"Some people celebrate turning 85 with grandchildren, gardening or a nice cake. White has published a gaspingly graphic, jaunty and tender sex memoir: a guided tour of gay desire in which libido is the wellspring of just about everything." -- New York Times Book Review (Editors'' Choice) "White once estimated he''d had three thousand partners . and his prose here, as ever, is so redoubtably stylish that I almost wish he''d enshrined every last tryst in print . Line for line, I can''t recall the last time I enjoyed reading anything so much." -- Harper''s Magazine "Gaspingly graphic, jaunty and tender.It''s far from a solemn capstone to White''s long and distinguished career. More like a mischievous rock-skipping in the moonshadow.
excavatory and excellent.In the current political climate, twisting back toward repression, The Loves of My Life, slim as it is, lands louder and prouder than it otherwise might have." -- New York Times "The novelist Edmund White lived through the furtive 1950s, when being gay was a crime; the brief, exuberant post-Stonewall years; and the decade when AIDS tore through his community of friends and lovers. But this outline is far more serious than White''s joking and explicit memoir, in which pleasure is always the goal.It''s all sexy, funny, and romantic, too." -- Vulture, "The Best Books of 2025 (So Far)" "Blunt, raunchy, explicit, nostalgic, and unapologetically sex-forward, this memoir will excite, enchant, delight, and, perhaps most of all, make the reader truly appreciate everything that is Edmund White." -- Bay Area Reporter "As juicy, ebullient, and ecstatic as [White''s through the furtive 1950s, when being gay was a crime; the brief, exuberant post-Stonewall years; and the decade when AIDS tore through his community of friends and lovers. But this outline is far more serious than White''s joking and explicit memoir, in which pleasure is always the goal.
It''s all sexy, funny, and romantic, too." -- Vulture, "The Best Books of 2025 (So Far)" "Blunt, raunchy, explicit, nostalgic, and unapologetically sex-forward, this memoir will excite, enchant, delight, and, perhaps most of all, make the reader truly appreciate everything that is Edmund White." -- Bay Area Reporter "As juicy, ebullient, and ecstatic as [White''s through the furtive 1950s, when being gay was a crime; the brief, exuberant post-Stonewall years; and the decade when AIDS tore through his community of friends and lovers. But this outline is far more serious than White''s joking and explicit memoir, in which pleasure is always the goal.It''s all sexy, funny, and romantic, too." -- Vulture, "The Best Books of 2025 (So Far)" "Blunt, raunchy, explicit, nostalgic, and unapologetically sex-forward, this memoir will excite, enchant, delight, and, perhaps most of all, make the reader truly appreciate everything that is Edmund White." -- Bay Area Reporter "As juicy, ebullient, and ecstatic as [White''s through the furtive 1950s, when being gay was a crime; the brief, exuberant post-Stonewall years; and the decade when AIDS tore through his community of friends and lovers. But this outline is far more serious than White''s joking and explicit memoir, in which pleasure is always the goal.
It''s all sexy, funny, and romantic, too." -- Vulture, "The Best Books of 2025 (So Far)" "Blunt, raunchy, explicit, nostalgic, and unapologetically sex-forward, this memoir will excite, enchant, delight, and, perhaps most of all, make the reader truly appreciate everything that is Edmund White." -- Bay Area Reporter "As juicy, ebullient, and ecstatic as [White''se, "The Best Books of 2025 (So Far)" "Blunt, raunchy, explicit, nostalgic, and unapologetically sex-forward, this memoir will excite, enchant, delight, and, perhaps most of all, make the reader truly appreciate everything that is Edmund White." -- Bay Area Reporter "As juicy, ebullient, and ecstatic as [White''s] best novels." -- The Observer "With his trademark irreverence, White celebrates more than six decades of sex in a candid memoir that doubles as an indispensable work of queer history . Delightfully raunchy and affecting, this steamy account is full of pleasures." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "In crisply written episodes laced with a wry sense of humor about his own shortcomings and social foibles, White remains a talented, carnally flagrant raconteur whose memoir thumps with the palpably racing heartbeat of life, sex, love, and unbridled desire. An irreverent and unapologetically provocative scrapbook of an aging author''s sex life.
