In French caracole means "prancing"; in English, "caper." Both words perfectly describe this high-spirited erotic adventure. In Caracole, White invents an entire world where country gentry languish in decaying mansions and foppish intellectuals exchange lovers and gossip in an occupied city that resembles both Paris under the Nazis and 1980s New York. To that city comes Gabriel, an awkward boy from the provinces whose social na vet and sexual ardor make him endlessly attractive to a variety of patrons and paramours. "A seduction through language, a masque without masks, Caracole brings back to startling life a dormant strain in serious American writing: the idea of the romantic."--Cynthia Ozick
Author: Edmund White Publisher: Vintage Published: 05/28/1996 Pages: 352 Binding Type: Paperback Weight: 0.89lbs Size: 8.62h x 5.38w x 0.77d ISBN: 9780679764168
Review Citation(s): New York Times 06/09/1996 pg. 36
About the Author Edmund White was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1940. His fiction includes the autobiographical trilogy A Boy's Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, andThe Farewell Symphony, as well as Caracole, Forgetting Elena, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, andSkinned Alive, a collection of short stories. He is also the author of a highly acclaimed biography of Jean Genet, a short study of Proust, a travel book about gay America--States of Desire--and Our Paris. He is an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and teaches at Princeton University. He lives in New York City.