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Cleanness

Garth Greenwell (Goodreads Author)

4.01 · Rating details · 1,990 ratings · 332 reviews

In the highly anticipated follow-up to his beloved debut, What Belongs to You, Garth Greenwell deepens his exploration of foreignness, obligation, and desire

Sofia, Bulgaria, a landlocked city in southern Europe, stirs with hope and impending upheaval. Soviet buildings crumble, wind scatters sand from the far south, and political protesters flood the streets with song.

In th ...more

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Hardcover, 240 pages

Published January 14th 2020 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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Jan 03, 2020 Adam Dalva rated it it was amazing

Update: my review for Guernica https://t.co/eVGFG3Fj0j

What a book - audacious, innovative, sometimes disturbing, sometimes romantic. It feels like a short story collection but in many ways functions as a novel, or perhaps more like a symphony. The masterful center of CLEANNESS shows 3 vignettes from the lead's (this isn't a spoiler) doomed romance. The 6 non-chronological stories that surround it initially seem disconnected, but are linked, both thematically and structurally. (1 and 6 are about ...more

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Jan 16, 2020 Michael rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2020

Much like Greenwell’s debut, What Belongs to You, Cleanness considers the fraught relationship between sex, power, and communication for queer men traumatized by repressive childhoods. This collection of linked short stories follows an unnamed gay American expat living and teaching English in Bulgaria as he seeks out humiliating hook-ups, struggles to sustain an LTR, and frets about his adopted nation’s political upheaval. All the stories focus on gay characters’ inability to form lasting bonds ...more

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Sep 18, 2019 Meike rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-read, usa

I have a hunch that this major release will be polarizing, which only speaks to its poetic power and daring structure - I am deeply impressed by Greenwell's achievement. At the heart, this is a story about a gay American teacher in Sofia, Bulgaria, who wins and loses the heart of a young man from Lisboa - consequently, these events are told in the middle section of the novel, entitled "Loving R.". The first and the last third of the book offer three vignettes each that illustrate the unnamed tea I have a hunch that this major release will be polarizing, which only speaks to its poetic power and daring structure - I am deeply impressed by Greenwell's achievement. At the heart, this is a story about a gay American teacher in Sofia, Bulgaria, who wins and loses the heart of a young man from Lisboa - consequently, these events are told in the middle section of the novel, entitled "Loving R.". The first and the last third of the book offer three vignettes each that illustrate the unnamed teacher's life in Bulgaria, his experiences and desires and the repercussions of his love to R.. Greenwell is a fantastic psychological writer, diving deep into the thoughts, subconscious urges and conscious longings of his main character, and the result is not for the timid: If you think you read explicit sex scenes, think again ("At times in this book, I had the goal of writing a scene that was, at once, one hundred percent pornographic and one hundred percent high art", Greenwell explains). The author uses those elaborate and detailed episodes, always told from a first-person perspective, to show sex as a form of communication, to illustrate the workings of sexual desire and what it might be rooted in, and this intention is extremely well executed. On many levels, this is a book about sex, power and control.

So let's go back to the main character and his lover R. for a second. While the former teaches English to high school students, R. is a college exchange student. Our protagonist explains: "Sex had never been joyful for me before, or almost never, it had always been fraught with shame and anxiety and fear, all of which vanished at the sight of his smile, simply vanished, it poured a kind of cleanness over everything we did." The narrator perceives this love as clean, as pure, and some of his sexual desires as shameful, which represents a toxic version of the ideal of cleanness - a complex dynamic that runs through the whole book. The teacher and R. stay together for two years, even after R. has to leave the city, but then their relationship collapses (no spoiler, it becomes clear very early on). Greenwell effectively conveys the inner workings of this transformative relationship, and the fact that the narration is limited to the teacher's point of view makes the reader question the validity of the account.

The other six vignettes all take place after the teacher and R. split up. They are very atmospheric and present a kaleidoscopic account of who and where our narrator is. In part 1, we read about our protagonist
- meeting with a troubled and distressed student who comes out to him hoping to find sympathy and advice for his situation as a gay man in conservative Bulgaria;
- visting a man he met online for a BDSM sex date;
- taking part in anti-government protests.

In part 3, we read about our protagonist
- spending time with Bulgarian writers;
- having very rough sex with a man he met online;
- going out with acquaintances shortly before he leaves Sofia.

