1 comments about Ann Landers in Her Own Words: Personal Letters to Her Daughter.

1. I loved this book. Given to me as a present, I had no idea what to expect and began reading it with a sense of uncertainty. But within a dozen pages I was completely held and involved. It is poignant, funny, wise and deeply engrossing, and full of practical advice on love, marriage, divorce, motherhood, and growing older. At times I got the guilty (but delicious) feeling that I was reading a good friend's private correspondence - it is that intimate and that honest. Some say that letter writing is a dead art, a form of communication that was killed off by the telephone and, more recently, the brutal abruptness of e-mail. But here it is resurrected in all its former glory. Full of good gossip and insights about famous names in show business, politics, the media and literature. there were moments when I laughed out loud and, occasionally, wanted to weep. I was honestly sad when I reached the end - so I started all over again. Happily, as one does in all good letters, I still found new things to surprise me. Margo Howard tells us that "letters were my mother's art form," and this book confirms that gloriously. Ms. Howard is no slouch at letter writing either, answering her mother's missives with equal wit, insights, and humanity. Those for whom this will be their first taste of the wit and wisdom of Ann Landers - or Margo Howard, who has followed in her mother's footsteps as an agony aunt - have a treat in store.

5 comments about Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock & Roll.

1. Fong-Torres is a talented writer, but readers who are interested in rock 'n' roll history may wish to skip this book's chapters on people like Diane Keaton, Neil Diamond, Annie Leibovitz, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy, and (!) Rodney Dangerfield. (Steve Martin's is worth reading, however.)
   
   Not to worry, though, this volume does contain actual interviews and profiles with music industry folks like Ricky Nelson, Three Dog Night, and Dick Clark. You can probably see the problem with this book's title and cover image by now. And you might understand why I got excited when I came to the book's piece on Iggy Pop. Unfortunately, it was just a two-page description of an appearance Iggy did at a Tower Records.
   
   Drat.



2. A better title would be the Best of Ben Fong-Torres. This book is a collection of articles he wrote for "Rolling Stone". Some of the people written about in this book are Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, The Jackson 5, Janis Joplin, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, The Jefferson Airplane, The Rolling Stones, Santna, Ricky Nelson, and many others. What really makes the book worth reading is that he gives information on what he had to get the interview and what happened after. Sometimes, the behind the scenes information are as good as or even better than the article.



3. If you weren't around in the 70s, or you want to "relive" this era, Ben Fong-Torres' book is a good place to start. It's a collection of many of his Rolling Stone feature articles, along with a brief update of the personalities involved. Having "come of age" in the 70s, it brought back memories of my own and it gave me insights into some of the most famous rock personalities of the 70s and early 1980s.

   Fong-Torres has an excellent writing style and "captures" a little bit about what made a lot of these musicians "tick." His articles are enjoyable to read or re-read if you've seen them before. While part of the title (A BackStage Pass to 20 Years of Rock n Roll) may seem cliched, it fits here. Fong-Torres in his Rolling Stone articles managed to catch a glimpse of an era now long gone.




4. I bought this book after seeing Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous". That was an exceptional movie and I thought I would relive the era through Ben fong-Torres, who was featured in the movie.

   The book is really a reprint of many of his stories in Rolling Stone which the reviews probably stated and I didn't focus on. I would have preferred his story of being close to the Rock and Roll scene. Reading some of the articles that were over 20 years old became somewhat boring and outdated. I did learn quite a bit in some of the stories and Fong-Torres does provide some narrative on each story although it is limited. Overall though, I'd take a pass on this one and look for another if you are looking for a good book about rock in the 70's and 80's.




5. I thought this was a good, literate book. I only read the stuff I was interested in, but there was plenty of that (especially the George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger profiles). Frank Zappa once said that rock and roll journalism is "Writers who can't write, writing about musicians who can't play music, for readers who can't read." And he was/is correct for 99% of rock journalism. This book is the 1% of rock journalism for which that statement does not hold true. A solid book.

4 comments about Dear Papa, Dear Hotch: The Correspondence of Ernest Hemingway And A. E. Hotchner.

