of my go-to sources for book recommendations. Sometimes this involves going to the backlist, particularly when it comes to Garry Wills; sometimes it involves checking out a more recent work, particularly when its author was a KYE guest. That’s how I came to read Ronnie A. Grinberg’s Write like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals. That’s an imposing title, but the book itself is eminently readable; more than that, it’s also deeply relevant, chronicling a compelling blend of literature, politics, and interpersonal rivalries.

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