Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme Book

This one reached my desk last week, I finished it over the weekend, & rightly or wrongly, I've bumped aside a few GR-worthy items in order to put in a few words for this masterly bio. Tracy Daugherty begins w/ a crucial understanding, namely, that Donald Barthelme's life & career set a challenge for American imaginative literature, for what it holds valuable. So this entire espresso-rich compendium of pertinent life-detail -- reaching back to the founding of Houston & of Greenwich Village, to the structure & symbolism of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY, to the place of Andromache & Penelope in Homeric myth -- the entire book -- neglecting none of Barthelme's busy family, none of his stabs at reporting, at teaching, at art-curating, collage-making, radio-writing, jazz-playing, & none of his heavy drinking either, & certainly neglecting none of his many wives & lovers, a number of them (like Grace Paley) superb artists themselves -- still the entire biography never gets far from its argument. Barthelme's work, in Daugherty's ever-sensitive assessments, never lacks for the *edge* that drove it. As a writer, he was always up against the prevailing powers, & always subverting them w/ wit, intelligence, surprise, & a "golden ear" (to borrow the expression several of the former lovers & friends in this book find themselves using). In HIDING MAN Barthelme has a life-story worthy of the struggle to which he, all light-heartedly, dedicated his vocation. Anyone seeking to matter in the arts could learn from the fascinating, scrupulous, & highly humane scholarship Daugherty brings off here.

(full disclosure: 20 years ago, plus, Daugherty & I worked together briefly; also I studied w/ Don B., & remained something of a friend afterwards, & I'm mentioned -- just once -- in the book)