Jack Holmes and His Friend

January 23, 2012
In his latest novel, National Book Critics Circle award winner White (Genet: A Life) presents Jack Holmes, an unambitious editorial assistant at a cultural journal and Midwestern WASP who is initially conflicted by homosexuality and an unrequited fascination with co-worker Will Wright, a Catholic blueblood and aspiring novelist. White leaves little room to empathize with either character as they separately wind through frank sexual encounters during the â60s and â70s; their ambivalent relationship, which is eventually marked by collusion over adultery, emerges as one of self-centered though occasionally tender intentions. A plot that glosses over several intervening years to narrate from Willâs perspective in the second part and later returns to Jack in the third culminates in a mention of GRID (a protonym for AIDS)âa moment that serves more as a device to lead both men out of their âlibertineâ behavior within the span of a few sentences than as an historic, serious event worthy of reflectionâbest-suited for fans of Whiteâs previous work, as well as readers intrigued by complex friendships.