more books read
Sep. 16th, 2008 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimac1. Lee Israel, Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger. Israel was the down-on-her-luck celebrity biographer who composed and created letters by Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, et al, and sold them to autograph dealers - initially to pay her cat's vet bills. A short, quick, enjoyable read, with caustic blurbs attributed to Noël Coward, Katherine Hepburn, etc., on the back. What strikes me is not so much the credulity of the dealers she sold to, nor even her own creativity in writing the letters, but the financial desperation that drove her to do it. Her authorial career had tanked after she'd published one hastily and poorly-written book, and she was unable to parlay her research and writing skills into a decent salaried job. It's a sobering cautionary tale for writers.
2. Adam West, Back to the Batcave. Another sad career story. The memoirs of a man's struggle to be taken seriously as an actor. See him searching for psychological insights into Batman's character before playing him in the camp (West hates that word) 1960s TV series. Yes, really. But what most annoys him is that he's never been asked to play Batman in any of the movies. Points out that he's old enough now (this is 1994, when he was 66) to do the "Dark Knight" role, and he'd play it that way too, he says. Lots of amusing stories of the itchiness of the costumes, the breakdowns of the Batmobile, etc. Repeated avowals that various guest stars and directors were delights to work with are rendered believable by blunt accounts of a few who weren't.
3. Andrew Roberts, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900. Intended as a sequel to Churchill's similarly-titled history. Churchill might have been as apocalyptic, but not as cranky. A tour through the twentieth century in the company of the crabbiest, grouchiest, whiniest old sourpuss imaginable. I read only scattered parts of this; if you can finish it, you've a stronger stomach than mine. Characteristic posture is to spare one kind word for some politician he's stomping on, for the sole purpose of taking a cheap sideswipe at somebody else. "English-Speaking Peoples" means Britain and the U.S.: all other such countries take a distinctly supporting role.
4. Will Eisner, Life, in Pictures. Supposedly his autobiographical stories, but they're only loosely so. Most of them look at an entire life, or even two or three generations, all in the lives of New York Jewish families. The themes are the importance of family, and of work. Eisner's ability to tie these long stories together, both in his writing and in his art - how many cartoonists can evolve a man by stages from a hellion age 10 to an old bulwark age 80 and make it all believable? - is most impressive. A few recurring characters: the handsome man who ostentatiously neglects his wife, the drunk who reels plastered across the pages. Eisner characters do nothing by halves.
2. Adam West, Back to the Batcave. Another sad career story. The memoirs of a man's struggle to be taken seriously as an actor. See him searching for psychological insights into Batman's character before playing him in the camp (West hates that word) 1960s TV series. Yes, really. But what most annoys him is that he's never been asked to play Batman in any of the movies. Points out that he's old enough now (this is 1994, when he was 66) to do the "Dark Knight" role, and he'd play it that way too, he says. Lots of amusing stories of the itchiness of the costumes, the breakdowns of the Batmobile, etc. Repeated avowals that various guest stars and directors were delights to work with are rendered believable by blunt accounts of a few who weren't.
3. Andrew Roberts, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900. Intended as a sequel to Churchill's similarly-titled history. Churchill might have been as apocalyptic, but not as cranky. A tour through the twentieth century in the company of the crabbiest, grouchiest, whiniest old sourpuss imaginable. I read only scattered parts of this; if you can finish it, you've a stronger stomach than mine. Characteristic posture is to spare one kind word for some politician he's stomping on, for the sole purpose of taking a cheap sideswipe at somebody else. "English-Speaking Peoples" means Britain and the U.S.: all other such countries take a distinctly supporting role.
4. Will Eisner, Life, in Pictures. Supposedly his autobiographical stories, but they're only loosely so. Most of them look at an entire life, or even two or three generations, all in the lives of New York Jewish families. The themes are the importance of family, and of work. Eisner's ability to tie these long stories together, both in his writing and in his art - how many cartoonists can evolve a man by stages from a hellion age 10 to an old bulwark age 80 and make it all believable? - is most impressive. A few recurring characters: the handsome man who ostentatiously neglects his wife, the drunk who reels plastered across the pages. Eisner characters do nothing by halves.
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