5 comments about The Cat from Hue: A Vietnam War Story.

1. I was an infantryman with 2/8, 1st Cav Div in Vietnam. I have read several accounts of the activities in Vietnam, and I must say that John Laurence's work came closer to accurately discribing the intensity of battle than any work I have read. I was in the battle on FSB Illingworth on April 1, 1970, which was mentioned in the book. That battle had previously only been described by Army reports in 'Incusion' and those were not accurately reported because no writer was on the scene. Army reports of the incident are inacurate. Though Mr. Laurence and his crew were not on Illingworth, they more accurately portrayed the intensity of the battle than the reports from the Army. I, along with others, are trying to bring the events of Vietnam into clearer view through a blog that I started at http://www.we-were-soldiers.com/.
   John Laurence reported accurately, and with emotion the events he witnessed in Vietnam. His skilled weaving of the stories with his life story is informative, touching, and well worth spending time to read.



2. Despite its intimidating length, I plunged in nonetheless and prepared to plow through it as fast as possible. By the time I was halfway through I was rationing the pages because I didn't want it to end. If I was teaching a course on the Vietnam War, I would make The Cat From Hue required reading, along with Caputo's A Rumor of War, Fitzgerald's Fire on the Lake, and Karnow's history.



3. As a Brit, I was unfamiliar with Lawrence's reporting work, but was intrigued by the subject, the title and mostly favourable reviews.
   
   It was definitely a worthwhile and entertaining read (even at >800 pages) and, although far from a conventional history, it would definitely make my top twenty list of Vietnam books.
   
   As has been mentioned elsewhere, it does stylistically fall somewhere between 'We were soldiers once...' and 'Dispatches', although both of those are truly exceptional, for different reasons, compared with TCFH. No mean comparison, though.
   
   Lawrence's recollections are about his personal experiences in Vietnam and the (mostly correspondents/photographers) people he knew there. It's not an attempt at Big Picture history and is none the worse for that. Lawrence talks candidly about his own drink and drug use and the book has an honest feel to it, IMHO.
   
   Lawrence writes well and vividly, as one would expect, as makes his recollections seem like yesterday, which one might not. Characters such as Sean Flynn, Dana Stone and Tim Page are vividly brought to life.
   
   I doubt whether journalists covering current war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan are afforded the same access to the front lines as Lawrence and his peers were given in Vietnam: not a criticism, just an observation on changed times.
   
   It probably could have been edited down a bit, but I still found it a humane and compelling read. Highly recommended.



4. Very long but worth it if you want to know many of the personalities reporting the war in the Nam. Follows most aspects of the war from near the beginning with a green Laurence till the end and John as an old salt. Better and more human than other vietnam memiors.



5. There are lots of great things about this book, but what I enjoyed most is that it covers two distinct but interrelated subjects: The Vietnam War from the perspective of the grunts on the front lines and journalism during the war. Both subjects are covered in vivid detail, making the entire book enlightening, informative, and even entertaining. The Cat from Hue is a history book and an autobiography all at once, written in prose that flows well and makes the reader want more. And since it's 800+ pages, there is plenty more. Anyone with even the remotest interest in the Vietnam War should definitely read this book, even if you think you already know everything there is to know about that chapter of history.

No comments about The Education of Henry Adams.

No comments about The Playboy Interviews: The Directors (Playboy Interviews).

No comments about Hurt Yourself: In Executive Pursuit of Action, Danger, and a Decent-Looking Pair of Swim Trunks.

5 comments about Republican Like Me: Infiltrating Red-State, White-Ass, and Blue-Suit America.

1. I drive big rig trucks across this great nation and have alot of free time to read. I can tell you this is an amazingly funny book about real american culture AND I've seen it all! Buy this one next time you go on a vacation or a business trip. You'll laugh out loud from front to back cover.



2. I need my Al Franken and Michael Moore to be a little younger and edgier, so I thought this might be the guy. He's pretty funny and cool, but I think his stuff would translate better to television or film. Not that he's a bad writer--I giggled out loud a few times while reading this on a plane, especially when he's describing the job he did dressing up as Uncle Sam for a tax company. But the whole time I was laughing because I was imagining how the scene must have looked.
   
