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Illustrated portrait of Linda

A character in A Boy's Own Story

Linda

A girl onto whom the narrator projects the heterosexual future he thinks he should want.

What they want in White’s narrator’s account

To live her own adolescent social life rather than serve as somebody else’s imagined cure.

The book

Cover of A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White
A Boy's Own StoryEdmund White, 1982

A boy learns shame early and tries every available way to turn himself into someone else.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Linda represents less a fulfilled romance than the social meaning of heterosexual normality. The narrator’s interest reveals the difference between wanting a person and wanting the future attached to her.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • PolishedShe appears socially composed within mid-century expectations.
  • PopularHer ease represents the ordinary future the narrator imagines.
  • Projected uponMuch of her significance comes from what he wants her to symbolize.
  • Not a solutionShe cannot transform desire that is not directed toward her.

If you like A Boy's Own Story

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If you like Edmund White

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