Some 115 letters by the author of From Here to Eternity. covering most of his life. Although an absorbing literary figure, Jones is not a great letter-writer, and this collection maintains only wavering interest. Editor Hendrick excludes Jones' many business letters while keeping what arc apparently the more intimate and revealing. Jones' long-lasting affair with Lowney Handy, his 17-years-older mother-figure/mentor/keeper/mistress before, during, and (briefly) after the composition of From Here to Eternity gets much space, as it deserves, but it is not a gripping love story, and something central between the two correspondents seems untold or unexplained. Jones' letters to Scribner's Maxwell Perkins, the famous editor of Thomas Wolfe. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway, show him groping through the clouds of his rejected first novel to find the subject matter of his eventual masterpiece and meanwhile reacting admiringly lo advice from Perkins. When Perkins dies, Burroughs Mitchell becomes the editor for Eternity and for Jones' major novels, including the posthumous Whistle, although Jones defects from Scribner's after a huge offer from Delacorte. Perhaps the most interesting passages here are those about his naturalistic stylings and characterizations, and about novelizing: ". . .I sometimes despair of ever learning technique, so I can just sit down and write. . .The only plotting I know is to have a man do what he would do in his life, but that apparently is not enough." Many will read this book for Jones' slashes at competitor Norman Mailer; and the final pages, with Jones fatally ill and writing Whistle against the calling finger of Death, are moving indeed. Strongest for what it suggests about Jones' grot. his savage pluck in tire face of hostile critics, and large pessimism about mankind.
Pub Date: May 31, 1989
ISBN: 394-57538-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1989
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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
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