From Publishers Weekly
The fragments of this intriguing unfinished novel, assembled by Stutman after "years of detective work," shed light on Wolfe's (1900-1938) creative methods while recording his intense love for theater designer Aline Bernstein, who appears as Esther Jack in the posthumous The Web and the Rock and You Can't Go Home Again . Fascinated by her Jewish heritage--as he was by ethnicity generally--Wolfe wished to absorb Bernstein's life as part of the "river" of time's flow and to reinvent it, while the mature, wealthy Bernstein strove as his Scheherazade to prolong their affair, sending sheafs of notes that finally taxed his patience. The strain is evident here, since Wolfe digresses from the Esther passages, but his storytelling genius, vital and chaotic, emerges in this welter of vignettes, however hastily they are lashed together. Highlights are accounts of New York at the turn of the century; the imagining of Bernstein's father's life (fictionalized as Joe Barrett, he is depicted as a Connecticut Yankee of "mountain blood" like Wolfe, an actor who joins a circus); and the portrait of a Victorian aunt who scribbled 60 sentimental novels but scandalized readers by penning a sexual escapade. Her plea for writing frankly on "the sensual woman" bares the author's own liberated views. Reading these lyrical, effusive pages is to take an invigorating plunge in the swarming sea of Wolfe's imagination. Publication is set for Wolfe's birthday, October 3.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This book, a collection of chapters and fragments of an incomplete novel, was written during the last years of Wolfe's life. The central character, Esther Jack, is based on the life of Wolfe's lover, Aline Bernstein, a Jewish costume and set designer for the New York stage. Wolfe expands his focus to include stories about her family and friends, fictionalizing her family as he did his own in Look Homeward, Angel . Stutman is to be commended for her restrained and unobtrusive editing, which even leaves Wolfe's idiosyncratic punctuation intact. This publication is significant not only as proof of Wolfe's ability to venture beyond autobiography, but also as negation of the charge that he was overly dependent on his editors. This unpolished manuscript shines with brilliance, evidence of a master craftsman.
- Joanne Snapp, Virginia Commonwealth Univ., RichmondCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
