Reviews for Literary Biography

The average rating for Literary Biography based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-02-02 00:00:00 Lee Yan Jie Published in 1991, the vignettes of life in NYC "today" heading off each chapter haven't got the freshest flavor, but the historical aspects are painstakingly researched and constitute the bulk of the book. Instead of a straight chronological approach, the author has divided the book into eight chapters, each covering a particular aspect of New York's contemporary identity and a workup of the underlying history contributing to its modern-day status: "Warnings to Travellers" (NY as mugging capitol of the world); "Audition City" (The city's emergence as the epicenter of the art, theater, and publishing world - and if you can make it there you can make it anywhere); "Minimum City" (graft, scam, corruption, and borough bosses); "Frontiers" (neighborhoods as ethnic tapestry) etc. I enjoyed (or at least appreciated) the book for the most part; the research is solid and the historical anecdotes are plentiful. Perhaps too plentiful. At times they are whipped out one after the other in such a dizzying compendium of tidbits (often in a single paragraph) that the chapters seemed to occasionally lose focus and wallow in the details. Aside from that, and perhaps a certain lack of flow in the overall writing style which didn't always suit my taste, this was a pretty good read on the whole.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-12-11 00:00:00 Jennifer Sahd Well I will personally dispense with reading the early part of this, simply because Woodcock's book covered it very well, and this is more a hagiography albeit by a personal friend. But already one thing I never knew, and I am sure most of you did not, either, is that Huxley's famous "grey flannel trousers" seen as "miraculous" beneath the expansion valve of the mescaline experience, were actually blue jeans. Just think how many more pairs of Levi's they could have sold! (yuk, yuk.) Were it not for Mrs. Huxley's editorial primness, hoping to reach a more highbrow audience. Well it's just one of the fascinating trivia available in this version of the man's biography. But I'd put the emphasis here more on the trivia, as, unlike Woodcock, she focuses on the human being and his trials, than on the literature and the message. Not that they were few, nor un-noteworthy. Her insights as to the message of his book Island (a culmination of the better part of his life's work) is off a little, but perhaps only because she had no particular part to play in the psychedelic movement- which would have given the author a wider range of understanding, as well, for some of Huxley's conclusions regarding the proper social role of these substances. And yes, he was very annoyed with Tim Leary's "marketing schemes"- as in retrospect I am myself. Some things just aren't for everyone, and if such interesting and "out of self" experiences can be induced naturally in certain people, it might do them a world more good than tripping. (There's lots more I could say about that, but, I like keeping reviews to the point...)