Books: “The Humble Lover” by Edmund White

In “The Humble Lover,” Edmund White’s hilarious and somewhat prurient new novel, Aldwych, a wealthy New Yorker of a certain age, falls in lust with August, a young male dancer he sees at a performance of the New York City Ballet. Aldwych decides he must have him. So after sending him a few dozen roses at curtain calls and treating him to late dinners at French bistros, August agrees to move in with Aldwych but forbids anything sexual. Aldwych reluctantly agrees.

August, a rising star who hails from a small town in Canada, lives for his art. Aldwych lives for August, and becomes so enamored of him he invests a fortune in keeping him happy. Meanwhile, others want to get their tenterhooks into August, including Pablo, a young bisexual hustler who’s a part-time bike mechanic; and Ernestine, a kinky heiress who is married to Aldwych’s nephew and who wants to “turn” August straight.

Aldwych’s obsession with unobtainable youth and beauty is nothing new: we see it in Aschenbach’s love for Tadzio in “Death in Venice”, and in Professor Rath’s lust for Lola Lola in “The Blue Angel.” White takes it one step beyond, making the saga of Aldwych and August alternately comic and tragic.

White’s knowledge of the world of dance is impressive. As is his observation that in both gay and straight society, old age can be a curse while youth is currency. That may be especially for a ballet dancer, whose average shelf life is slightly longer than the attention span of a gnat. An interesting read.

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