   The first chapter on meeting white supremacists at Appleby's is pretty funny--Appleby's antiseptic atmosphere of simulated family togetherness seems like the perfect setting for meeting white supremacists who just look like office guys, soccer moms, and dumpy college students. The chapter on volunteering for Arnold's governor campaign was also pretty funny. He really shows how the people who work for Republicans at the grass-roots are just pathetic and lame losers who are pissed because they'll never get laid, like mini Karl Roves or something. Then again, most fascists are just "little men," as Wilhelm Reich called them.



3. Republican Like Me: Infiltrating Red States, White Ass, and Blue Suits is sooooooo obviously satire. Satire means a literary work in which vice or folly is attacked through inrony, derision, or wit.
   
   Even the title is a satirical off of the John Howard Griffin book, Black Like Me. You'd have to be a complete idiot to think the two books would be the same in approach. Look at the cover!
   It's a naked guy with a flag covering his privates. It's meant to be humor and satire. Do you get it now?
   
   In Republican LIke Me, Leon takes a partisan turn as he goes under cover to see what makes conservatives tick. If you like humor mixed with edgy writing and politics, this book will keep you laughing and scratching your head at the same time.
   
   Remember, it's satire!



4. I think it's fine to satirize people to whom you consider yourself superior, as Harmon Leon does in this book. But I think he's chosen a misleading title here, one that is unintentionally ironic as it shows just how deep his hatred of the Republican "other" runs while it refers to a book that was intended to actually increase understanding of the other and overcome hate.
   
   "Black Like Me," which "Republican Like Me" references, was the story of a white man in the South who posed as a black man so that he could better understand other people's points of view. The result is enlightening (for its time): all his prejudices about blacks are turned on their head, as are his assumptions about white benevolence.
   
   Leon's purpose is the opposite. Where John Howard Griffin (the author of Black Like Me) posed as something he was not in a region dominated by people like him, Leon poses as something he is not in a region dominated by people UNlike him. The results are unsurprisingly unenlightening: all his prejudices about Republicans are confirmed. If he wanted to walk in Griffin's footsteps, he would have posed as a Republican in the Blue States, and thus embark on a self-education about how "his" people are unfair to others.
   
   Essentially, Leon's book is a hatchet job on people he hates, where Griffin's book was an attempt to overcome hatred. Hatchet jobs have their place -- this book is funny, no question, and will no doubt be read and enjoyed by many people who already agree with everything Leon thinks and are looking for someone to confirm their views and avoid challenging them. But that doesn't change the fact that it was a bad move for Leon to compare his book to one that actually sought (and succeeded, to some degree) in improving understanding and repairing strained social relations in our country. Leon's book does not profit by this comparison.



5. I really loved the wit, sarcasm and charm of this book. Harmon took an idea I always thought would be good and actually did it...he infiltrates the Republican party by becoming one! He meets with bigots, young advocates, Southerners, and also makes a mockery of the Governator (Arrrrrrnold!). While he obviously takes a stand against the GOP, he also rips of the Democrats' way of doing things. It's fairly liberal but not "commie" as some of the GOPers might call it. Definitely a read for liberals, Democrats, independents, leftists, communists, progressives and so forth!

5 comments about The Grand Surprise: The Journals of Leo Lerman.

1. Merveilleux, plein d'esprit, arrogant, frivole, exultant, ampoulé, artificiel, étudié, pompeux, vrai, adulateur, vain, important, indiquant, sarcastique, nostalgique, simulé, inspiré, long, accusateur, adorable, charmant, réminiscent, théâtral, musical, `dishy', abondance de bavardage, fascinants, amusement, révélatoire, `campy', vaniteux, rappelant, surélevé, parfait, détaillé, historique, focalisé, fastueux, élégant, méticuleux, explicatif, cavité, recherché, organisé, nom-chute, bien-écrit, lisible, accessible, peu compliqué, précieux, sincère, exultante!!



