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Post by nic on Jul 19, 2009 9:51:37 GMT
It seems there was some point in the last twenty years or so where it became almost compulsory for self important persons to have their biography written(many of them not having reached the "prime" of their life). The unbearably pretentious Dave Eggers immediately comes to mind. Is Mr Theroux still living in Hawaii? I can't say for certain, but the back flap of Ghost Train says he still divides his time between Cape Cod and Hawaii. When I saw him in San Francisco, he was with a younger woman that I couldn't place; it could've been a handler, wife, or merely a friend. I don't know. One interesting tidbit he did admit to was cheating on his wife while traveling during the writing of The Great Railway Bazaar. It makes me wonder if the Russian waitress (?) on the Trans-Siberian actually gave in, or was she merely one of the many who spurned his advances? I'll have to reread it and see if I can't glean anything from it. Oh, and I think everything Paul has written has a measure of autobiographical-ness in it. Per him, and it's mentioned in Dark Star, he often works on fiction while traveling. If Hotel Honolulu isn't directly autobiographical, I bet there are experiences and whatnot from his personal life in there.
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Post by nic on Jul 19, 2009 10:03:18 GMT
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Post by spindrift on Jul 19, 2009 11:51:05 GMT
In Hotel Honolulu Theroux writes of a writer drifting to Hawaii, taking a job in an hotel,then shacking up with the beautiful Hawaiian daughter of a woman rumoured to have been John F Kennedy's casual one-night-stand....the daughter apprently was a result of this encounter....in which case, it it's true, then Theroux married and had a daughter himself by this young woman who would have been JFK's offspring. Puzzling.....
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 19, 2009 15:09:43 GMT
I am not too bothered about which details of Theroux's novels are autobiographical and which aren't, since all writers must certainly blur those lines. Nic, I cannot agree with you about Dave Eggers. I do feel that "Heartbreaking Work ...." could have benefited from some editing, but overall was fascinating and well-written. "What is the What?" was an important book, gracefully and intelligently rendered. Eggers has incredible, useful ideas that he actually puts to work, and in ways that help and inspire others. I feel he is a force in helping to revitalize real journalism, which could be somewhat of a dying art.
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Post by Jazz on Jul 24, 2009 20:07:33 GMT
The Complete Letters of Vincent Van Gogh. This is a 3-volume edition of his letters to Theo and is remarkable. Years ago, I bought the 1959 edition, (printed in the Netherlands and and released by the New york Graphic Society) and it was reprinted in the last few years. Anyone who loves art will enjoy these letters. Be prepared, there are 1,600 pages of his words to Theo. They don't have to be read in sequence and you don't have to read them all. My edition contains beautiful small sketches that are loosely attached to a particular letter, a small detail, a rough preliminary sketch etc. Van Gogh was an excellent and evocative writer and his portrait of this age of painting, his constant poverty, and his friends (Gauguin etc) is fascinating. He writes in simple and beautiful detail of how he painted many of his works. The most recent edition is also three volumes. The only difference from my copy is that the small sketches are printed onto the pages. Here, www.amazon.ca/Complete-Letters-Vincent-Van-Gogh/dp/0821226304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248466145&sr=8-1
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Post by Jazz on Jan 19, 2010 15:27:27 GMT
The Widow Cliquot, or, ' La Veuve Clicquot, by Tilar Mazzeo. This was one of those rare books that I consciously tried to slow down my reading to make it last. It engaged me on several levels, the story of Mme. Clicquot, the history of the times, the detailed look at the history of champagne and the feel for the area of Reims-Epernay, in Champagne. Barbe-Nicole Clicquot-Ponsardin was an exceptional woman in any age. She lived a full life and an unusually long time, 1777-1866, 89 years. Her marriage to Francois Clicquot united two of the most prosperous champagne houses in France. His early death left her a widow at 27. She decided to carry on and develop the house of Clicquot...not by sitting in one of her many wealthy homes, but 'hands on'. She absorbed herself in the business day to day, visiting and observing both in the vinyards and the caves. She listened to her managers. La Veuve brought the house of Cliquot to glory, and, she was responsible for many innovations that came to benefit the entire industry. ie: remuage. She was brilliant and risky in many of her business decisions. Throughout her life, the business ebbed and flowed, but she perservered. I find her to be energizing for me, 144 years after her death. There are few paintings of her, just these two when she was very old. The little girl is her great grand daughter. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/Veuve-Clicquot.jpgPls check img size before posting. ty
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2010 13:35:00 GMT
She and Queen Victoria both look like they were a barrel of fun in their protraits.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2010 20:36:59 GMT
I was thinking again of my meager biographic readings and can find no rhyme nor reason to the people about whom I want to know more. But I do know that something like the biography of Charles Manson interests me more than one about someone who did something admirable.