1. DEAR PAPA, DEAR HOTCH: THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY AND A.E. HOTCHNER isn't a light introduction: it's a scholarly collection recommended as a college-level pick for any collection strong in the works of either writer, presenting for the first time the collected correspondence between writer and agent. Hotchner adapted Hemingway's works for stage, movies and TV: these letters cover the final quarter of Hemingway's life and packs in nearly two hundred letters, cables and cards between the two. The result offers plenty of intriguing details and will prove a 'must' for any serious Hemingway scholar, in particular.



2. _Dear Papa, Dear Hotch_ is a triumph of precise editing: of scrupulous annotations that make this record of the final years of a great American writer come to life. The reader goes along effortlessly, instructed as necessary in diverse particulars-baseball trivia, the names of well-known trapshooters (!), the identities of guests at long forgotten gatherings, advertising slogans, specs for aircraft, Hemingway's confusion of a story by James Thurber with one by Ring Lardner. Those who have ever tried to run down one such datum will appreciate the scholarship, variousness, exactness, and energy of Albert J. DeFazio in presenting this collection.
   
   The 161 letters here were written in the final dozen years of Hemingway's life, in his decline, after he, arguably the most famous writer living, had said what he had to say. As such they make for increasingly sad reading. We see Hemingway's effort to recapture the vitality and tragic dignity that make at least two of his novels and several dozen short stories key documents in American literature and in American self-concept. The letters from A. E. Hotchner-at once a slick, opportunistic sycophant, a cheerfully dutiful factotum, willing to do whatever the once great man asks, and a competent adaptor of original work-do not brighten the picture, nor is it always easy to read "Hotch's" imitations of Hemingway's deliberately scabrous language ("Goddam but I'm glad about the [Nobel] prize," etc.) Sometimes the interplay between them has a sick fascination, "Hemingstein" trying to persuade himself "Everybody will be okay" and "Krotchner" feeding this illusion. One comes to the notes with a sense of relief. They are the real gen.
   
   A six page appendix, in which Hemingway objects to Hotchner's proposed deletions in _The Dangerous Summer,_ reveals more about the drift of Hemingway's writing practices than anything else I have read on the topic.



3. In his Preface, Hotchner writes:"I was young and struggling and vulnerable." What these Letters reveal is that "Hotch" was ambitious, greedy and manipulative. Just read the exchange concerning the "True" article (pp 172-179).Though De Fazio and the University of Missouri Press are to be congratulated for their Herculean accomplishment, those familiar with other Hemingway letters/memorabilia and scholarship, published and unpublished, know why Hotchner "had fallen out of favor with Mary"(Preface 12), as well as with other family members, true friends and many Hemingway scholars. Conrad Aiken, who early on saw Hemingway's genius, wrote, on the occasion of T.S.Eliot's death 40 years ago, "that this is the age of the ex-wife and the editor."I would add a third category: the "so-called friend."



4. I had a hard time rating this collection of letters, postcards and cables between Hemingway and A. E. Hotchner, Papa's friend during the last decade or so of his life. If I give "Dear Papa, Dear Hotch" 5 stars, what do I give my favorite book of all time - Hemingway's "In Our Time"? Since Amazon's rating system won't allow for more than 5 stars, I plead "nolo contendere." This book deserves 5 stars because it is the best it could be. Comparison with Hemingway's crafted work is not the point.
   
   That said, "Dear Papa, Dear Hotch" is a gift to all who love Hemingway. I congratulate DeFazio for a job well done. Gathering all the pieces of this intriguing story must have consumed countless hours and required lots of legwork. The process of deciphering Hemingway's penmanship and the necessary research to illuminate arcane references was surely daunting at times. A.E. Hotchner's Preface & DeFazio's Introduction are fascinating and admirably set the stage for what is ultimately a poignant story of friendship & loss.

No comments about The Damnation of Harold Frederic: His Lives and Works.

5 comments about Hemingway: The Final Years.