" -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review "I don''t know anyone, except Edmund White, who''s had ''thousands of sex partners.'' I definitely don''t know anyone who writes so ebulliently about former lovers. In his panoply of sexual encounters, Edmund White''s love of sex makes us proud to be human. And the story of his sex life reads like a beautifully crafted, very moving (and very funny!) novel." -- John Irving "Ecstatic, so funny, tender, very hot - a scintillating romp with a literary lion. Daddy''s diary fully delivers, pungent and real, teeming with gasp-worthy disclosures, as illuminating as it is filthy." -- Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of GAY BAR and DEEP HOUSE "Edmund White''s The Loves of My Life is a raw, frightening, funny, and beautiful testimony, brimming with transgressive wisdom. White asks all the right questions, forcing me to expand much of what I imagined about desire and longing.
There''s so much of the under-examined (sex) life laid bare here-enough to make grown folks blush. But it was the skilled explorations of the twin demons of hatred and self-hatred that broke me down and broke me open. The Loves of My Life is an invaluable historical understanding of how gay men navigate perpetually hostile terrain and sometimes manage to avoid its death traps." -- Robert Jones, Jr., New York Times bestselling author of THE PROPHETS, a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction "Nearly 50 years after the great Edmund White co-authored The Joy of Gay Sex, we get even more joy, more candor, and more of White''s peerless literary style in a witty and highly personal memoir devoted to a lifelong love of sex, and of sex and love. Fabulous-and inspiring!" -- Bill Hayes, author of IINSOMNIAC CITY: NEW YORK, OLIVER, AND ME "Balletic in its horniness." -- Jami Attenberg, author of THE MIDDLESTEINS "Exhaustively wonderful. An unflinching, romantic, and generous climax by a bright star in our literary constellation.
The gayest book ever written." -- Henry Hoke, author of OPEN THROAT "One of the patron saints of queer literature, a new book from Edmund White is always a cause for celebration. The Loves of My Life feels like the culmination of a profound wisdom - wry, hilarious, moving, and brilliantly unreserved. This litany of lovers becomes a sort of community in itself, full of vitality and difference. White is still breaking taboos in the most joyous and virtuoso style." -- Seán Hewitt, author of ALL DOWN DARKNESS WIDE "The books by 80-year-old American novelist, memoirist and essayist Edmund White-honest, fierce and joyful explorations of love, sex and family-have been breaking boundaries and engaging readers for nearly 50 years." -- AARP "[Edmund White isbeautifully crafted, very moving (and very funny!) novel." -- John Irving "Ecstatic, so funny, tender, very hot - a scintillating romp with a literary lion.
Daddy''s diary fully delivers, pungent and real, teeming with gasp-worthy disclosures, as illuminating as it is filthy." -- Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of GAY BAR and DEEP HOUSE "Edmund White''s The Loves of My Life is a raw, frightening, funny, and beautiful testimony, brimming with transgressive wisdom. White asks all the right questions, forcing me to expand much of what I imagined about desire and longing. There''s so much of the under-examined (sex) life laid bare here-enough to make grown folks blush. But it was the skilled explorations of the twin demons of hatred and self-hatred that broke me down and broke me open. The Loves of My Life is an invaluable historical understanding of how gay men navigate perpetually hostile terrain and sometimes manage to avoid its death traps." -- Robert Jones, Jr., New York Times bestselling author of THE PROPHETS, a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction "Nearly 50 years after the great Edmund White co-authored The Joy of Gay Sex, we get even more joy, more candor, and more of White''s peerless literary style in a witty and highly personal memoir devoted to a lifelong love of sex, and of sex and love.
Fabulous-and inspiring!" -- Bill Hayes, author of IINSOMNIAC CITY: NEW YORK, OLIVER, AND ME "Balletic in its horniness." -- Jami Attenberg, author of THE MIDDLESTEINS "Exhaustively wonderful. An unflinching, romantic, and generous climax by a bright star in our literary constellation. The gayest book ever written." -- Henry Hoke, author of OPEN THROAT "One of the patron saints of queer literature, a new book from Edmund White is always a cause for celebration. The Loves of My Life feels like the culmination of a profound wisdom - wry, hilarious, moving, and brilliantly unreserved. This litany of lovers becomes a sort of community in itself, full of vitality and difference. White is still breaking taboos in the most joyous and virtu.