All of these present events evoke memories of the narrator's past and reveal their deeper subjective meaning through them. And yes, the book is intentionally disparate, but the voice of the narrator manages to hold it together: The striking details, the gripping descriptions of shifting emotions, the acute perceptions. The writing is captivating and develops a very peculiar dynamic, the mounting curiosity being rooted in the question what other aspects of the main character Greenwell will reveal and how the author will further investigate his central theme, the ambiguity of desire (Greenwell: "I do think one component of desire is always a kind of desire for obliteration of the self, whether we figure that as a metaphysical experience of union and transcendence, or as the desire to be made nothing").

This is daring, fresh, unusual literature, telling a story with no holds barred, showing alienated characters who long for pain and degradation, but also for love. There is something brutal about this narrative, but it's never intentionally shocking. Greenwell himself taught literature at the American College in Sofia, and his first novel What Belongs to You was also set there (and was also a triptych, just like "Cleanness"). The author's approach might thus be compared to Édouard Louis' autobiographically tinged writing. "Cleanness" is a fascinating read and will certainly make waves. ...more

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Jan 25, 2020 Larry H rated it really liked it

4.5 stars.

Poetic and powerful, Cleanness is demonstration of a writer at the top of his game.

In his second novel, which is more a collection of interconnected short stories, Garth Greenwell continues his exploration of sexuality, intimacy, desire, and the connections we make and lose.

In Sofia, Bulgaria, the unnamed narrator, an American teacher, prepares to return home after a number of years abroad. He reflects on encounters and memories which affected him—the confessions of a student about ...more

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Jan 07, 2020 Ron Charles rated it it was amazing

Shelves: guys-wandering

Four years ago, Garth Greenwell published a debut novel about an American teacher who falls in love with a gay hustler in Bulgaria. “What Belongs to You” might have withered unnoticed in the weeds of literary fiction. Its plot was cramped, its setting dank, its characters obscure. But none of that mattered. The book smoldered with lust and regret across pages of hypnotically gorgeous prose. Critics and other readers responded with awe to Greenwell’s unnerving insight into the tangled desires and ...more

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Sep 28, 2019 Doug rated it it was amazing

4.5, rounded up.

Those who were entranced (as I was) by Greenwell's first novel What Belongs to You, nominated for the NBA and numerous other book prizes, have reason to celebrate, since his new book is not even really a sequel as much as it is a continuation of that first book. The narrator/protagonist would seem to be identical: that is, a youngish gay American teaching literature and English in Sofia, Bulgaria. It more or less picks up where the previous book ends, and continues the adventures 4.5, rounded up.

Those who were entranced (as I was) by Greenwell's first novel What Belongs to You, nominated for the NBA and numerous other book prizes, have reason to celebrate, since his new book is not even really a sequel as much as it is a continuation of that first book. The narrator/protagonist would seem to be identical: that is, a youngish gay American teaching literature and English in Sofia, Bulgaria. It more or less picks up where the previous book ends, and continues the adventures, professional and romantic, of said individual, who would appear to be at least semi-autobiographical. [No worries if one HASN'T read the first book, since although knowledge of it would probably enhance one's experience, it is by no means necessary for enjoying this one.]

The book is divided into three sections, each three chapters long, which can roughly be designated as before, during, and after the central relationship depicted, which the narrator has with R. (all characters in the book are only designated by initials, which I found a slightly irritating tic, but let go quickly). R. is a younger student from Lisbon, who is restless and rather aimless, but provides the narrator with a focus he himself needs and desires. The 2nd and 8th chapters depict in graphic, almost pornographic detail, pick up encounters of an S & M nature the narrator has with anonymous strangers, in the first of which he is willingly passive, and in the latter of which he assumes the unfamiliar dominant role, and I am sure these will both garner lots of attention and be polarizing for many. But they are absolutely justified in delineating the growth of the protagonist, which would seem to be the author's intent, rather than mere prurience.

My only other (minor) quibble is that, since six of these stories were published previously as stand-alone short stories in various magazines and literary journals, they don't have a strong through line, but these short story collection/pseudo-novels seem to becoming more the norm these days (see: All That Man Is; Girl, Woman, Other; Disappearing Earth, etc.). And in an odd way, it also reminded me of Rachel Cusk's recent trilogy, in that one finds out much about the central figure through both internal thoughts and interactions with others.

