QueerTelevision: Give us a synopsis of A Married Man?
Edmund White: The Married Man is a novel. It's loosely autobiographical in that there's the main character who, much like me, has lived in Paris for many years, and who's an American, and who's middle-aged and his name is Austin.

He meets a young married man, who's French, and the married man is separated and about to get divorced. they begin an affair, and early into the affair Austin confesses to Julian that he is HIV positive. And Julian has never really even thought of this as a problem - not as a real problem that could happen to real people. And he thinks it over and finally decides that he's quite hooked on Austin, and so he's willing to take care of him because he thinks that's inevitable.

Anyway, the paradox of the book is that, it's Austin that ends up taking care of Julian. So it's really a love story, and it's a story that deals with AIDS, and it's a story that takes place over three different continents: Europe, the USA and finally, Morocco.

QT: What are the similarities between you and Austin?
EW: Austin and I have a lot of things in common. He's a freelance writer who's stationed in Paris and who gets a lot of work because he speaks pretty good French. And he writes for the shelter magazines like House & Gardens and he does articles about people's houses for Vogue and so on. And I did all that too. So it's a career that I know something about.

And I had a lover, who's real name was Hubert, who was an architect and who turned himself into an illustrator. Anyway, our affair was very similar, and especially Hubert's death was very similar to the one Julian goes through in North Africa.

QT:A Married Man: Is this your best work?
EW:This is a more traditional novel than say, The Farewell Symphony, which was all over the place - an epic with hundreds of characters and it took place over 25 years - whereas [A Married Man] is a more traditional novel in that it dwells on 2 main characters and it covers their affair from the very beginning to the very end. It's more controlled than some of my earlier work, and I think a lot of people feel it is my best novel. I hope it is. I like to think I'm getting better.

QT:Why did you write it? For you personally, what did it mean?
EW:At the end of The Farewell Symphony, I talk about a character I call Brice, and I wonder if I'll have the courage to tell his story, and in fact, I never do have the courage. And in real life, it was too close to the death of my lover Hubert to really write about it. Plus, I thought, at the end of a very long, complicated novel, I didn't want to tack on his story and tax the attention of an already weary reader.

This is a story that really deserves its own book and I need to wait until I'm ready to tell the story. And my editor actually pushed me to write it now. I would have put it off for another couple of years, I suppose. But I think he was wise because I think I resisted because I knew it would be painful to relive, but on the other hand, it was important to write before I forgot all of the details.

QT:Was writing this book cathartic?
EW:I think the traditional thing to say is, "This book was very cathartic, and now I've laid that ghost to rest", but for me - no. There's not a day that goes by that I don't still think about Hubert, and I think I also have a lot of guilt feelings toward him. I think when somebody dies young, and you're in love with him and you go on living, you inevitably feel guilty. And I must say, I'm a little worried about when it comes out in French in the fall - and what his brother will think about it all.

QT:What are you worried about?
EW:His brother's not a big reader and I think people who aren't especially interested in literature when they hear you're writing something about their beloved brother who's died, they expect it to be all praise, and to even show him in a better light than he ever was or anybody could be. So I'm just a little worried that he's going to feel that I've undersold Hubert.