Genet: A Biography
- Book Review,
by Edmund White
Amazon.com
The definitive biography of Jean Genet, the incomparable French novelist whose works echo with themes of violent hierarchies, rituals of power and powerlessness and human identities as roles to be traded and manipulated. From his birth in 1911 to his adoption by foster parents and his tumultuous life as a runaway, thief, beggar and prostitute, Genet had remarkable powers of self-transformation, ultimately turning the pain of his life into writings that attracted the attention of literary trend-setter Jean Cocteau. Genet's work covered an amazing amount of social, political and intellectual territory. By diving into that which was awkward, ugly and painful, he emerged with the truth, transforming himself and others with its beauty. White earned the 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography for this fine work.
From Publishers Weekly
The NBCC Award-winning biography of Genet will be released in paperback in conjunction with two of White's novels, The Beautiful Room Is Empty ($11 ISBN -75540-3) and Forgetting Elena ($10 ISBN -75573-X). Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
French writer Jean Genet (1910-86) was a petty thief who produced some of the most revolutionary novels and plays of our time. White's massive biography illuminates the life and works of this "deeply contradictory man," although many events from his early years of vagabondage and prostitution are beyond retrieval. A greater mystery--which even White, an accomplished novelist ( A Boy's Own Story , LJ 9/1/82; The Beautiful Room Is Empty , LJ 3/1/88), cannot solve--is how someone of Genet's limited education could have produced a first novel of such magnitude as Our Lady of the Flowers ( LJ 11/1/63). (Parallels with the case of Shakespeare are not far-fetched.) This work is a labor of love and admiration. Essential for collections of modern literature. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/93.- Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times
(White) presents the life meticulously, reads Genet's work intelligently and writes beautifully.
From Kirkus Reviews
An exhaustive and perhaps definitive biography of the celebrated French writer and thief (1910-86), who looks almost human through the eyes of the much tamer White (The Beautiful Room is Empty, 1988, etc.). It's to Genet's credit that, once he became famous enough to establish a public persona, he quite frankly assumed the role of a criminal outcast. The son of an unknown father and an impoverished mother, Genet was raised in a dreary succession of orphanages and foster homes. As a child, he showed signs of great intelligence and creativity, but, as a ward of the state, he couldn't be educated for anything other than manual labor. Incorrigible and fiercely independent, he turned to theft at an early age and spent most of his adolescent years in reform schools and prisons. It was during this period that he became conscious of his homosexuality; throughout the rest of his life, he tried to insulate himself in masculine societies that re-created the brutal and isolated asylums of his youth. ``Boiling over with contradictions, Genet was cruel and sensitive,'' says White, ``a moralist who stole from friends, a petty thief who forged copies of his own quite genuine masterpieces.'' Genet's early writings--Our Lady of the Flowers and The Miracle of the Rose--brought him to the attention of Cocteau and the surrealists, but it was the patronage of Sartre that made Genet famous--and that brought him a pardon from the president of France. Ironically, Genet found it more difficult to write as a free man than as a prisoner, and, in his later years, he nearly stopped working altogether. He finally left France for Morocco (where he's buried) and took up the cause of the Palestinians. A thorough and painstaking job that, however, could have been accomplished in half the space. Scholars will find Genet essential; most others will find a lot to skim. (Useful notes; 16 pages of photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
'Dazzling. Genet has found a scrupulous, meticulous chronicler in Edmund White.' -- Philip Henscher, The Guardian
'An absorbing and magisterial biography...a labor of love in every sense. A comparable achievement [is] Richard Ellmann's biography of Oscar Wilde.'
-- John Bayley, The Evening Standard
'Elegant, meticulous and wholly satisfying.'
-- Brian Masters, The Sunday telegraph
'White has caught the uncatchable man -- the public Genet as well as the recluse: no better praise can be given a biographer.'
-- Paul Bailey, The Daily Telegraph
From the Hardcover edition.
Review
'Dazzling. Genet has found a scrupulous, meticulous chronicler in Edmund White.' -- Philip Henscher, The Guardian
'An absorbing and magisterial biography...a labor of love in every sense. A comparable achievement [is] Richard Ellmann's biography of Oscar Wilde.'
-- John Bayley, The Evening Standard
'Elegant, meticulous and wholly satisfying.'
-- Brian Masters, The Sunday telegraph
'White has caught the uncatchable man -- the public Genet as well as the recluse: no better praise can be given a biographer.'
-- Paul Bailey, The Daily Telegraph
From the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
A meticulously researched biography of Jean Genet, one of France's most notorious writers. Acclaimed novelist and essayist Edmund White illuminates Genet's experiences in the worlds of crime, homosexuality, politics, and high culture, and gives a compelling analysis of Genet's plays, novels, and essays. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.
From the Inside Flap
A meticulously researched biography of Jean Genet, one of France's most notorious writers. Acclaimed novelist and essayist Edmund White illuminates Genet's experiences in the worlds of crime, homosexuality, politics, and high culture, and gives a compelling analysis of Genet's plays, novels, and essays. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.
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