I have a feeling this book will be an even bigger success for Greenwell, and probably go on to be nominated for, and possibly win, many book awards in 2020.

My sincere thanks to Netgalley and FS & G for an ARC of this book in exchange for this honest and enthusiastic review. ...more

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Nov 14, 2019 Blair rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-release, read-abroad, contemporary, sex-and-sexuality, edelweiss, read-on-kindle

Some books are like dreams that vanish from the memory once they're finished. Others are more like physical places: I can call their geography to mind, I feel I could step back into them if I wanted. Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You, which I read in 2016, fits into the latter category. I've retained a strong impression of the setting, the authorial voice, the general ambience of the book; I liked it a lot at the time, and this sense of gravity has solidified my idea of its greatness. So I w Some books are like dreams that vanish from the memory once they're finished. Others are more like physical places: I can call their geography to mind, I feel I could step back into them if I wanted. Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You, which I read in 2016, fits into the latter category. I've retained a strong impression of the setting, the authorial voice, the general ambience of the book; I liked it a lot at the time, and this sense of gravity has solidified my idea of its greatness. So I was keen to read this follow-up – not quite a sequel, but rather a 'continuation' of Belongs. Though the narrative never explicitly confirms it, all the details suggest this is the same protagonist, and most of the book is once again set in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Cleanness starts strong. In the first chapter/story, 'Mentor', the narrator meets a student, who makes a halting confession and tells a story that is familiar to the narrator from his own adolescence. It's compelling and affecting. The second and third – 'Gospodar', about a sexual encounter, and 'Decent People', about attending a protest march – are overlong, rambly, and anticlimactic. It is clear by this point that Cleanness is made up of separate scenes, loosely connected, if they are connected at all. Yet there is a throughline: at the (literal) centre of the book is the narrator's relationship with R., which has come to an inevitable end, leaving the narrator unmoored. Part 2, subtitled 'Loving R.', is dedicated to sketching out this relationship in more detail. Then we're back to disparate scenes: a night out with a group of writers, another hook-up, a night out with former students.

It's disappointing to have to write that I just didn't get much out of Cleanness and don't have much to say in conclusion. Greenwell's writing is beautiful – of course. But the book feels so thin. (Figuratively, I mean.) The connecting thread of the narrator's relationship with R. isn't enough to imbue the other scenes with meaning. I liked the prose; the rest left me cold.

I received an advance review copy of Cleanness from the publisher through Edelweiss.

TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr ...more

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Nov 04, 2019 Rachel rated it really liked it

Shelves: literary-fiction, published-in-2020, 2019, lgbt, netgalley

Cleanness is a sparse and melancholic novel about an American man living in Bulgaria. His sexual encounters with other men - some of these encounters loving, some purely transactional - mostly take center stage in this story that unfolds across nine vignettes, in which the narrator reflects on the time he's spent living and teaching in Sofia.

Greenwell's linguistic prowess is this book's greatest strength; I think On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is an obvious enough comparison, though they vary ...more

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Mar 03, 2020 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Having been in ‘aw’ from
Garth Greenwell’s book...
“What Belong’s To You”...
I knew I wanted to read this follow up.
His writing is tender, bold, thoughtful, compassionate....
unadulterated truth!
Breathtaking language.

I was on the San Francisco library/ ebook overdrive waitlist for months....
Finally my turn arrived.
Then....
I inhaled this book.
It can be read in a few hours....
But the lasting experience should last at least a few years.
Gorgeous writing....
....love, gay sex, intimacy, desire, lonel ...more

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May 01, 2020 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: glbtq, owned

Such expressive and detailed writing! Greenwell's meticulous descriptions work beautifully outdoors walking through cities in Bulgaria and in Italy, as well as in restaurants, relationships, and in the bedroom. Each scene is constantly being updated, yet the story keeps moving.