2. Eloquent, entertaining, frequently poignant. The book is less about the great characters of mid-century New York, glitterati and literati, than about Lerman's place among them. He is his own favorite subject, but that doesn't make him any less likeable or the book any less fascinating.



3. No doubt about it: Leo Lerman knew everybody who was anybody in New York's arts & literary scenes for almost 50 years. The cast of characters who stroll through his journals and letters (Marlene Dietrich, Maria Callas, Truman Capote, Leonard Bernstein, this list just goes on and on...) provides an amazing snapshot of life among the most notable figures of the 20th century. I wish this book was a more compelling read. When I recently read Chance and Circumstance: Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham by Carolyn Brown, I came away dazzled at the opportunity to get close to key figures in music and dance, and felt tmy understanding of their work was enhanced. I felt no similar sense from Lerman's book, perhaps precisely because of the range of his acquaintances. For example, he meets Truman Capote when both are quite young, and Capote is writing his first book. The glimpse of the young author at that moment is priceless, but then the two lose touch, and Lerman moves on to other people. Moreover, Lerman's dizzying social life largely prevented him from completing any major work of his own, and his partner Gray Foy gave up a successful career as an artist. There are definitely some choice stories here, things that made me laugh out loud or gasp with a mixture of delight and dismay. But frankly, the best thing in the book is the introductory story about the butterfly called The Grand Surprise that gives the book its title. Almost nothing else has the texture and depth of that one vividly recounted anaecdote. As a result this memoir is a swirl of social activity without a center. If you don't mind frosting with no cake, you'll enjoy this.!



4. God, is this book tedious! Leo Lerman must have been the cheapest, most self-involved, most boring opera queen and star-f**cker who ever lived. If you yearn to know how 1940's demi-celebrities could be hosted for twenty-five cents per non-entity at a cocktail party, this book is for you.



5. A monumental undetaking both rewarding for Lerman's thoughts and fine editorial notes sorting out the wide variety of Lerman's friends and acquaintances.

5 comments about Dateline Mongolia: An American Journalist in Nomad's Land.

1. I thought the most hostile review of this book was unreasonable. I worked in Mongolia for several years and found plenty in it that I had not known before. It doesn't set out to be comprehensive and it isn't -it's weak on matters nomadic - but it is both informative and entertaining. I would certainly recommend it.



2. As a reader who spends most of his time in Asia and who visited Mongolia a few times, I agree that what the author has written is mostly true--only on the surface. So I am not surprised that other Western readers who never had a chance to be in Mongolia or Asia would think the book highly. However, if you are a reader who reads it closely based on abundant knowledge of Asia and world politics, you will find that the book is simply inferior graffiti that midleads western readers.
   
   One of the things I feel especially absurd was the author's frequent use of "Red China", "Communist China" to refer to this big neighbor of Mongolia. The author is either a fool who does not really know what he is talking about or he is deliberately cheating his English readers. The Cold War was over almost two decades ago. China is a capitalist country except that it is a one-party state whose political power happened to be monopolied by a party that still calls itself "Communist Party." There are also a long list of other common-sense mistakes or purposeful distortions in this book about Mongolia or world politics that I want to spare my time to point out one by one here.
   
   If the author wants to write more about Asia or any book about international politics, I seriously suggest that he reads more books before he picks up his pen or turns on his computer. He can help protect the natural environment by not wasting the precious paper on his ugly graffiti. He can even make a greater contribution to a healthy and clean publication environment by not producing misleading, highly prejudiced or cheating rubbish. I thank the author for doing these!



3. A most fascinating journey into the otherwise mysterious world of Mongolia. Kohn has a keen sense of the land, the history, and the people and is able to convey it to readers in a way that is at some points heart-breaking and at others inspirational; all the time being engaging, humorous when appropriate, and tremendously insightful.