1. There is little I can add to the above reviews. Long before this final volume of Michael Reynolds' masterpiece came out, he had already taken his place as our finest Hemingway scholar and one of the five or six greatest literary biographers of our time. This last volume merely confirms his position. Tragically, he succumbed to cancer shortly after this book appeared, but he left us a daunting legacy as a scholar. I doubt anyone ever understood the infinitely complex Hemingway as well as Professor Reynolds did. It is a cause for celebration when a major writer and a great biographer come together; these volumes will never grow old.



2. Reviewed by TOMA 1999

   Here's one to add to your Hemingway collection. Michael Reynolds tells us the story of Ernest Hemingway's last score years from the era of World War II to his suicide in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961. We have here the Hemingway hero we love and wish we personally knew: the articulate man full of high sentence, the man among men, the behemoth drinker, the virtuoso hunter, the dedicated idealist to his craft, the continent jumper, the fun-loving and cherished father especially to his three boys, the husband now going on his third wife in Martha Gellhorn and the literary lion in his last years where the Victor finally reaps the spoils of a lifetime pitted against the dragon called writing. Icon would be too small a word for such a colossal figure. Hemingway through all his own growling, fist-fighting, taunting of literary figures, strutting in and out of wars, promenading through world events, and arguing with his own publisher in Charles Scribner remains like the figure of the Greek Odysseus, the figure as Tennyson put it who set his life "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." This is why many admire this American son while others see him as full of sh--, a braggart, and fraud for having never truly experienced the larger than life adventures he immortalized in his war books: For Whom The Bell Tolls, To Have and Have Not, and A Farewell To Arms not to mention his slew of other relevant stories set in exotic locations. At the date marking the century of his birth and with the latest Hemingway piece-meal work to be drawn together by his son Patrick in True at First Light, and the dozen or so other "timely" biographies, fancy-covered reprints, and photobooks presented during the summer of 1999, Reynolds does his duty to his subject with skill, organization, and insight. Although sentiment is not always unbiased, for it is obvious this research has been a labor of love, this book marks Reynolds' fifth and apparent last volume in a series of the chronologically-based Hemingway biography. In this final version, Hemingway is never idolized but shown in the somewhat balanced color of black and white where Hemingway can not but create his own shadow like some vibrant oak towering above Finca Vigia in Cuba or with his skeleton crew of "agents" monitoring the inland waterways for German submarines or as the bespectacled ancient literary lion much like his own tiger at Kilimanjaro, worn and heavy, resting within the expanse of Idaho country far below the mountains at his Sun Valley Lodge. Other exotic landscapes nicely slip into view along the journey: Hong Kong, Venice, Paris, Key West, New York, and Mombasa like a set of snapshots upon a reel. We find the sensitive Hemingway trying to keep together a marraige that seems over just as it has begun. We have a vivid image of Martha Gellhorn, the reluctant housewife and bonafide journalist torn between the woman Hemingway wishes and the one she desires to be. We feel him sparring with Scribner's over language in his novels and courtroom battles. We get a feel for the atmosphere of Finca Vigia with its bug-ridden sunburnt rooms, and for the silent, pine-washed Ketchum ranch where the echo of a rifle blast stills remains today. Characters saunter in and out of the story like locals into their corner bar. The quoted material from various personages of the times has been expertly chosen to move the Hemingway legend along its way. These haunting voices create such atmosphere and setting that the imagination has little to do but continue to create a story that unfolds in cinemagraphic slow motion. Moreover, we seem to capture a panoramic view of our literary past so important to reflect upon as we step over the century divide. This is a joyous read especially for summer reading not only for the enthusiast but for the academic who wishes to gain a fuller insight into the one of our greatest literary figures this nation has ever produced.




3. In all respects -- in terms of research, sensitivity, perception, analysis, and style -- Mr. Reynolds has written the finest biography of one of the most fascinating and complex personalities the world has ever known.

   Three citicisms, if I may: First, though very well written, there are occasional lapses in editing. Second, Mr. Reynolds owes it to his appreciative readers, as well as to himself, to provide somewhat more in-depth and revealing final thoughts than he has. My final "gripe" is admittedly extremely trivial. It irritated me, though -- in such a superbly researched endeavor, such a silly mistake should have been easily avoided. Hold on to your hats, ladies, because here it is: At one point, Mr. Reynolds mentions that Hemingway met Barbara Stanwyck and her husband, Robert Montgomery. Well, Robert Taylor, not Mr. Montgomery, was Miss Stanwyck's husband. A trivial mistake, to be sure, but why make it?