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Post by Jazz on Mar 15, 2010 21:27:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2010 21:55:49 GMT
It's time now that I admit that while I was on vacation in NY, I checked out of the library,the recently written biography of Warren Beatty,Star,by Peter Biskind. I have always liked Beatty on some level,his politics,sensitivity,intelligence,and yes,his looks. I know he's a temperamental,narcissistic,somewhat arrogant,prima donna,self entitled peacock. But,so are many of the men I have admired in my life. I also am intrigued by the era,his rising as a movie star coinciding with my adolescence,and many of the characters in the book,movie stars representative of my generation. It is intelligently written,(although,unauthorized,Biskind came as close to Beatty as any writer ever did to getting it authorized),but,just trashy enough,with little tidbits of information about certain people to be extremely entertaining.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 20, 2010 4:34:07 GMT
I can't point any fingers at anyone about reading celeb biographies. I'm still hoping for a non-icky bio on Princess Diana.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2011 10:48:23 GMT
I'm so wanting to read the most recent biography of Catherine the Great,Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie.(veteran biographer of Russian royalty) Fabulous reviews and an intriguing subject.
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Post by bjd on Nov 8, 2011 11:28:22 GMT
Looking back through this thread I realize I don't usually read biographies. But I did just finish Christopher Hitchens' Hitch 22, which is well written.
I also recently bought Tony Judt's memoirs, which I had read bits and pieces in the NYRB.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2011 10:57:05 GMT
I just finished Catherine the Great last night. Wow!! Truly fascinating!! Those Russkies were some crazy!! The opulence,decadence,and greed for power boggles the mind. It also made me even more acutely aware of how poor Poland has been plundered for centuries,those poor people!!!
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Post by bjd on Dec 12, 2011 11:31:40 GMT
So it's worth reading, Casi? I read a good review of it recently but have been hesitating.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2011 12:31:59 GMT
So it's worth reading, Casi? I read a good review of it recently but have been hesitating. Indeed it is. Fascinating and well written,I stayed riveted throughout. Your knowledge of that era in history and the countries involved is probably more extensive than mine BJ,but, from both a historical perspective and the depth of character that the author probes is fabulous reading. One of the more fascinating historical characters I have ever read about. (I already envision a film being made of this bio,with either Kate Blanchett or Gweneth Paltrow playing Catherine).
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Post by bjd on Dec 12, 2011 12:35:34 GMT
I'll wait until it's out in paperback. I just had a look on Amazon and it costs 24€ (about $30). I don't want to read it that badly.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2011 14:22:00 GMT
I'll wait until it's out in paperback. I just had a look on Amazon and it costs 24€ (about $30). I don't want to read it that badly. I got my copy from the library. I can ill afford such a luxury.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2012 2:53:02 GMT
I just checked out of the library a recent reissue of a biography of Nikola Tesla, Lightning in His Hand. I've always been fascinated by this mad genius. This book is a compilation of letters written by Tesla and interviews with people who knew him personally.
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Post by onlymark on Mar 27, 2012 14:02:36 GMT
Quite shocking in parts?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2012 16:51:12 GMT
;D I am getting quite a charge out of it so far. What a fascinating man!!
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Post by lola on Apr 2, 2012 18:36:02 GMT
I enjoyed Catherine the Great bio, too, Casimira. Too bad her memoir was cut short; the book's excerpts made her personality vivid.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2012 12:42:29 GMT
I was gifted the new Leonard Cohen biography, I'm Your Man, by Sylvie Simmons. I'm very much looking forward to it.