“Once this was Greek, there are still many Greeks here, they build many little churches we still have, and it was true, everywhere you looked there were tiny chapels, places to pray for fisherman out at sea. There was one ...more

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Jan 16, 2020 Darryl Suite rated it it was amazing

In Cleanness, we follow a gay American teacher, who works abroad in Bulgaria. The crux of the novel centers around our unnamed protagonist’s love affair with R. and their eventual undoing. Now let’s address the elephant in the room: THE SECOND CHAPTER. Let’s talk about that, friends. The second chapter revolves around the complexities of a consensual violent sexual encounter. It’s unabashedly frank, graphic… and thought-provoking. It examines the notion of wanting to be sexually controlled, and In Cleanness, we follow a gay American teacher, who works abroad in Bulgaria. The crux of the novel centers around our unnamed protagonist’s love affair with R. and their eventual undoing. Now let’s address the elephant in the room: THE SECOND CHAPTER. Let’s talk about that, friends. The second chapter revolves around the complexities of a consensual violent sexual encounter. It’s unabashedly frank, graphic… and thought-provoking. It examines the notion of wanting to be sexually controlled, and is an inside look at one man’s hunger to be physically and mentally mistreated all for the sake of pleasure. It’s the kind of provocative literature designed to make every part of your body engage with the text. This will be the make it or break it chapter for readers, folks.

Cleanness feels voyeuristic because we’re peeping into someone’s deepest and most sacred thoughts. We might feel like we have no right to bear witness to such emotional nakedness, but that is where the power of Cleanness lies. It feels very real, startlingly real. It is a multifaceted and unapologetic exploration of queerness. Queer love, desire, identity, even the unwanted murky baggage that can sometimes come along with it: confusion, self-loathing, displacement, fear, estrangement, suffering, heartbreak (sigh, that’s a tough one in this novel), longing.

Oh my, let me leave you on a high. Let’s talk about “The Frog King,” a chapter that is bewitching and downright romantic. It concludes with a euphoric moment where a character comes to the realization that he is loved, truly loved. It is an eruption of unbridled elation, and the swiftness of this revelation is both moving, tender, and unforgettable. It is definitely my favorite moment in the book. I have a feeling it will be the same for you. Ah, love at its most stunning.

Cleanness is a powerful force. It unnerved my senses, engulfed my heart, obliterated my emotions, and tapped into my soul even when I didn't want it to. I’m still trying to catch my breath over here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7rsiIOAe... ...more

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Dec 03, 2019 Erik rated it it was amazing

Shelves: lgbt

In yet another book that just "gets" it when it comes to queer experiences in 2019, Greenwell's latest book, "Cleanness," is a remarkable take on the darkness - and lightness - of queer being.

Written in much the same ethereal style as his other past works, "Cleanness" follows the narrator as he navigates his time teaching English in economically depressed Bulgaria. With chapters engaged with BDSM themes and chapters engaged with the complications and beauties of gay love and romance, Greenwell's ...more

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Feb 13, 2020 Matthew rated it really liked it

I’d met E. before, a half dozen years prior. Our worlds had collided through mutual friends, a dorm room party, heaping amounts of alcohol, a practical joke gone wrong. Being the butt of said joke, my initial perception of E. was clouded; I found her to be bitchy, cold, cutting. Conversely, she found me obnoxious, self-centered; I could hardly blame her. While a guise masking my own insecurities, I’d elevated my repugnance for reactive purposes, a metaphorical bear-poking. It worked.

As undergra I’d met E. before, a half dozen years prior. Our worlds had collided through mutual friends, a dorm room party, heaping amounts of alcohol, a practical joke gone wrong. Being the butt of said joke, my initial perception of E. was clouded; I found her to be bitchy, cold, cutting. Conversely, she found me obnoxious, self-centered; I could hardly blame her. While a guise masking my own insecurities, I’d elevated my repugnance for reactive purposes, a metaphorical bear-poking. It worked.

As undergrads we’d floated in and out of one another’s lives like apparitions, each of us playing our respective roles, until ultimately dissolving. Our once-converged lives diverged, seemingly never to be reconnected. Given our difficult relationship, I doubt E. thought much about this dissolution, or about me in general. Suffice to say I hadn’t thought about her, nor had I any reason to. She’d been filed away into a rolodex of blurry memories synonymous with college, with youth, with self-discovery.

So I was taken aback upon seeing E. a couple weeks back, and the rush of recollections that came with it. Admittedly they were mostly negative, but considering how last night went they’re ones I can now laugh at. Time has healed my wounds, so to speak, even if they’d hardly been wounds to begin with. She looked fantastic, elegant, better than I’d remembered. Had she always been so gorgeous? Probably. But I was too caught up in my own bullshit, too into playing my part in our one-act play, to notice.

