Edmund White's most important books

Edmund White's novels include Fanny: A Fiction, A Boy's Own Story, The Farewell Symphony, and A Married Man. He is also the author of a biography of Jean Genet, a study of Marcel Proust, The Flâneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, and his memoir, My Lives. His latest novel is Hotel de Dream.

White recently told Newsweek about his five most important books.

And he addressed two other book-related issues:

A classic book that, upon rereading, disappointed:

John Fowles's The Magus was thin at a second look.

A much-recommended book that you've resisted reading:

I've never read anything by Margaret Atwood — maybe because I found her double reputation as a feminist and a Canadian daunting.

Read about White's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue