The Farewell Symphony
The Farewell Symphony is a 1997 semi-autobiographical novel by Edmund White.
.jpg) Cover of the first US edition | |
| Author | Edmund White |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Chip Kidd |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Autobiographical novel |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | 1997 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 413 pp |
| ISBN | 0-679-43477-1 |
| OCLC | 37538014 |
| 813/.54 21 | |
| LC Class | PS3573.H463 F37 1997 |
It is the third of a trilogy of novels, being preceded by A Boy's Own Story (1982) and The Beautiful Room Is Empty (1988). It depicts the later adulthood of its protagonist and documents his experience of homosexuality from the 1960s to the 1990s. Each of the three novels in this series assumes a progression in tone and style which may be measured in part by the sexual content, which starts at a trickle in A Boy's Own Story, expands in The Beautiful Room Is Empty and ends up in a torrent in The Farewell Symphony. Also, the first two novels in the series are largely tautly written affairs that come in around the 300-page mark and both comprise a compelling voyage through the inner dialogue of their unnamed narrator. On the other hand, The Farewell Symphony is a more epic 500 pages in which White apparently aims at and successfully accomplishes the great novel. Another distinguishing characteristic that sets The Farewell Symphony apart from its predecessors is the former were largely concerned with struggle, whereas in the third volume White/the narrator encounters gradually increasing professional success and is thus initiated into the American literary elite in which he well truly earns his place, between the continued, at times leviathan struggles he encounters. This appears to change the tone and flow of The Farewell Symphony quite dramatically in comparison with the previous two installments, with the tone and direction changing on multiple occasions. White achieves something quite impressive, keeping you guessing as to The Farewell Symphony's ultimate end throughout the last 150 pages with repeated changes in direction and tone, with the conclusion being completely different from all of those and with devastating effect.
Allusions to other works
The title alludes to the "Farewell" Symphony by Joseph Haydn.
Criticism
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, the journalist James Wolcott suggested that the book "might have been more honestly titled Hilly Buttocks I Have Known," wherein the author "invites us to join him as he revisits the beloved rear ends of yesteryear. This is not the sort of invitation many people will leap to accept." Wolcott concluded, "Edmund White the writer has given way to Edmund White the trashy raconteur. It's the same fate that befell Truman Capote, and it wasn't pretty then either."[1]