4. Any reader looking for a blend of travelogue and cultural understanding will find Dateline Mongolia: An American Journalist in Nomad's Land fits the bill. It tells of the author's journeys through Mongolia and its cultural milieu, from turf wars between lamas and shamans to falcon poachers and exiled Buddhist leaders and child jockeys. His first-person encounters with the peoples of Mongolia bring to life the nation's peoples and culture like no other: any general lending collection strong in travel and cultural exploration - particular Asian cultures - will want this.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



5. I was sent this book to read and started it in earnest, having not read much travel literature before. I enjoyed it from start to finish. Michael Kohn adopts a very conversational style to tell his story and each episode is told well. He illustrates all the people he met with such detail that by the end you feel you know them and I was heartened to read that he married one of his friends whom he met out there.
   
   Michael tells the story of Mongolia from the cities to the steppes and includes some interesting insights into its political history including its sometimes painful transition from Soviet Communism to a free-market economy. In this reviewer's opinion it made that transition quite well with little of the corruption of the ex-Soviet states to the West.
   
   In short this book brought a whole culture and country to my attention which I had never thought existed; believing as I did that Mongolia was much like an outpost of China. For seasoned travellers and armchair enthusiasts alike, this book will interest you.

4 comments about Here At The New Yorker.

1. Gill's HERE AT THE NEW YORKER is good, not great. The unquestioned value of the book is the detailed look at William Shaun, the legendary editor at the height of magazine's glory. The precision and exactness of Shaun (he read every line, every time) and his demanding excellence without fail (a mere look communicated his disapproval) speaks of standards that seemingly belong to a bygone age.



2. The New Yorker magazine is an acquired taste. It does have plenty of advertisements but the founding and the development of this timeless magazine over the first 50 years since it's inception in February 1921 is an historical and amazing accomplishment. To know the New Yorker, you must learn to love the New Yorker. We look forward to those Letters from Paris, London, Rome, Warsaw, Cologne, Cracow, Naples, Milan whenever we can since many of us don't get to go there often enough. Contributors have become literary phenomenon's like J.D. Salinger, Charles Addams, Janet "Genet" Flanner, E.B. White, James Thurber, William Shawn, John Updike, Harold W. Ross, Robert Benchley, Truman Capote, Dorothy Parker, Brendan Gill, and many more to mention. Brenda Gill's book is a testament to his devotion and adoration of the New Yorker when magazines were major reading source of enlightenment, entertainment, and information all rolled into one.



3. It was interesting to read about the writers and editors who helped make The New Yorker a magazine of such distinction. I bought this book during that whole rage of last year when "Gone: The Last Days of The New Yorker" was all over the place. In the time since I read this book, I resubscribed to the magazine. Periodically, I read glimpses of the magazine's former glory in its pages. I don't think I could read "Gone," though. Even though I know The New Yorker is not as good as it once was, that doesn't mean I have to take a broom handle to it. That's why I found "Here at The New Yorker" great, pricisely because of its balance.



4. Having just read the new "About Town The New Yorker and the World it Made" I felt compelled to go back and reread Brendan Gill's memoirs of his days working for Harold Ross and William Shawn.

   Some critic called "Here at the New Yorker" "wonderful entertainment". That is wrong--this book does not entertain it probes. Granted there are some funny anecdotes and glances of writers like Scott Fitzgerald. But the book has a darker more serious side as well.

   I imagine that Brendan Gill has made many enemies with his book. He talked about Editor Harold Ross's racism and William Shawn's phobias. Of many he writers he either praises them or he says they did not produce much legible writing at all.

   But these dark character portraits are wonderfully written and penetrate deep. After reading Gill I think I can more carefully size up my peers. This one is a drunk never-do-well. That one works all day to keep away from his wife. Brendan Gill has the novelist's eye for detail.

5 comments about The Skeptic: A Life of H. L. Mencken.

1. I already knew a lot about Mencken when I bought this book. I learned a lot from reading it. I think it does a great job of compressing a large life into a workable package without missing much of the important events and people.
   
   On the otherhand the reading is a bit tedious. The introduction was marvelous, though. Mencken's diaries are tedious reading, too.
   
