The Married ManAustin is an American furniture scholar living in Paris. He is pushing fifty, loveless, drifting. One day at the gym he meets Julien: French, an architect, much younger and married. Against every expectation, this chance acquaintance matures into profound romance. As the two men dash between bohemian suppers and sophisticated salons, their only impediments are the easily surmountable and comic clashes of culture, age and temperament. Inevitably, however, Julien's past catches up with them. With increasing desperation, in a quest to save health and happiness, they move from the shuttered squares of Venice to sun-drenched Key West, to Montreal in the snow and Providence in the rain. But it is amid the bleak, baking sands of the Sahara that their love is pushed to its ultimate crisis. Haunting and deeply moving, The Married Man carries the reader along with its protagonists into uncharted emotional territory, over the rim of love and loss. It is Edmund White's finest novel. |
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Ajax American apartment Austin asked Austin felt Austin knew Austin thought beautiful Belle-Île Berber Big Julien blue brother called Christine cold course dinner doctor door dressed drove Edmund White English Erfoud Ethiopia everything eyes Fabrice face father feel Forgetting Elena France French friends furniture girl Gregg hair hand he'd head Henry Île Saint-Louis Joséphine Julien and Austin Key West kids kiss laughed least Little Julien lived looked lover Lucy Marrakesh married morning Morocco mother never Nice night once painted Paris past Père Lachaise Peter Petit Robert seemed sexual side sleep smell smile someone stay street suddenly sure talk Taroudant thing told took tourists turned Venice Vladimir voice walked wanted week whispered who'd window woman women word worry York young