But things are different now. We’re still getting over what happened last September. It’s caused us all to both sharpen and soften; we’ve never been edgier, or more vulnerable. Admittedly I’ve been reckless in the wake of everything, feeling as though my time is and will remain borrowed until it’s lost and gone forever.

When A. called to tell me E. had asked about me I was surprised by my reaction. Oh really? I thought, what about exactly? A. said E. had wondered when I’d “gotten hot” which was hilarious and embarrassing all the same. I was still getting used to myself, getting used to desire, to being desired. Loneliness drives one to think maniacally, to speculate, to do anything imaginable to avoid desperation, which is in a sense an entirely different type of desperation.

I began to imagine how E. saw me, put myself in her shoes, replaced my eyes with hers. She was not privy to anything I’d experienced the past few years, years in which I both came into my own and wandered waywardly, haphazardly, drunkenly through life like a vagabond hustler. I had so many voids, and I couldn’t help but think maybe E. could fill these voids, at least some of them. I was thinking like a madman, imagining a future with someone who I hadn’t even really spoken with in years, basing this hypothetical shared existence on a chance encounter, a few words, and, later, a singular secondhand comment. The potential alone held a resounding power, an ability to wipe away the grime and grit that I’d accumulated. I saw an opportunity to start anew, fresh, with a slate cleaned of everything that had sullied it.

Which brings me to last night, another chance encounter, though one orchestrated by A., whereupon she phoned me from around the corner all but begging me to meet her for a drink. I was hesitant, still filthy from the previous night’s shenanigans, antics of which I could hardly detail now. A. was insistent and so I obliged, brought J. along just for the company. As we walked over I had said to him that I was up for maybe one, two drinks at the most, to which he scoffed a “yeah, sure, M.” Entering Ye Olde it felt entirely different than the hundreds of times I’d entered it before, its persistent darkness glowing like a swarm of fireflies, shaking me out of my funk, bringing me to the present, energizing me. A. was in the back corner, half a pint deep, talking to a brunette whom I didn’t quite recognize from behind but would turn out to be E. E. whom I’d been thinking, no, fantasizing about. I gathered myself and my drink, and approached the table as though it were an audition.

It became pretty clear from the start it was a setup, A. leaving the table shortly after reintroductions were made, never to return. J. went off to play darts once he saw the balance had been compromised. I settled in and took in E.’s radiant face, the sparkle of her baby blues, the sharp cheekbones, the slight gap in her two front teeth that I’d forgotten I’d secretly loved way back when she was my nemesis. I was drawn to her not because I knew she was drawn to me; if anything, that made it all the more terrifying. I feared fucking it all up, letting my past get in the way of the here and now. But with each quip, each story told, each memory evoked, I grew more into myself, or more into the self I’d hoped I could become. I felt baptized.

Desire comes in so many forms, and last night it came in the form of one drink turning into many, one conversation leading the next, sentences being finished by the other, a communal carelessness one could only attribute to young love. I’m going to marry this girl, I thought. I’d marry her tonight if I could.

Instead I am just going to give her a call, even though I know she’ll be in the lab and won’t pick up. Now I just have to figure out what to say. I suppose I’ll just let my desire lead the charge. ...more

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Jan 23, 2020 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Shelves: read2020, reviewcopy, around-the-world, location-bulgaria, ebooks, netgalley

An early morning Instagram chat with Hardcoverheartsblog helped me solidify my feelings about this book. Much like Garth Greenwell's last novel, What Belongs to You, which I admit I never finished, the narrator feels like the author sharing stories from his time teaching English in Bulgaria. In a few he is quite young, some are during revolution, and in some he is older (but the narrator is the same.) His (very explicit and often challenging) sexual encounters, relationships, and friendships are ...more

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Sep 21, 2019 Paris (parisperusing) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020, books-on-gender, publisher-sent, arc, lgbtq, reads-for-relief, sexuality

Garth Greenwell's Cleanness is an erogenous, esoteric, hurt-so-good of a novel that outlines the poignant encounters of a gay American professor visiting from the south who forges bonds, both sexual and sentimental, with various men while teaching abroad in Sofia, Bulgaria. Although the focal point of the narrative peers from the most private localities of the speaker’s emotions — his clemency for a closeted student; the distress of filthy, fleeting affairs; the betrayals of true love coming to Garth Greenwell's Cleanness is an erogenous, esoteric, hurt-so-good of a novel that outlines the poignant encounters of a gay American professor visiting from the south who forges bonds, both sexual and sentimental, with various men while teaching abroad in Sofia, Bulgaria. Although the focal point of the narrative peers from the most private localities of the speaker’s emotions — his clemency for a closeted student; the distress of filthy, fleeting affairs; the betrayals of true love coming to its bittersweet end — Cleanness speaks volumes to the ways shame and solitude make queer men prisoners to their own desires.