   Despite the mix-up with the Roberts (which can be easily made right in future editions), this is an outstanding biography, which I heartily recommend.




4. Michael S. Reynolds' "Hemingway: The Final Years" is excellent and a worthy addition to any library, as are the previous volumes. I have read every Hemingway biography (I even have such paperback quickies as HEMINGWAY: LIFE AND DEATH OF A GIANT and THE PRIVATE HELL OF HEMINGWAY that were published shortly after Papa's death) since my father, twenty-two years ago, gave me a copy of Carlos Baker's 1967 authorized biography (which I also recommend; it gives you the a great overview of Hemingway's life and work and is very readable), and I have found Reynolds biographies to be wonderful and informative.



5. The story of Hemingway's last years lets you enter a world of desillusion, faked grandeur and, ultimately, madness.

   It seems as if the reader was present at the scenes which are brilliantly depicted by Reynolds.

   Getting to know the life of Hemingway lets you add a supplementary dimension to the reading of his works.

No comments about KASZTNER'S TRAIN: The True Story of Rezso Kaztner, Unknown Hero of the Holocaust.

3 comments about American Character : Curious Life of Charles Fletcher Lummis and the Rediscovery of the Southwest.

1. I live within walking distance of Lummis' home El Alisal. It's fitting that it perches on the edge of what was the Arroyo Seco (dry gulch) whose raw beauty had attracted Lummis and early settlers. And symbolic in that the world's first freeway rushes past it now. In fact, El Alisal faced demolition until preservationists--always outnumbered in L.A.--saved the site. Lummis gave his adopted city a complicated heritage: he boosted its Spanish Californian image and so lured many newcomers who overwhelmed the vistas of fragile arroyo, hills and valleys with millions more homes. The millions clogged the roads, and so freeways followed, along the riverbeds now encased in concrete.
   
   Mark Thompson's biography follows that assembled two decades earlier by Lummis' daughter and edited by his son from Lummis' own manuscripts, and one biography from the mid-70s that dwelt on Lummis but with far less access to personal papers. Thompson has access, and has used his resources well to more fully explore the complexity of a truly memorable character whose legacy spanned the Southwest, as he sought to preserve and conserve Native American artifacts and cultures as well as restore the California missions, create a world-class municipal library, write for what became the city's leading newspaper, and still found time to build El Alisal from boulders in the arroyo, hold there wonderfully wacky parties, carry on love affairs, conduct archeological research, ruin three marriages, keep a menagerie of animals and people at his home, and roam off from it on even more travels that followed his first publicity stunt--he sought sponsorship by keeping a travelogue weekly sent to newspapers in an early commercial tie-in for one who sought celebrity-- on his "tramp across the continent" (or most of it!) to Los Angeles from Chillicothe, Ohio, a Harvard dropout at 25 in 1888.
   
   Naturally an exciting story, but Thompson digs deeper into how Lummis reflected but overcame some of the prejudices common to the East Coast elite from whose lower ranks he came, and how he struggled with a tempestuous personal life and a libido that created tension, led to an early stroke, and led him on even more intimate adventures much less documented. The readable yet thoroughly documented text reads at a brisk pace; all facets of Lummis' many angles gain clarity. Well-chosen photos capture the idiosyncracies of this unforgettable sombrero-bright green corduroy suit-and-Navajo belt attired eccentric, who did so much to both sustain and unwittingly erase the traces of the Spanish and Native California he came to love.



2. Charles Lummis is a very interesting person in American and Southwest history, but author Thompson goes way beyond what most biographers would do and produced a richly researched and highly readable story. I read this book in my car, under a streetlight, while my wife attended a Christmas function. Does that tell you how interesting it is? I've passed Lummis's home/museum thousands of times but never visited--now I will.