   The book is a nice addition to my Mencken collection.



2. H.L.M. was one of the greater journalists who ever lived in America. More so than almost anyone, he lifted an intellectual class up from the chains of religious orthodoxy. He had an amazing gift for epigrams, penses, and bon mots. He also promoted several authors we take for granted today into the limelight which first shone upon them. Finally, he wrote some of the best books (e.g., Happy Days) about turn of the century life.
   
   However, he was also an anti-Semite (although he had many close Jewish friends) and was utterly blind to the evils of Hitler. As he gets older, his grasp of world begins to weaken.
   
   Today I'm sure the politically correct crowd writes him off without thought as 'a dead, white, male', little appreciating the high irony that H.L.M. created virtually single handedly the liberal atmosphere of discourse on which they depend.
   
   Teachout has done a superb job of updating his life from numerous sources which have only become available recently. It is a tale rich in period detail and interesting characters. Dreiser, Sinclair, Knopf, Bryan, Twain and others walk through this narrative and each leaves a memorable wake behind them.
   
   You should read this book for the quotes from H.L.M. alone. The period details and the famous personages in the narrative will significantly compound the reward you get for reading this book.



3. _The Skeptic: A Life of H. L. Mencken_ by critic Terry Teachout is an interesting biography of the Baltimore newspaperman, iconoclast, and cynic H. L. Mencken. Mencken (1880 - 1956) was a journalist and writer who lived in Baltimore throughout most of his life. He is perhaps best known for his sarcastic and abrasive style in which he pilloried the dominating viewpoints of his day. Mencken was an atheist and materialist largely influenced by German thinkers such as Nietzsche as well as the Social Darwinists of his era. Politically, Mencken's views may be described as libertarian and he remained an opponent of "puritanism" (particularly concerning alcohol during the Prohibition period) and the entry of the United States into the world wars. Mencken also was a fervent opponent of F.D.R., whose policies he firmly disagreed with. In addition, Mencken frequently directed his rage at such figures as William Jennings Bryan and others who sought to disallow the teaching of Darwinian evolution. Mencken also frequently attacked what he sarcastically termed "quakery" in medicine, as well as Christian Science which was a particular dislike of his. This book provides a fascinating account of this man whose writings remain an essential part of American literature. As an ardent enemy of the political correctness of his day, Mencken can be profitably read both for his humorous style and for his profound commentary.
   
   The book begins with Mencken's early life growing up in Baltimore. To understand Mencken fully, one must understand the Baltimore of his era. Early on Mencken joined organizations such as the Y.M.C.A. but found it not to his taste when they began preaching Christianity to him. Mencken became a lifelong skeptic as his father had been. Mencken's father owned a cigar factory which Mencken soon began work for. His father's bourgeois views were reflected in Mencken's later writings. However, Mencken soon grew dissatisfied with his job at the cigar factory and when his father died he sought work as a newspaper writer. Mencken had a knack for newspaper work and quickly grew in the ranks of writers. He also developed as an abrasive critic of the American "booboisie" (the middle classes). Mencken also had broader aesthetic interests and early on took an interest in the philosophy of Nietzsche (at the time regarded as a dangerous thinker). Mencken, whose own ancestry was largely German, admired German culture and this may have led to his love for Nietzsche. Mencken wrote books on both Nietzsche and Shaw which have become minor classics. Mencken also was heavily influenced by Mark Twain, whose works he read as a young boy. Early on, Mencken became friends with and took an active interest in such writers as Theodore Dreiser and Sinclair Lewis, both of whom he admired. Mencken had a lifelong hatred for puritanism and in President Wilson he perceived the policies of a puritan. Given Mencken's love for Germany and German culture it is understandable that he would oppose Anglo-Saxon dominance and the entry of the United States into World War I. Mencken also greatly enjoyed drinking alcohol, so during the time of Prohibition his hatred for puritanism grew to enormity. Mencken also continued to write pieces critical of religion as well as an interesting essay on women, which is sure to provoke the ire of latter-day feminists. Although Mencken is rumored to have been anti-semitic, he had many Jewish friends including Alfred J. Knopf and together with George Nathan published _The American Mercury_. In addition to commenting on the political scene, Mencken also commented on such things as medicine and "quack cures" and the teaching of Darwinism at the Scopes trial where he served as a reporter. Mencken developed a lifelong aversion to F.D.R. and firmly opposed his policies. However, it was the entry of the United States into World War II which particularly enraged Mencken. Mencken married but towards the end of his life developed an intense hypochondria. This led to a stroke which effectively ended his writing carrier, although he continued to collect his papers after it.
   