Written in a similar vein as Greenwell’s lauded debut novel, What Belongs to You, Cleanness unfolds like a triptych of three parts. It’s opener, “1.” introduces the character G., a closeted gay student who, left licking his wounds after his first brush of unrequited love, sequesters to a smokey bar with his instructor, who imparts affection and empathy as the young man recalls the heartbreak he experiences after confessing his love for a childhood friend.

“If I could just kiss him, he said, his voice stripped now and small, if I could kiss him just once, that would be enough, I wouldn’t want anything more,” G. confesses to his mentor, who, like all gay men come to realize, that a life of contentment is in fact no life at all. The notion itself is an ageless lie, one of the first gay men internalize until nature has its way. It is the first flame of a slow-burning life.

Cleanness takes a sharp, sweet turn in “Loving R.,” perhaps the most hardcore and beguiling section of the novel, one that chronicles the speaker’s beautiful and torturous affair with a student called R. Neither seems to expect that, over the course of a single winter vacation, what would come of it is a blissful, seismic love. With marvelous prowess at rendering the benevolence and brutalities of gay ardor, anyone with an appetite for erotica will take tremendous delight in not only the paradisal backdrop Greenwell draws out for his lovers, but even more for the sensual, galvanizing prose that whets, as Greenwell so perfectly describes, “the G-spot of the story.”

“I held on more tightly to R. and drove into him more fiercely, drawing from him those noises of pain and of need, noises maybe of pleasure too. I wanted to root into him, even as the wind said all rootedness was a sham, poor harbors, I love you, I thought suddenly in that rush that makes so much seem possible, I love you, anything I am you have use for is yours.”

As most gay love stories, Greenwell remains faithful to the real-life fluctuations of intimacy and emotion that often precipitates an unhappy ending. Such is the case when the couple’s spree of pleasure and passion ebbs into the story’s finale, “III.,” wherein the speaker leans into the crushing blow of heartbreak and desperation after their two-year romance comes to an end. Longing without R., the narrator finds himself back in the clutches of loneliness, setting him off in search of when who, much like him, are plighted with subduing desires. “Like a flame submerged in glass, sealed off as always when I feel desire I shouldn’t feel,” the speaker says in describing not only himself but the unbearable pain of containing these compulsions.

In the years after R., those of groping through the darkness in search of a connection — from online dating chat rooms to the clandestine stalls hidden beneath the cold country above — what unfurls from that sensation is at once a feeling of intensity and rage — but is desire not equal parts both? Told with pure compassion and fervor, Cleanness is an arresting novel of dominating intimacy that is by turns heavy to bear and delicate to touch — a gorgeous story with a beating heart at its core.

If you liked my review, feel free to follow me @parisperusing on Instagram.
(Thank you, FSG, for sending me an early copy in exchange for a review.) ...more

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May 05, 2020 Janet rated it it was amazing

This is a tough book, in this pandemic year, I could not read it straight through, had to do it a story at a time. But well worth the slowness. The emotional rigor of this book--in the hands of a poet like Greenwell--was breathtaking. A novel in linked stories, Cleanness is "about" about a gay, 30-something American teacher in Bulgaria, his involvement with his students ("Mentor"); his deep, ground-note pull towards chaos and intensity and his own inchoate depths, pain and humiliation and intens This is a tough book, in this pandemic year, I could not read it straight through, had to do it a story at a time. But well worth the slowness. The emotional rigor of this book--in the hands of a poet like Greenwell--was breathtaking. A novel in linked stories, Cleanness is "about" about a gay, 30-something American teacher in Bulgaria, his involvement with his students ("Mentor"); his deep, ground-note pull towards chaos and intensity and his own inchoate depths, pain and humiliation and intense desire expressed in S&M (those who have trouble with manifestations of these extreme aspects of sexuality should approach the stories "Gospodar" and "The Little Saint" with care); his fellow-traveling the Bulgarian protests of 1989 ("Decent People"); and his grand love affair with the student R. who is Portuguese and has not come out to anyone but the narrator ("Cleanness," "The Frog King," "A Valediction"). Then his loneliness, acted out at an academic conference ("Harbor"); ending with a night out with his graduating students as his tenure in Bulgaria comes to a close ("An Evening Out.")