3. Mark Thompson's long & deeply researched biography of a forgotten, complex American born just before the Civil War, is fascinating. Over a long & restless life, Charles Lummis became a poet, prolific letter writer, journalist, photographer, archaeologist, editor, champion of Spanish heritage in the Americas, & Indian Rights advocate - the classic workaholic of the late 19th & early 20th Centuries.

   It was his TRAMP ACROSS THE CONTINENT in 1884, which he weekly serialized in newspaper articles, that catapulted him into the public's eye. In time, as his assignments for the newly-formed Los Angeles Times, took him deeper into the Southwest which would capture his heart & soul, & closer to the American Indians for whom he would advocate mightily, he caught the ear of a President. Theodore Roosevelt came to consider Lummis a vital part of his "cowboy cabinet," & often invited him to Washington. Lummis enjoyed a life-long influence, via his editorials & many books, on the way Americans thought of themselves.

   In this era of bland plasticity, AMERICAN CHARACTER, reminds us of how individualistic, passionate, offensive & charming our forefathers were. It also reminds us of how devastating was our impact upon the people & the land in a time when a man could bemoan the wholesale slaughter of buffalo & Indians, while not batting an eye as he shot other critters just for the thrill of it!

   In the light of today's political correctness, Charles Fletcher Lummis' love life was as gilded with misogyny as you would expect from a man of his time - he kept his first marriage secret all through his Harvard years. As in every other aspect of his life, his thirst for affection & companionship was both utilitarian & fascinatingly eccentric.

   AMERICAN CHARACTER: Charles Fletcher Lummis & the Rediscovery of the Southwest, has been named by the Western Writers of America as Winner of the 2002 Spur Award in the biography category.

5 comments about I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me: A Memoir.

1. I love the Breslin delivery. This took us through his surgery deep into his brain, outlined every moment and procedure. Tells us that he didn't want to be "selected" as if he, in his fame, was getting special treatment. Was not at all sure he would come out knowing himself or anything of his universe. Fascinating in the telling. Well done and of major interest to anyone who wonders about the potential in their own life for 'something' to go wrong up there...



2. Well, Jimmy Breslin is Jimmy Breslin. I have always been a fan. The part of this book that really fascinated me was his reaction to the health care issue.
   He had a brain aneurysm. He has to have it operated or he dies. He could come out of the operation a vegetable. He tells his wife to get everything out of his name - the home the assets everything. Basically he says; I didn't work this hard all my life to spend my last days as a vegetable and have all my money drained into the coffers of doctors and hospitals.
   His wife did not follow his advice and luckily he came out all right.
   But isn't that interesting? Jimmy Breslin is a millionaire and with a ton of insurance but yet even he is vulnerable to the perils of this health care system.
   I guess since I'm 65 myself now and everybody I know is dead or on their way out - the death deal and everybody philosophizing about it is like water under a bridge. The insurance thing was more important to be. I agree with Jimmy, people all work too hard in this country to have whatever they have left stolen from their children and grandchildren to go into paying for this damn defunct health care baloney.
   I say good for him!



3. Outspoken New York newspaper columnist and author Breslin, famed for his sharp eye and wit, explores his own brain in this memoir of his life and his experience with brain surgery.
   
   The book opens the night before his aneurysm surgery in 1994 and closes with him leaving the hospital, mind intact. In between is a free-association of flashbacks - a rollicking ride through his life, his city and his work - punctuated by contemplative reflections on the nature of God and the human mind.
   
   "I lived in the everyday excitement of meeting strangers who unfold in front of you and become people you cannot wait to tell others about. How can you be expected to notice what is happening to your own life? ...and suddenly I look down and see that my feet are pawing strange dirt at the lip of a grave that maybe could be mine. And that is blinding speed."
   
   At age 65 Breslin made a rare doctor's visit due to eye trouble. The eye is nothing, but the attendant MRI shows an entirely unrelated "bulge," which could be a life-threatening aneurysm.
   
   Instantly Breslin recalls the Crown Heights riot after a black child was killed by a car driven by a Jew and a Jewish student was subsequently stabbed. Entering the area in a cab, Breslin was beaten and finally rescued. "The guy with the knife took me by the arm and led me through the crowd. The rest of me was reeling, a flag blowing in a stiff wind."
   
