OUR YOUNG MAN

Our Young Man follows the life of a gorgeous Frenchman, Guy, as he goes from the industrial city of Clermont-Ferrand to the top of the modeling profession in New York City's fashion world, becoming the darling of Fire Island's gay community. Like Wilde's Dorian Grey, Guy never seems to age; at thirty-five he is still modeling, still enjoying lavish gifts from older men who believe he's twenty-three--though their attentions always come at a price. Ambivalently, Guy lets them believe, driven especially by the memory of growing up poor, until he finds he needs the lie to secure not only wealth, but love itself. Surveying the full spectrum of gay amorous life through the disco era and into the age of AIDS, Edmund White (who wrote for Vogue for ten years) explores the power of physical beauty--to fascinate, to enslave, and to deceive--with sparkling wit and pathos.

Tanarul nostru urmareste viata unui francez superb, Guy, in timp ce pleaca din orasul industrial Clermont-Ferrand in varful profesiei de model in lumea modei din New York, devenind iubitul comunitatii gay a Fire Island. La fel ca Dorian Gray al lui Wilde, Guy nu pare sa imbatraneasca niciodata; la treizeci si cinci de ani, el inca mai modeleaza, bucurandu-se in continuare de cadouri generoase de la barbati mai in varsta care cred ca are douazeci si trei de ani - desi atentiile lor sunt intotdeauna la pret.