Customer Reviews

Do I Owe You Something?: A Memoir of the Literary Life

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Though we know him now mostly from his writing about tennis and true crime, once upon a time Michael ("Mike") Mewshaw had loftier ambitions and moved with the famous novelists of his day (the 1970s is the period treated in this book), aided and abetted by his lovely wife, Linda, whom William Styron called, "Slim." You will love reading Mewshaw's accounts of his brushes with fame, as he tries to get this one to write a blurb for his book, the other one to write him a reference letter. He is endearing, always saying and doing the exact wrong thing, and managing to alienate the shallow people he wants to impress. His account of meeting Eleanor Clark and her rudeness to him is very well written. She is a monster in human form, even down to having a face with a tragic flaw in it which made her look as though she were sneering all the time. Eventually her personality came to match her face (according to this book, there may be another side to the story). And Mewshaw's account of the Southern writer Peter Taylor is another prize. What a terrible person!

When he gets to Rome, he tries repeatedly to impress the once-famous novelist Anthony Burgess, who wrote A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Instead he has a hilarious eight-hour encounter with Burgess' wife, an excitable and grasping Italian, and their little boy of 7, a wild child with nothing but id. In this context we come to admire Harold Robbins, the lowbrow best-seller. He may not have been esteemed to critics, but at least he was generous to Mike and Linda!

Mike and I went to DeMatha High School together (he was one year behind me). I can honestly say that he is the ONLY person I have ever known that said in high school what he wanted to be (a writer) and went on to pursue that career religiously. I have read most of his books and he is an excellent writer. Read Mike's books; I'm sure you will enjoy them. Mike is an excellent writer...way to go, Mike!!!