Review by Choice Review
Epstein (Northwestern Univ.), one of the best essayists in contemporary American letters, engages with an impressive array of subjects, for example, Malcolm Gladwell, George Washington, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and W. C. Fields. His book is divided into sections on Americans (the largest), Englishmen, popular culture, and "others." He could devote an entire section to critics, since he has pieces on Dwight Macdonald, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, and James Wolcott. Epstein's ability to capture a subject in a memorable 3,000 words should be the envy of biographers, who write at greater length but sometimes with no greater effect. Epstein brings to biography an incisive grasp of person and prose: "Washington was famous even before he was great, monumental while still drawing breath, apotheosized while still very much alive." In these 19 words, he builds a biographical schema that does not have to be labored over for 300 pages. He concludes that Washington's greatness inheres in his moral character, in his "genius for discerning right action." Something similar might be said about Epstein, who brings to biography a genius of discernment expressed in the just and moral character of his prose. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. C. Rollyson Bernard M. Baruch College, CUNY
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Epstein (former editor of American Scholar and author of Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit) brings an erudite gift for portraiture to the subjects of this volume's 40 essays. Focused primarily on figures from the 19th and 20th centuries (with occasional excursions into Greek antiquity and colonial America), Epstein offers eloquent assessments of philosophers, politicians, athletes, composers, social scientists, movie stars, and especially writers and critics. He is particularly drawn to figures whose renown is at odds with their personal and professional shortcomings-hence, his evaluation of Ralph Ellison, author of The Invisible Man, as a writer whose inability to complete his second novel for the next 42 years suggests that "perhaps it is not a good idea to write a great book the first time out." His studies of Dwight Macdonald, Gore Vidal, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, and Irving Kristol create a lively, multifaceted portrait of America's postwar intelligentsia. Though not uncritical, Epstein is more adulatory of celebrities, among them George Gershwin ("a genius of the natural kind"), Irving Thalberg ("the most talented producer in the history of American movies"), and Michael Jordan ("this magnificent athlete who turned his sport into art"). Opinionated and sometimes personal (notably in his piece on Saul Bellow, who fell out with him), these essays are edifying and often very entertaining. Agent: Georges Borchardt Inc. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The acclaimed essayist and former editor of the American Scholar presents a provocative collection of essays that illustrate the ways a writer can employ biographical detail. Epstein (English/Northwestern Univ.; Gossip, 2011, etc.) has assembled a motley crew of characters--from Henry Adams to Xenophon, Michael Jordan to Gore Vidal. The author has a capacious mind, a wide range of interests, political biases (he labels himself a conservative) and a vast storehouse of knowledge about literary history--all of which animate and inform his pieces. (A complaint: There is neither preface nor foreword--no evidence, other than internal, of the date and audience for the pieces.) Epstein begins with a tribute to George Washington, concluding that it was his "moral character" that set him apart--a trait apparently unsullied by his slave-holding? There is little doubt about the author's conservative preferences; when he writes about literature, he can become downright nasty and laugh-out-loud entertaining. He bites Saul Bellow ("a literary Bluebeard") substantially in a full essay then returns in other pieces for additional nips. He blasts Arnold Rampersad's biography of Ralph Ellison, admires Bernard Malamud, eviscerates Dwight Macdonald and sucker punches both Mailer (calling "The White Negro" a "wretched essay") and Vidal, whose essays he calls "dull hamburger." His assessments of critics Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin and Irving Kristol range from measured to admiring. Epstein reserves some of his most potent firepower for Susan Sontag (her films, he writes, are surely playing in hell) but loves the work of Max Beerbohm and George Eliot. Writing of the latter, he notes how she had a sympathy for Jews that is lacking in many other major writers. He ends with a moving account of his friendship with a man in a nursing home. Articulate, funny, informed and bitchy--guaranteed to both delight and disconcert.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