The most difficult chapters are also the most amazing--that he can take us through such intense, strange experiences and make us understand the narrator's drive, his pleasure and his compulsion and how he feels about it, the 'cleanness' of the honesty I think is the point of this. The narrator's craving for the intensity of an extreme sensual experience in the two S&M stories reminded me so much of the Consul in Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano and his craving for the mescal bar, which he calls "the paradise of my despair." In the hands of Greenwell, there is a clarity in this extremity which allows him to understand things about himself that he cannot experience in other ways. When he is with R., he experiences other things--love, tenderness, responsibility, the possibility of an enduring relationship--and yet there is this other side of him, which is equally valid and compelling--and we understand how they fit together inside this one individual.

His deftness in capturing evanescent emotional states and his demand for depth and honesty is intensified by the sheer deftness of his language, a pleasure as intense as the content. Looking at the four students, the narrator says, "I see them as no one else sees them, my profession is a kind of long looking..." In a sexual situation: "There were things I could say in his language, because i spoke it poorly, without self-conscious or shame, as if there were something in me unreachable in my own language, something I could reach only with that blunter instrument by which I too was made a blunt instrument..."

Also, the randomness of the encounters and relationships in the book felt so real to me--I think the novel in stories worked very well for Greenwell here, because a continuous novel would have demanded more narrative cohesion, and the randomness and even awkwardness of being a foreigner, and a gay foreigner in a homophobic country, requires that randomness to feel true.

This is not a "read" in the sense of something you're going to toss off--this is an encounter with a brilliant writer who is asking questions about life. So glad I kept returning. ...more

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Mar 22, 2020 Andrew rated it it was ok

I can’t figure out why Cleanness has been so well-received. Greenwell's writing is sloppy, his reflections on both the gay and expat experiences – even in the most graphic of sex scenes – tedious and banal.

There’s an arrogance to Greenwell's rambling prose; he sees himself as a revealer of great universal truths when in fact his meditations on life are trite and clichéd ("We have an idea that the things we make will last, but they never do, or almost never; we make them and value them for a whil ...more

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Jan 08, 2020 Jessica Woodbury rated it really liked it

Shelves: lgbtq, arc

I read this book slowly, taking in just one or two of its 9 vignettes at a time. Some of the stories are slow, meandering, meditative. Others are intense and urgent. Me being me, I have to work a bit at the former and breeze through the latter. Luckily I'd read Greenwell's previous novel and knew that even if it took me a while it would be worth it. And it was.

All that said, what elevated this novel above WHAT BELONGS TO YOU for me personally was its absolutely perfectly written sex scenes. It' ...more

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Jan 25, 2020 Mark Ward rated it it was ok

*Spoilers throughout*

In 2016, I read a library copy of What Belongs to You and loved it so much, I bought a copy shortly after, and read it again. It was a perfect little novel, really. I know there are people who prefer the novella Mitko (which is an earlier version of the first section of WBTY) but I read WBTY first, and I thought it was all absolutely necessary, perfect even. Beautifully written, it told the story of the unnamed narrator’s relationship – no, experiences – with Mitko, with a ...more

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Jan 18, 2020 Ryan rated it it was amazing

The author returns to the same setting and similar themes as his previous novel, “What Belongs To You” from 2016. An unnamed narrator, an American writer and English teacher living in Bulgaria, describes encounters and relationships in a country trying to become modern and escape the shadow of its Soviet Past. The novel is broken into three parts, three chapters each. Somewhere between a novel and a collection of short stories, the plot in this book is very thin. What connects this novel is the ...more

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Jan 19, 2020 Dominic rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemporary-literature

No surprise over here that Garth Greenwell has written one of the most erotic books I've ever read; what makes this book so essential, for me at least, is the way he smashes taboos of sexuality while exposing how our sexuality is tangled up in the snares of human shame.

*Cleanness* is far from being a downer. In fact, the three middle chapters are about as soul-crushingly honest and tender as you can get. The last lines of each of these chapters rang inside me with a beautiful clamor.