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Post by lola on Mar 29, 2013 14:29:00 GMT
I got in a biography mood at the library, randomly picked one about Lady Caroline Lamb by Paul Douglass (for her scandalous, talented but unbalanced-Byron-stalker interest), one that looked reasonably shortish about Abraham Lincoln (The Last Best Hope of Earth) by Neely, and Doris Kearns Goodwin's Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream.
Lady Caroline got tedious pretty quickly; a newspaper review or wickipedia article would have been enough. And I should look for a better-written Lincoln life out of the many out there.
Kearns' LBJ is really worth reading, though. She manages to give some hint of his outsize personality, and maybe what lay behind it. The end is sad, as ends of biographies tend to be, not because of his death but because of how hurt he was by the country's failure to love him after all he'd done.
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Post by lola on Apr 20, 2013 4:15:28 GMT
Still on a biography kick.
Read Alastair Campbell's diaries The Blair Years. Well, okay -- skimmed it -- and enjoyed it, self-serving as it inevitably was in spots.
Then jumped into Her Majesty, a fairly recent discussion of QEII and how she is now. Little or nothing about her past life, and not quite fawning but maybe a little too authorized. Some nice anecdotes.
Breezed through Great Expectations: The Sons & Daughters of Charles Dickens. The poor things.
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Post by lola on May 2, 2013 2:12:49 GMT
I just finished Lorenzo the Magnificant, by David Loth, published 1929. Really nicely done life of the Medici Renaissance bon vivant banker who used public funds as his own and gave Florence a beautiful ride, took Michealangelo into his home as a young man and gave da Vinci a reference as the best lute player in Italy.
Dry humor in the old fashioned style, readable throughout.
About Savonarola, the guy whose bonfires of the vanities were actual bonfires of Boticelli paintings and such: .. he predicted wholesale death and destruction, the .. ravages of war, the sacking of cities, all the barbarities of a retribution which he believed to be the aim of an all-merciful, all-loving God.
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Post by lola on Jun 8, 2013 0:44:20 GMT
I'm running the board here.
Most amazing biography I've read: Donald Spoto's Joan: The Mysterious Life of the Heretic Who Became a Saint. As he says in his introduction, Joan of Arc is regarded as a cliche; he makes her story gripping. Spoto is a former theology prof, and he approaches Joan's voices in a thoughtful way. I thought I'd read until they captured her, and spare myself the end, but it demanded to be read.
Now halfway through Martin Amis' Experience. A fine memoir: funny, touching, ringing true throughout. I skimmed Amis' old friend Christopher Hitchens' acclaimed memoir, then skipped whole chunks of it at a time, partly because I found his concerns over my head. Amis approaches closer to the ground.
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Post by bjd on Jun 8, 2013 7:32:19 GMT
I really enjoyed Hitch22, if that's the one you mean. It set me off on reading a bunch of his essays, and I thought the memoir was more interesting.
I don't really like Martin Amis's work. I read one novel where the narrator spends all his time talking about his teeth -- it drove me nuts.
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Post by lola on Jun 8, 2013 17:55:37 GMT
Probably Money. Reading Amis' memoir you can understand his dental preoccupation. I have loved ~1/2 of his novels, plus Koba the Dread, and been left cold by the others. If you dislike his writing Experience would be definitely not worth it.
Hitch22, yes. I'm sure the reason it's acclaimed is because it's a good book. I just couldn't follow his many allusions. Both memoirists indulge in name-dropping, which I would also do if I had any to drop. Most of Amis' I've heard of.
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Post by joanne28 on Jun 26, 2013 18:44:50 GMT
It's been my month for writers' biographies & autobiographies. I am still reading P.D. James Time To Be In Earnest, which is a memoir she kept over one year (I believe 2000). It's fascinating stuff.
I've also read The Life Of Margaret Laurence by James King and am also currently reading Gabrielle Roy A Life written by François Ricard.
I have 3 or 4 other books on the go also. It's a very bad habit of mine to read more than one book at a time. They usually are very different genres so I don't normally mix things up.
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