In the 1970s, Paris had fashion and London had the theatre, but New York had all these cultural attainments and more. In a decade when New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy, when local headlines were dominated by stories of urban scandal, corruption and violence, the city flourished as never before, with its mix of art, ideas and sex. Edmund White knew many of the central figures of this New York, from Isherwood to Mapplethorpe, Borges to Foucault, Brodkey to Burroughs, and writes about them in City Boy with love, affection, insight and often biting wit. It is a fascinating, personal journey through the vibrant and explosive New York of the 70s, with wonderful sideshows in San Francisco, and a Venice presided over by the radiant Peggy Guggenheim, and it bounces from literary infighting at the New Yorker, to erotic entanglements downtown, to the post-Stonewall burgeoning gay scene of artists and writers. This is a candid portrait of time and place; a book of gossip, sex and genius and living on the breadline, by one of the most engaging writers of his generation. This is above all a book that celebrates friendship as one of the most important components of the life well lived. Also check out other fiction and non-fiction by Edmund White. Paperback, 304 Pages, Published 2009
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