Customer Reviews

Boswell

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BOSWELL is Elkin's first book and remains extremely insightful even after thirty years. It is the story of a "bum" who dedicates his life to knowing celebrities. These range from a south american dictator to an Italian princess to a nobel prize winning scientist (for whom Boswell sabotages a multi-million dollar grant by claiming the grant giver called him "a little yid."). Key amongst his contacts is his very skillful lying and his eventual self-destruction of whatever relationship he may form with them. To him, it is more important that he know them and all their eccentricities, (which he keeps notecards on) than to be truly intimate with them. In fact, you could say that Boswell is not intimate with anybody, and that losing for him is half the fun. If there is any criticism I would give this book, it is that it tends to switch scenes, (many of which are ficticious "journal entries") without enough warning or understanding of what events are taking place. Whole scenarios are establish