   Breslin's eye was injured in the melee and he seizes on this as an explanation. His memory of the riot is pungent, urgent, but the doctor brushes it off.
   The aneurysm confirmed, Breslin makes a joke. The doctor is amazed at his lack of understanding. But: "I also was treating it just as I do any horrible thing that occurs in a day. I report on a tragedy by remaining cold and callous and concentrate on making notes of the smallest details. In the hotel kitchen in Los Angeles, I counted Sirhan Sirhan kicking his legs five times before somebody sat on them after he shot Robert Kennedy."
   
   As he educates himself about the aneurysm and his options, he recalls the deaths of others - Nelson Rockefeller, his beloved wife Rosemary, the New York stabbing of Martin Luther King and his assassination a decade later - and endures the kindness and shocking insensitivity of various friends and colleagues.
   
   He recalls colorful characters from mob bosses to shady polls, rollicking nights in bars where he learned more than any journalism graduate sitting at a computer (he has the older generation's contempt for new ways).
   
   He remembers the cold dread of being broke, the bitterness of his childhood, his own floundering lack of identity - always pretending to be someone else. And all of it in vivid anecdotes that rivet the reader to the page.
   
   In contemplative moments he explores his relationship with God and the Catholic Church and researches the science of the mind, discovering that there isn't one.
   
   And he name-drops a bit. Governor Mario Cuomo asks the state health commissioner to recommend a doctor for his case. On the other hand murderer David Berkowitz, "Son of Sam," once pointed him out, saying " 'That's Jimmy Breslin. He's a very good friend of mine.' "
   
   Vintage Breslin, this is a compulsive page turner; funny, poignant and opinionated. His colorful, rushing style is quintessential New York and uniquely Breslin's.



4. "You take emotions, curiosity, whim, wandering around, out of a day's work and you have a corporation of zombies giving you an array of facts and details not worth space in a waste-basket." writes Jimmy Breslin of many of his fellow journalists. No commercials in Jimmy Breslin's prose, just gusty gutsy sentences, long crescendos, reflective adagios, and many many characters, all of them greater than life.

   This is a book of reminiscences first and foremost - thirty years of roaming New York's (and the world's) back streets like a mongrel journalist dog, sniffing garbage, following up on a scent, and peeing at lampposts to mark the most extraordinary territory on earth. Never awed, never condescending, Breslin is simply and unwaveringly curious - hence masterly.

   In the second part of the book this curiosity takes him into the OR and over the medical logs unflinchingly to understand the brain surgery he underwent, and to report on it. I'm not sure he fully succeeds in weaving it all into a story, though. It is like passengers watching on the TV screen the plane as it takes off - instant replay, and a bit unreal, or a gimmick. So what, it remains a great read.




5. Although the memoir is primarily the story of Mr. Breslin's diagnosis and treatment for a serious medical condition, it is delightfully sprinkled with anecdotes that pop into his head as he's contemplating his own fate. It is these stories that make this book well worth the reading. I only wish that Mr. Breslin had been more willing to let down his guard so we could get a better glimpse of the man -- I'm certain that he's at least as interesting himself as are the stories he tells about others.

1 comments about Muckrakers: How Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens Helped Expose Scandal, Inspire Reform, and Invent Investigative Journalism.

1. Ann Bausum's fascinating narrative is a must for any educator who is currently teaching American Literature or American History in their classroom curriculum. First hand accounts, political cartoons, and photographs of America's greatest investigative journalists brings history alive for any student. Don't skip the forward by Daniel Schorr a legend of investigative journalism in his own right. The resource guide is impressive and Ann's website allows students to search for photographs and information on investigative journalism by accessing the Library of Congress! Bravo Ann! This book is a supplemental must for high school students who may currently be working on their Junior Thesis.

5 comments about Will This Do?.

1. I enjoyed the book a great deal. It is a series of interconnected vignettes, which almost encourages the reader to open the book on any page and start reading (certainly my preferred technique for reading this book). Funny, yet with a lingering sadness, written in a prose style that is precise while being still extraordinarily natural and carefree. I am not sure everyone will like the book, but those who do will tend to love it.