   This book provides an excellent biographical account of H. L. Mencken and his life and times. It is the account of a fascinating figure who remains highly important for American letters.



4. Terry Teachout, who writes for the New York Times, the National Review, and others has written a very short but enjoyable biography of H.L. Mencken. It was only when I read another Mencken biography that puts some episodes of Mencken's life into a very different light that I began to reconsider my assessment of this biography.
   
   One problem is that this book gets facts wrong. In his later years Mencken claimed that he came by his first job as a journalist by applying for it every day until he got it. In earlier years, his story was completely different he got it at the first try; it "improved with time," without Teachout catching on. Teachout also writes that "Mencken did not pay well enough to consistently attract established talent... Forced to search for new faces...necessity also inspired him to look in places where others feared to tread. He reveled, for example, in printing the work of black writers." Another biography reveals that Mencken had long been extremely keen to promote African-American writers, to the extent that he tried to establish up a magazine devoted solely to African-American writers and culture, but couldn't raise the funds. He also was vociferous in speaking out against lynching at a time when this made him few friends, and cost his employer quite a bit of money. Teachout and other biographers seem to describe completely different people. Mencken's exact views could be hard to pin down; on some issues he contradicted himself in word and deed, sadly Teachout doesn't adequately reflect on this ambiguity.
   
   A strong point of this biography is that Teachout correctly describes how Mencken had a legendarily acidulous and humorous pen, and how many of the frauds he took on - quacks, cult leaders, faith healers, politicians against evolution, superpatriots, Prohibitionists, and more - deserved every diatribe he sent their way. As Teachout mentions, Mencken unfortunately he didn't only lampoon fashions people adopted and careers people chose, but also ethnic groups, in tracts that do not make for too pleasant reading.
   
   Another trifle is Teachout's version of Mencken's romance with Marion Bloom. In his account, the relationship foundered because Mencken was unwilling to marry a woman born in poverty. Another biography, however, describes how Mencken viscerally disliked Christian Science, which he deemed to be quackery. When she tried convert him to Christian Science, to which she had converted after the romance began, he would go into purple rages. And yet she couldn't stop. Having known people with persistent and idiosyncratic religious beliefs, Mencken's version strikes me as painfully believable. In Teachout's book, however, Christian Science is described as Mencken's fig leaf to avoid admitting that the relationship foundered over her having poor origins. Mencken eventually married an ailing woman only expected to live for three years and unable to have children; this is not the mark of a complete egoist and snob.
   
   Biographers are free to - even expected to - add their interpretations to the facts of their subject's life. But readers shouldn't come to realize that the facts and insinuations in different biographies cannot be reconciled.



5. There have been many biographies written about H. L. Mencken. This is the best. Elegantly written and succinct, readers can learn much from this idiosyncratic man of letters. Unlike other biographies, you can glean much without knowing every minute detail.

4 comments about No Hurry to Get Home: The Memoir of the New Yorker Writer Whose Unconventional Life and Adventures Spanned the 20th Century.

1. Hahn tells of an exotic existence in a practical and clear voice rich with her honest observations of the people and places of Chicago, London, the Belgian Congo, and Shanghai. Not a memoir in the traditional sense, Hahn, with forthright economy, simply allows the articles she's written throughout her lifetime to illustrate tales of her travels. An inspiring read for woman and men who long for an adventurous life!