I know I'll ...more

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Jan 02, 2020 Lindsay Loson rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-reads, netgalley

Thank you to FSG for this ARC, out January 14th, 2020!

4.5
I had been seeing Cleanness making the rounds on some popular bookstagrams for a while, and with all the praise it had been getting knew I also wanted to read it badly. If I hadn't been busy, I could've finished this book in a day; that's how hard it grabs you and doesn't let go. I was immediately entranced by our narrator, and how he is confused by old lovers, disgusted but also enamored by new ones. Greenwell's writing just hooks you fro ...more

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Mar 29, 2020 jacobi rated it it was amazing

explores the contours of desire so well made me so uncomfortable 10/10 will read again

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Feb 01, 2020 Ismail Elshareef rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, fiction, own, lgbt

INCANDESCENT!

Wow. What a beautiful reading experience–raw, visceral, and absolutely unforgettable. The content is graphic, yes, but expressed in prose only legendary writers and poets can muster. The book is as lyrical and poetic as "On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong, and as captivating and imaginative as “Call Me By Your Name” by André Aciman.

Our protagonist is an unnamed gay American teacher in Sofia, who’s planning to return home after many years in Bulgaria. He reflects on his ...more

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Jan 19, 2020 Chris Haak rated it really liked it

Beautifully written, honest and observant novel about love, desire and homosexuality with Sofia (Bulgaria) at its background.
Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Edelweiss for the ARC.

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Jan 30, 2020 Larry Olson rated it it was amazing

Cleanness by Garth Greenwell

In Garth Greenwell's follow-up, readers return to the setting (Bulgaria) and narrator of his first novel “What Belongs to You.” Like the first book, “Cleanness” deconstructs themes as numerous as teaching, traveling, sexuality, friendship, and trauma, while simultaneously standing on its own as a formal blend memoir/short fiction/travelogue. The narrator is filled with a hope that's blended with sorrow, described in the chapter called "Cleanness." “Sex had ... always ...more

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Apr 04, 2020 Speranza added it

Shelves: kindle

A lot less poetic and a lot more graphic than What Belongs to You.
I struggle to see this as fiction; it sounds too real to be an invention. And yet, a man whose only purpouse in life seems to be sexual gratification sounds too sad to be real. At least it is a man who can write and a man I want to read more of.

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Feb 16, 2020 Philip rated it liked it

Garth Greenwell is a talented and observant writer - he spins the most evocative and visually drenched similes!

I appreciated Cleanness, but felt that its vignette-based structure was a detriment. There is a broad character arc, but providing small snippets of the main character’s experience with love, lust and loss in Bulgaria left me feeling cold and unattached. There is also quite a bit gay erotica that was sensual, dirty and fantastic. However, because I felt very indifferent about this chara ...more

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May 21, 2020 Andreas rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020

‘Cleanness’ is an anthology of interconnected stories set in Bulgaria and loosely structured around the relationship between an American schoolteacher and writer (unnamed) and his relationship with R, young, Portuguese exchange student. The teacher is the same main character as in ‘What Belongs to You” and ‘Cleanness’ is a broad follow-up to Greenwell’s acclaimed debut.

Greenwell describes a Bulgaria that is in the process of transitioning from communism and the socialist state, a country that is ...more

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Feb 17, 2020 Brittany | thebookishfiiasco rated it really liked it

Shelves: lgbtq-reads

Cleanness by Garth Greenwell | Final Review | kindly gifted by @fsgbooks
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books like this are the kind i love. books that give you a little peek into the mind of the author and the life of the character, fiction or not. each chapter is a little snippet into the history of that time, the love and relationship building with a person, the heartache, the healing, the self discovery, the experiences. it’s lovely, it’s gut-wrenching, it’s authentic, and it will get you thinking.
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the narrator is so love ...more

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About Garth Greenwell

Garth Greenwell

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Garth Greenwell is the author of What Belongs to You, which won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for six other awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, it was named a Best Book of 2016 by over fifty pub ...more

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Quotes from Cleanness

“That's the worst thing about teaching, that our actions either have no force at all or have force beyond all intention, and not only our actions but our failures to act, gestures and words held back or unspoken, all we might have done and failed to do; and, more than this, that the consequences echo across years and silence, we can never really know what we've done.” — 3 likes

“Even annoyance was part of the pleasure we took in each other, we were that early in love.” — 1 likes

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