Once again, Bawer (Diminishing Fictions, 1988; The Middle Generation, 1986) proves to be a literary essayist of the highest order: an engaged and stylish critic who addresses common readers with intelligence and wit. Boldly evaluative and truly humane, Bawer's 15 essays here (all collected from The New Criterion) tease out the religious, mystical, and visionary concerns in a seemingly disparate group of 20th-century writers. The highest accolades go to such novelists as William Maxwell, who, with ``conspicuous humility,'' draws us to everyday wonders. Similarly, Penelope Fitzgerald, with her ``sublime sense of the transcendent,'' portrays characters with ``quiet fortitude'' and ``a sense of duty.'' Bawer also reminds us that Flannery O'Connor's masterly stories were grounded in her traditional faith. Always measuring fiction against a sense of reality, Bawer finds many of our most celebrated writers coming up short: For all his mesmerizing brilliance, John Fowles's ``philosophical promiscuity'' leads to much mystical inanity; a clever naturalist and storyteller, Peter Matthiessen indulges in much bad faith, and considers all primitive cultures closer to God. Bawer smartly ignores the accepted wisdom about Graham Greene, and reveals the psychopathological dimension to Greene's peculiar theology. Despite their relative achievements, Baldwin, Lessing, and Updike (in the later Rabbit novels) sacrifice their narrative strengths for fashionable politics and sociology. In her best work, Jean Stafford turns her tragic childhood into objective art; Harold Brodkey, on the other hand, remains mired in his own mythology, mistaking ``lexical flatulence for divine afflatus.'' It's a sad comment on the state of literary criticism that a self-described ``old-fashioned liberal humanist'' like Bawer—the finest writer to emerge from The New Criterion—is considered a reactionary by the hacks of academe. Like the Partisan Review critics he emulates, Bawer understands that ideas have consequences—and that the best art aspires to something greater than ideological play.
Pub Date: June 21, 1993
ISBN: 1-55597-187-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Graywolf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1993
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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