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.
WINNER
| 1993 Lambda Book Award
WINNER
| 1993 National Book Critics Circle Awards
'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.'
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.
Awards
WINNER
| 1993 Lambda Book Award
WINNER
| 1993 National Book Critics Circle Awards
Praise
'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.'