2. While approximately 30% of this book is taken up with interesting stories about life abroad in the early part of the 20th century, in no way, shape, or form is this book actually a memoir. It is a collection of her old New Yorker articles, most of which do not even deal with her life abroad. In fact, the majority of the chapters comprise uninteresting tales of her domestic life -- not quite what the title implies, either.

   The foreward states, in a fit of honesty that apparently didn't make it to either the title or back-cover copy, that Hahn was under contract to write a memoir, and instead, since she had already been paid and didn't much feel like writing anything more, took a bunch of her old New Yorker clippings and sent them in to her publisher. Anyhow, it certainly shows.

   I had heard of Hahn before, and was interested in reading about her China exploits in particular. One could understand, then, that I would be quite chagrined to find that fully the first half of the book is taken up with boring childhood reminiscences of St. Louis and Chicago, and that the last few stories are set once Hahn has become safely re-domiciled in NYC, and concern similarly banal domestic issues.

   This is not to say that there is no merit whatsoever in the book. At least a few of the stories are good and interesting: one or two about her life in the Congo, one about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, another two about Shanghai and her opium addiction. But even, with these, her writing style is usually so insubstantial, so affectedly flaky, like Dorothy Parker after a partial lobotomy or a teenaged girl dumbing it down so the boys like her, that I would in all likelihood not have liked this book had it been what its title and packaging claimed it to be.

   This book is mostly just a collection of irrelevant, poorly written prose that was slapped together to pay the bills. The publisher should have demanded his money back.




3. In his lively and evocative Introduction to this book, Hahn biographer Ken Cuthbertson says that Emily Hahn "moved from here to there to everywhere, like some sort of multi-colored and quixotic literary butterfly" for around forty-seven years. Sheila McGrath, in her Foreword, looks through a different lens, seeing "an inborn and unyielding independence that must have been difficult to maintain," a wholly original woman who traveled, had adventures, made friends, and wrote about all of it with an unflagging energy and dedication. She lived exactly as she chose to, for her entire long life.

   This book is a collection of essays that Hahn herself assembled in 1970, in order to fulfill a commitment she'd made to a publisher to produce an autobiography, which she was loathe to write, according to Cuthbertson. There are several delightful pieces on Hahn's good childhood and school days in the American midwest, and then the rest bright and incredible travel pieces - letters home, really - that appeared in The New Yorker magazine, from 1937 to 1970. (One describes a cross-country trip she and a friend made one summer during the '20's, as undergraduates, in a Model T). Artful and sensitive ordering of these pieces supplies the reader with a chronology. Unfortunately, the pieces are undated, so you must guess as to date of writing, and date of publication.

   Hahn's adventures and quirky and strong views are fabulous and charming - and quaint at times. From "The Big Smoke": "Though I had always wanted to be an opium addict, I can't claim that as a reason I went to China." She supplies a witty and thorough description of how she did it. (And later, of how she kicked the habit.) In other venues she had a pet gibbon named Mr. Mills, she lived in the jungle for a while, and was literally trapped in Shanghai for a spell. Amazing things, reported in a calm - but playful - voice. The people she met and got to know are drawn less fully than her escapades. You, in turn, never really get to know them, either.

   Hahn does not go deep so much as range far and wide. She has a great ear, an even better eye, and is fearless. That she reported so dryly and well on her doings in the US, the Congo, China, Japan, England and Europe is the icing on the cake. A very good and atmospheric read.




4. 'Emily Hahn was an original--a first-generation feminist who chose not to be called one, a woman of courage who constantly underplayed it, a reporter of the acts of men and animals, whose peculiar likeness she grasped perhaps better than any other writer of her time. Above all, she was a prose stylist, a plain writer whose simplicities are never simple, and whose every sentence ends with a sharp, clean bite. Her (beautifully) episodic memoirs can stand alongside those of M. F. K. Fisher, who she in so many ways resembled, as a model of clarity, precision, calm sensuality, carefully weighed sadness.' --Adam Gopnik, New Yorker writer