2. Waugh was not only the best journalist of his generation, but also the funniest to boot. This book is a glorious romp through a life which added greatly to the gaiety of a nation.



3. There's something almost irresistible about the memoirs of a child of Evelyn Waugh, and there's much pleasure to be had in the first half of the autobiography. Auberon Waugh's dealings with his splenetic, conservative father--among the posh country houses of his family and their relatives--makes the stuff of a fine story, and Waugh brings great ironic humor to the table. Unfortunately, Auberon's own literary career is much less interesting, and concerns mainly petty squabbles and encounters with figures who are only of passing interest today: it's hard to get very worked up one way or the other, for instance, about Claire Tomalin's libel suit against him.

   Waugh's humor (like his father's) is not to everyone's tastes, but if you find his snobbish summaries and appreciations for the bizarre droll (as I do), you'll enjoy yourself very much. He is very much aware of his snobbism, as well as his father's, and his self-deprecating awareness of both men's failing is greatly appreciated, and makes the entire matter much easier to take.




4. .

   The death of Auberon Waugh in January 2001 marks the end of an era. Auberon and his father Evelyn were masters of the English language. Together they perfected the use of ironic wit.

   "Will this Do?" is much more than an autobiography. It is an encapsulation of an era and a culture. His work covers that incredible period of British history (1960 - 1980) where the "old order" Establishment, with its upper class "born to rule" social structures were overthrown.

   In that period political satire became part of popular culture. Witness the rise of "smart" young men like David Frost and the circle of comedians that arose from the Cambridge Footlights. The weekly newspaper "Private Eye" was one of the most influential outlets for Auberon Waugh where he wrote a column for many years. The "Eye" did more for exposing political and social scandal in Britain than any other forum.

   Waugh's membership of both the "upper" class and influential, activist intellectual circles put he him in a unique position to observe and comment on the quirks and absurdities of his Britain.

   Occasionally he was overtly a political activist. The most prominent example was his very public support of the Biafran cause in the Nigerian Civil War in the early 1970s. This put him at loggerheads with the British government.

   In Waugh's biography his ironic tone is pervasive. Even those readers who know his work well, will at times struggle to figure out whether he is joking, serious or merely "going over the top".

   Auberon's humour didn't travel too well across the Atlantic. He found American's far "too earnest", who take his words too literally. However the gulf in styles of humour between the Anglo and the American world must have been closed to some degree thanks to Waugh's writing.

   Waugh's influence on the world of wine was huge. For many years he wrote a wine column in the English "Spectator". In the early 1980's he "discovered" New World (Australian and Californian) wine. Although the Spectator at that time had a subscription base of only 14,000, it was hugely influential. The cellars of the House of Lords were probably restocked on the advice of Waugh. When you look at the exponential growth of New World wine exports since that time we may have a perfect example of viral marketing, thanks to one man's words in an obscure journal.

   Many people who are not familiar with the style and wit of Waugh may find his writing pompous and haughty. It is well worth persisting though. He was probably the first writer to do a demolition job on Political Correctness. His favourite targets were the self-righteous. If they happened to be humourless as well (a strong correlation?) they would get both barrels from Waugh.

   The influence of both Evelyn and Auberon Waugh will be felt for many years. Any body who loves the English language should read Auberon's autobiography. His work is the ideal example of that old aphorism " The Pen is Mightier than the Sword".




5. If you have ever lived amongst the literary or monied class of England, this book is a bittersweet retrospective, a tattle-tale, and an apology all in one. If you haven't, then it seems to be a pompous, overblown biography of a rather ordinary life of a rather unordinary aristocrat. Waugh tells tales of his youth, adolescence, and adult life as best as sees fits, which is to say he writes what he wants you to know, and HOW he wants you to know it. It is, at every turn, witty and funny, and worthy of reading for those reasons alone. For those of you who don't know, Waugh edits the Literary Review magazine, which is available in most English speaking countries, including better parts of the United States.