The Farewell Symphony

Absolutely extraordinary! Fiction, memoir, apologia, confession, chronicle, biography all wrapped in one eidetic gay life. Is this White's own life or his narrator's or both? Regardless, it tells of a life, a consuming life, at times raunchy, other times sweet, but always viscerally real, that, in the author's own words, is "about the 1960s ending with the Stonewall Uprising in 1969 and the beginning of gay liberation . . .placed on such a rapid cycle - oppressed in the fifties, freed in the sixties, exalted in the seventies, and wiped out in the eighties . . . .[to] remind gay readers of the need to fight lest we fall back into the self-hating, gay-bashing past" (405). Its mimetic power lies in its honesty and candor, as though reading Augustine's "Confessions" or Newman's "Apologia," but instead of theology as its impetus, the existential truth of the gay consciousness is told to confound, "the Christian Right-my very relatives in Texas!-now attacking gays, since the gradual collapse of the Evil Empire of Communism left nothing to unite the rich few and the numerous poor on the right into the semblance of unity except a factitious agitation over `family values'" (ibid.). This novel is real gay history! Ironically, the German Catholic theologian Hans van Balthasar wrote a tract known as "Truth in Symphonic." It plays on the symphonic metaphor that each instrument in the orchestra contributes its unique insights into the theological truth of Catholicism. In every imaginative way, White's "truth" is even more symphonic; it's captures the truth about real lives whose truth is in feelings, emotions, sensations, hopes, desires, compulsions, regrets, anger, libido, literature, art, aesthetics, ideas, justice, happiness, depression, disgust, revulsion, elan vital, lust, recreation, smoking, coffee, drugs, alcohol, sleep, trade, orgies, fantasies, and harsh realities. But that's not where the title derives; it comes from Haydn's Farewell Symphony, where musicians gradually leave the stage, until the conclusion with a solo violinist. That metaphor is apt for our narrator's life. Reliving these events both vicariously and with verisimilitude brought tears and joy in reading. Powerfully, the narrator's life is intrinsically my life; the mirror of the times and places brought reabsorption, the joy, the pleasures, the pain, the agony, the frustration, and above all the fight to be. That struggle must continue. For example, one sees clearly how the adversity of AIDS has taught the world more compassion than all the fever of the religious zealots. And despite setbacks, the fight is by no means over, there's still more to overcome, both personally and collectively. As the a gay consciousness continues to evolve, love, not ideology, is the nexus that will ultimately conquer and bring us to the Promised Land. Many Christians get it, but sadly too many don't. Doubly ditto for Muslims. How can someone posit "God is Love," then turn to hate? N o one knows if God

Wow being a gay male must be rough, so I can't go there. I found Edmund's so called "ramblings" as described by many reviewers to be beautifully written and real. Yes, the book was a bit hard to read and get through, but I found it poignant yet distressing. Most of his friends start dying, and his surrogate teenage children go back to Chicago. I found the chapter about Gabe and Ana rather interesting since it was retold again in The Boy With The Thorn In His Side (Gabe and Ana are Keith and Laura), in his version he describes all the love he feels for them as a mentor/parent. Not only is Edmund in the 70's, a gay cruiser, struggling writer, drug user, but he also has to struggle financially to parent two rambunctious teenagers that he rescues from horrid circumstances. Edmund writes from the heart, and is painfully honest as he writes about the many losses he goes through in this wonderful book.

White chose the title to this novel from Haydn's The Farewell Symphony, in which, as the musical piece nears conclusion, the musicians leave the stage, one by one, until there is a sole violinist remaining, who finishes the work that so many others began.In White's novel, we are taken on a tour of the protagonist's (White himself) 30's, 40's, and 50's as he climbs from unknown author to celebrated chronicler of gay life. Along the way, White bares his soul through his no-holds-barred sexual confessions, as we see him interract with friends, lovers, and back-alley liaisons.Beginning post-Stonewall, and culminating in the AIDS crisis we witness White in many scenarios: best friend, object of desire, live-in lover, and even surrogate parent. White envelops each role with his particularly magical brand of prose, sentiment, and bravado, that is sometimes shocking, sometimes sad, but always entertaining. As the novel carries on, and reaches the now 20 year old beginning of the AIDS epidemic, we see the significance and poignancy of the title, as the disease ravages the ranks of White's friends, and leaves him the one violinist remaining to chronicle their lives, as they intertwined with his own.From backrooms to bedrooms, from parking lots to Paris, with stops in New York, Venice, and Morrocco along the way, White delivers another triumph in chronicling his life, and what began as A Boy's Own Story becomes the life of a man.

This is one of the finest books ever written - and I have read a lot of books. Not for those of a moralising or piously nervous disposition, or for those with a tragically short attention span. You don't have to emulate Mr White's life in order to be the beneficiary of his breathtaking writing skill. 'The Farewell Symphony' is a work of art.