Reviews

The Farewell Symphony by Edmund White

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jbash_lo_fi's review

2.0

Tediously long and meandering but at times brilliant. Might have been the wrong book at the wrong time for me, it took me months to get through it including a few long breaks.

tmiles's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

pbraue13's review

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4.0

"The Farewell Symphony" by Edmund White is a poignant and thought-provoking novel that intricately weaves together themes of love, loss, and self-discovery against the backdrop of the bustling streets of New York City. Through the lens of his protagonist, White takes readers on a journey of introspection and revelation, inviting them to explore the complexities of human relationships and the fluidity of sexuality.

At the heart of the novel is the character of Paul, a talented young musician grappling with his bisexuality in a society rife with prejudice and misunderstanding. White skillfully captures Paul's internal struggles with empathy and nuance, delving into the intricacies of his identity and the societal pressures that threaten to suffocate his sense of self.

One of the most compelling aspects of "The Farewell Symphony" is White's unflinching portrayal of biphobia and its profound impact on individuals like Paul. Through Paul's experiences, White sheds light on the pervasive misconceptions and stereotypes that continue to plague the LGBTQ+ community, challenging readers to confront their own prejudices and assumptions.

Despite the weighty themes it explores, "The Farewell Symphony" is also a novel suffused with moments of beauty, humor, and tenderness. White's prose is lyrical and evocative, transporting readers into Paul's world with vivid imagery and heartfelt emotion.

In conclusion, "The Farewell Symphony" is a powerful and timely novel that speaks to the universal human experience of longing for acceptance and connection. Through Paul's journey of self-discovery, White reminds us of the importance of compassion, understanding, and the courage to embrace our true selves, regardless of society's expectations. It is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of love.

3.5/4 stars

brianreadsbooks's review against another edition

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funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

paull9115's review

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emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

robinhoodreads's review against another edition

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And here is the final volume in Edmund White's trilogy. Here we see queer life before AIDs, and how quickly the disease decimated it. We also see our narrator struggle as he loses friends and lovers to AIDs. It's a story about reminiscing, a story about loss, and ultimately a story about life. It's a reminder that every moment is what makes us who we are. This series, but especially this book, should be required reading for queer folks as a reminder of what our community was before we lost so many.

I will note, there are some negative comments on bisexuals. As someone who identifies as bisexual, I recognize it was a different time. But it's also a reminder for the bisexual community about all we have faced, even from our own community.

caitlin_a's review

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

mirasapphira7's review

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4.0

An eloquent and provocative personal account of gay life in New York City from the 50s through the 70s and the onset of AIDS in the 80s. Exuberant, trenchant, gossipy, confessional, and generally awesome. The two main themes are White's life as a writer and cultural social climber and his life as a gay nymphomaniac. There are stints in Italy and Paris and a lot of name dropping. It's really entertaining but a little overwhelming, kind of like a speeding train of details and moments. It took me a while to like him, actually, but he won me over by the end. He's a beautiful writer and there were some awesome paragraphs I'll have to go back and find to add here.

waterwraiths's review

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not very good!

Content Warnings

book_isk's review

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

For all the gratuitous details of his cruising and sex life, White’s trilogy feels startlingly empty of any empathy. Though he aims at a self-awareness in his prose, it falls flat and betrays itself as a self-centered facade. The final novel in his White Trilogy, The Farewell Symphony focuses more on his struggles getting published, his travels in Europe (predominantly Rome, Venice, and Parks), and his relationships with his slew of exes, one night stands, illustrious friends, his sister, his parents, and his mentors. Ending with perhaps the most affecting chapter (and WOW did it take forever to get there. This was a slooooow read lemme tell you), White recounts the deaths of the majority of his friends due to the AIDS epidemic. The one death that goes markedly unaddressed is that of Brice—his most recent lover to the publication of the book. He even stops himself mid-sentence after hurriedly summarizing Brice’s death in a rushed anecdote. This would be more affecting if we knew anything about him. Likewise with a his other lovers for that matter. It’s hard to feel a sympathy deeper than that for any victim of AIDS when White avoids the emotional depths of his relationships. Though we know their cock size, their kinks, their red flags, their drug preferences, and their pretensions, there is such a distance between them and both White as a narrator and us as an audience. Though this may be intended in the first two books in the series—and perhaps even at the beginning of the third, White expounds throughout the latter half of the book, especially through the figures of Joshua and Kevin, that he feels love towards them unlike he's ever felt before, not just lust. This, unfortunately, does not come across. Overall, I don’t think I needed to read all three of these books (especially because my American Carnage class only assigned the second in the series), but I’ll say I’ve definitely learned a thing or two about what I don’t want to see in ‘gay’ fiction any longer. This didn’t feel liberating to read, and I now desperately need to cleanse my palate with some quality, non-tragic, non-self-obsessed, queer lit.

To end, here is a quote that stuck out (surprisingly):

“Maybe because I knew he was dying I could love him, for I’d always been more afraid of being overwhelmed by what I possessed than of being abandoned by someone who’d never belong to me.”

Content Warnings

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