The Humble Lover

December 1, 2022

When high-society octogenarian Aldwych West falls for gorgeous New York City Ballet soloist August Dupond, the young man is soon living in the imperious Aldwych's apartment in a sort of sponsor/lover/friendship blend. Then August starts bringing home lovers of his own, and a woman in Aldwych's circle takes an interest in his career. From a National Book Foundation honoree for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 9, 2023
In White’s audacious latest (after A Previous Life), wealthy Manhattanite Aldwych West pursues the younger August Dupond, principal dancer for the New York City Ballet. The 80-year-old’s aching desire for the 20-year-old enfant terrible leads to a live-in relationship that upends each of their lives. August prefers Gatorade to champagne, brings home other lovers, and engages in hardcore BDSM with his partners. Aldwych, meanwhile, hatches a plan to win August’s affections that involves launching a new ballet company, which would allow August to fulfill his creative potential. Philanthropic investment banker Bryce gets involved with the project, and Bryce’s dominatrix wife, Ernestine, arranges for an “afternoon of pleasure and pain” with herself, August, and a sex worker. As the sexual paths of these “perfidious lovers” continue to cross, Aldwych stumbles through his increasingly quixotic endeavor, and White brings it all together in a shocking and baroque conclusion. As ever, White is a master of social comedy and wry observations (on the source of Aldwych’s wealth: “His family had invented the microwave, or maybe something older, like the kitchen stove”). Explicit descriptions of August’s sex life, meanwhile, not only titillate but add poignancy to the portrayal of Aldwych’s elusive desire. Readers will delight in this immersion into a lurid world of passion. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency.

March 1, 2023
Vastly wealthy, 79-year-old Aldwych is a dedicated balletomane who is head over heels for August, a 20-year-old principal with the New York City Ballet. Aldwych meets August and proposes that they move in together. August offhandedly accepts on the condition that Aldwych not fall in love with him. Aldwych eagerly agrees (uh-huh) and manages to keep his part of the bargain (well, almost) until August brings Pablo home with him and the two start an affair. Things get complicated when Ernestine, the sadistic wife of Aldwych's (masochistic) nephew, enters the scene. A kind of bargain-basement dominatrix, she is determined to woo August away from Aldwych and Pablo. And--to their horror--she rather improbably does, making August her slave and convincing him that he's actually straight. White's literary soap opera is engaging and compulsively readable, and in typical White fashion, there is more than a soup�on of sex--much more in fact, and much of it graphic. Despite everything, Aldwych remains in love with August to the end. He has our sympathy.

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April 1, 2023
A gay older gentleman's passion for a handsome ballet dancer assumes mythic proportions, with mythic consequences. "His mother used to say there were only four good subjects for conversation in a disparate group: very complicated Indian food, a baby, a puppy, or the weather," recalls Aldwych West early in this narrative of his doomed and desperate passion for 20-year-old August Dupond. There are times in White's latest when readers might find themselves wishing for a vignette concerning one of these anodyne topics. Studded with endless witticisms and brilliant social comedy, this book is likely the most clever and creative pornographic novel ever written by an octogenarian. No, it's not all sex--there's also ballet. August and his female friend Zaza are principal dancers in the New York City Ballet, and both the artistic and business aspects play a role here. Aldwych at first has the impression that French Canadian August is a bit of a dolt, but after the two men become chaste roommates in Aldwych's spacious apartment, August opens up and speaks eloquently about dancing. Aldwych watches in pain as August takes up with Pablo, then with Ernestine, an evil, shallow dominatrix who is married to Aldwych's nephew. When Aldwych senses that August is losing interest, he devises a plan to start his own ballet company with his idol at its center--kicking off the most energetic phase of life he's ever known, complete with a staff and meetings and the possibility that he should stop drinking. (He doesn't.) Unfortunately, Ernestine's ruinous schemes are well underway. White has perhaps taken Nijinsky as his model here, whose late career also inspires his main character: "Like a dragonfly who has only fifty days to live, he must do something remarkable with each one, something scandalous, something new." Everything you love about White, explicit sex, French champagne, and insouciant murder included.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 2, 2023

In White's latest, a wild, sex-filled, multigenerational balletic taunt, August is a leading dancer with the New York City ballet. Aldwych is a wealthy benefactor of the ballet, very much an admirer of August, and very, very much his elder. At the outset, the age difference doesn't seem to bother August. Indeed, he appears not to give a second thought to becoming Aldwych's roommate when the offer is extended. Free room and board, sign August up! Of course, Aldwych wishes for romance but doesn't force it, instead allowing August to take up with other men and women. In a final effort to secure August's affection, Aldwych goes so far as to drain away all his wealth by forming a startup ballet company in which, of course, August would be the star. When August makes other plans, Aldwych quickly descends into madness. The ending of the story is abrupt and unsettling, not entirely satisfying and yet, somehow, sort of perfect. VERDICT All told, this is a quirky journey from White, recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, that will undoubtedly deliver to devotees as well as those new to the prolific author.--Joel D. Shoemaker

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.