Edmund White's, The Beautiful Room is Empty

I am still chewing out the insides of my mouth over this book. Personally, this is a sign of frustration and a habit that comes from some level of deep thought. I am not entirely sure which aspect of this book sets off such a reaction--there are many that contribute-but all are products of the main character, White, and his relationships to the women in his life.

My only true qualm with this book is the fickleness of the narrator that seems to never be remedied. The rapidity with which he discards loved ones, friends and family alike, is disturbing. We see this with Annie, someone he considers family: "I started dating Annie Schroeder, although I sometimes felt I was carting an aunt about." (White 75). Between suffering of dementia, eating disorders, and loving a man who does not love back, we see this woman reduced to a blubbering mess, being cradled by her psychiatrist who lacks the power to help her. We get the feeling that the narrator is truly the only person who can help her, yet he walks out on her in a vulnerable moment. We later learn that Annie is hospitalized and White, in his nonchalant way, discards the information.

This happens again with Maria. The depth of White and Maria's relationship is made obvious to the reader with many allusions to marriage, Love, and acts of sex. However, much like Annie, White easily discards Maria for his own sexual expedition. There is a wrenching scene where white makes a conscious decision to disregard this relationship:

Yet something kept me from answering her letters. I resolved every morning to write her; but every night I went to bed without having mailed off a letter. Her letters dropped daily into my box. Then two weeks of silence. Then this letter: "Dumpling, you haven't written or called in a month, an insulting silence I can only assume is intended as rejection. No lover would act the way you have. I accuse you of gross neglect. (White 159).

While certain empty calls of "lover" are made throughout the novel, the bond between White and Maria was more than a surface attraction: they were both homosexuals, yet attracted to each other across a gender barrier. The fact that such a letter from Maria fails to get a single reaction from White is both alarming and saddening: had he never cared, or was he "growing out of" his love to Maria?

This elicits another reaction on my part to this book: most of the characters we meet are considered homosexuals, yet their attractions to other people aren't limited by this: Maria, who enjoys sex with men but only falls in love with other women; White, who, through the novel, falls in love with and beds both men and women, still aligns himself with homosexuals. William Everett Hunton openly admits his interest in women, and though we aren't told specifically, we are given the impression that he sleeps with Annie. Yet, he is a self-pronounced "size queen" and still considers himself strictly homosexual. With these lines blurred, it raises the question "what defines homosexuality if it isn't sexual attraction?" Also, if homosexuality can't be defined strictly by sexuality, how do you define heterosexuality?

I think this book goes through a definite period of ambiguity that raises certain questions that need to be raised, such as the ones above. I don't think the narrator takes the right steps to answer them, however, but I think that is more a limitation of the main character than the writer. We can easily pigeon-hole the questions with answers such as "he really wasn't gay" or "Maria wasn't a true lesbian," but I honestly do not think it is that clear cut. We see that nothing is ever clear when Love in concerned. If anything, White's book steps out just enough to blur certain lines, both of prejudice and definition. Although the narrator isn't mature enough to reciprocate Love, we understand that Maria's Love (and all aspects therein) for him is strong-something that transcends the bounds of her lesbianism and his homosexuality. This single idea alone makes the novel a success, taking yet another step in the general direction to answering the plague of a question "what is Love?"