Like The Friday Book (1984), a collection of eclectic and irregularly insightful essays by the noted novelist—an admixture of reminiscence, manifesto, and review. Barth devotes one day a week to writing essay-lectures on such favorite topics as literary forms, traditions, and styles; the Chesapeake Bay area; his own books; or all those subjects at once in "a kind of thinking out loud [or] teaching oneself." Throughout these discursive pieces, the writer links his ideas loosely with his literary touchstones: Scheherazade, Don Quixote, Borges, Garcia Marquez, and the inconclusive, contested definiendum "postmodernism." His professionally well told memoirs of his second wife's profession ("Teacher") and his encounters with Borges are shot through with both incidental allusions and in-depth references, as are his idiosyncratic critical pieces, ranging from the aesthetic merits of the Chesapeake local arts and crafts to a concentrated reading of "Jack and Jill" and a consideration of Poe's gruesome genre effects in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. '4' Lectures: The Stuttgart Seminars on Postmodernism, Chaos Theory, and the Romantic Arabesque'' and a bravura triad on minimalism, maximalism, and the short story skillfully interweave all the sources and concerns of Barth's shorter, unrelated essays. Some of his comparisons are highly inventive (for example, the similarities among postmodernist referentialism, chaotic feedback, and the repetitive patterns of Persian carpets, together with their parallels in literature), but they tend to lack, or avoid, a conclusion. If this noncommittal reflex handicaps the writer's scrappy mini-manifestos against creative writing programs and realism ("Very Like an Elephant"), it keeps his discussions of storytelling clear and effective. A dilettante par excellence, Barth has read intelligently and indiscriminately enough to have something interesting to say at almost any time.
Pub Date: Aug. 14, 1995
ISBN: 0-316-08324-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995
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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