pioneer experimental filmmaker/poet's memoir
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The first four chapters of this autobiography are unassuming and sensitive as Broughton ( The Androgyne Journal ) writes of his early life. Readers learn that the octogenarian poet and experimental filmmaker enjoyed dressing up in his mother's clothes, adored the father who died when Broughton was in kindergarten, was constantly at odds with his social-climbing mother and detested the stepfather who shipped him off to military school. It's easy to sympathize as he talks of school friendships, his college years at Stanford ("I had requested the Sorbonne or Oxford or Columbia. My mother only wanted me to learn how to get rich and meet the right people.") and his early adulthood (sailing on a passenger cargo ship, then settling in New York City). But the larger portion of this volume is devoted to the postwar years, which he spent in San Francisco and Europe. Having met many notable people, Broughton forsakes introspection for literary gossip and name-dropping: Kenneth Rexroth, Pauline Kael, Dylan Thomas, Anais Nin. The birth of a daughter is dispensed with in two sentences. Broughton's insistence on making himself the center of attention increasingly intrudes. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Not widely known to general audiences, Broughton is a poet and a pioneer in the world of avant-garde film. Now in his eighties, Broughton looks back on his life in this slim volume and finds surprisingly little of interest to say. Beyond some off-handed remarks on the making of his films, the reader is left with Broughton's portrait of an unhappy life at home that reads like an act of vengeance, some name-dropping of famous types he's come across, and an account of seemingly every sexual episode of his youth. Though sometimes gracefully written, the book offers little in the way of worthwhile content, and it's unlikely that many readers will share Broughton's self-absorption. Not recommended.
- David C. Tucker, DeKalb Cty. P.L., Decatur, Ga.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- David C. Tucker, DeKalb Cty. P.L., Decatur, Ga.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, fabulous, frisky,
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This review is from: Coming Unbuttoned (Paperback)
A great personal view of the 20th century by a master of words and images
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Golden boy,
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This review is from: Coming Unbuttoned (Paperback)
My lovingly called into being, exquisitely proportioned review of this for amazon.co.uk seems to have vanished into the ether, so I'll roll out Take #2 your side of the pond.
I venture to aver that (US: I guess) nothing human is alien to me* (except sport, apart from Wimbledon Fortnight - maybe) but this comes across as slightly TOO camp. The Gilded Age is always fascinating, and our hero certainly made the most of his good looks and slender talent (poet and film-maker), but in the end one is just waiting for Cocteau, Gide or Gertude Stein to show up and it starts to feel faintly like Frank Harris. This isn't to put down our Jim; Harris was as odious a braggart and bounder as you could hope to meet - but that's what makes him so damn readable! Now print that, Amazon. PS I remember now using the word 'soiled' about the experience of reading Harris. Broughton is much more hygienic! I guess they're both of their age. [Reader advisory: Harris is not gay, of course - more's the pity!] PPS Since Broughton was a bit of a hanger-on, maybe I should have titled this Camp Follower? *Montaigne, after Terence
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