Every week, as my volunteer self goes through the library shelves on a re-tagging project, books I would never have dreamed of checking out end up coming home with me. This is one of them. Originally published in 1961 and long out of print, it was brought back to life through Nancy Pearl's Book Lust Rediscovery program as one of the best books she has ever read. Who am I to argue with Nancy Pearl?
Joshua Bland (last name intentional I'm sure) spends seven days telling his life story into a tape recorder as he prepares to end his life. A brilliant child prodigy who became famous for a book he wrote using his letters as a soldier in WWll, he then went on to a brief but successful career as a Broadway producer. He discovers that being among the rich and famous is pretty much like being alone. With aching wit, satire and sarcasm he peels away the shiny false exterior of the people and times he shares from the Depression of the 1930's through the McCarthy era. It should seem dated but when he mocks one of the figures important in "Wonderland, D.C." as saying, "... in perlous times like these, we must put our shoulders to the wheel and as 'mercuns back Our Great Leader..." I had a twenty-first century figure that came quickly to mind - a sad example of history repeating itself.
I'm not clear and either is Pearl about how much of this fiction is autobiographical but life disappoints him, he disappoints life, and this reader found the telling melancholy and the sarcasm more funny than gay. If this were a book group selection, readers might compare the number of literary and historical references they could identify after they discussed the more insightful than usual questions that Pearl provides. Five hundred and fifty-eight pages is a lot of self-flagellation to read and I don't know if I would but it on my all time favorites list but I am glad I read it.
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