Customer Reviews

Misfit:: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I find Yardley's -Washington Post- columns and book reviews entertaining, even when I don't agree with them; but -Misfit- suffers from something I don't find in his newspaper work, much less in Exley: numbers. Thus, themes are three-fold, Exley's marriages failed for these two reasons, these two contrasting incidents demonstrate first, this, second, that. This doesn't make Misfit a bad book, just too often a schematic one, unfortunate especially considering the rich, tangential schemelessness that was his subject's wont.Yardley faced what seems a real dilemma for a biographer: how to portray a subject known for autobiographical work? To parallell Ex's real life with his not always corresponding literary life, and to fill the numerous gaps, is how. But I'm not sure how someone unfamiliar with Exley would find it; excerpts from the oeuvre are revealing enough, but by my fan's assessment one needs to be immersed in Exley's voice for some time before his magic begins to rub off. I'm not sure Misfit accomplishes this, though as a fan I was more than happy to learn what was behind the literary mask.

Jonathan Yardley's book isn't a great one, but having stumbled upon "A Fan's Notes" like a hungry man at a banquet, "Misfit" was that last after-dinner drink I just couldn't refuse. Yardley helps us decifer the hazy border between fact and fiction, and ponders the enigma of how a loser like Exley could write a novel of such penetrating power. For those who finish "A Fan's Notes" wishing for more, this short bio is probably preferable to Exley's unsuccessful later works.

exley managed to write, amidst the tumultuous and chaotic uncertainty of his own life, one legendary and immortal book, which everyone who cares about modern american literature must explore. yardley, here, gives us a portrait of the man, who must have been among the most exasperating creatures ever to walk the earth. yet his goodness and talent shine through, and i can't say that i wouldn't have been one of the willing multitude sucked into his web. if you hold 'a fan's notes' sacred, as i do, this is a necessary bookend.

Any fan of Exley's A Fan's Notes will be disappointed in this book. Exley spoke informally to so many people for so many years, but few of those words seem to remembered by anyone. There is too much speculation as to Exley's sex life that adds nothing to our understanding of this marvelous writer. Instead we get the standard biographer's suppositions that just hang there without justification. That people loved Exley is obvious. That he was self-destructive has been documented by his writing. Yardley apparently had a good idea to write about Exley, but a good idea and a publisher's contract is a flimsy excuse for the appearance of this book

Yardley does some wonderful spelunking here, using the standard tools of the biographer--along with some truly skillful analysis of Exley's own writing--to plumb the depths of this interesting, tragicomic, and quintessentially American personality. Readers smitten by Exley's prose in *A Fan's Notes* (and his other two books and sporadic journalism) will find much of interest in Yardley's readable account of this writer's strange life and times.

Yardley has done the impossible - his vivid account of the forces that shaped Exley's sad life are fascinating. Yardley has captured the very essence of Watertown, New York - a town 350 miles north of New York City where the winters are long and cold, employment opportunities are limited, and geographic isolation encourages the cult status of small town high school heroes. As a native of Watertown, Exley's writing always struck a very personal note with me - But Yardley succeeds in translating the many sad themes of the North Country into a very readable thesis.

Mr. Yardley admits at the outset that he was, in a telephonic way, a friend of Exley's. This gives you the immediate expectation that you are going to get a kid-gloves treatment of the late author. That expectation is borne out completely by this brief book.

In _The Culture of Narcissism_ Christopher Lasch used _A Fan's Notes_ as Exhibit A in the development of a narcissistic culture in late 20th century America. Lasch defined a narcissist as someone who has no real self, but instead cobbles one together based on the continually and desperately solicited approval of others. This project of manufacturing a self is all-consuming and leaves the narcissist with little energy to direct toward paying attention to the existence of other people. In _A Fan's Notes_ Fred Exley attempts to construct a self that is "not-Frank Gifford"; he is a nobody. That he was able to get this down on paper in a coherent form was the achievement of his lifetime and he deserved all the recognition he got, but of course the recognition merely fed his narcissism.

Yardley mentions Exley's famous monologues (given in person and over the phone) many times and says only that they consisted of disjointed stories of people that Exley knew and interacted with. He hints, but never states, that these narratives were more real to him than his own life. Yardley also mentions the negative review by Alfred Kazin of _Pages from A Cold Island_, the second Exley book; Kazin nailed Exley for living his life solely for the purpose of having something to write about. That is, Kazin outed Exley as a narcissist. Yardley completely misses this dimension of the Exley character and therefore his "analysis" of the man goes nowhere.

If you were unfamiliar with the basic details of Frederick Exley's life, then this book will supply them for you. The interpretive aspect of this book is too kind to an old friend and allows Exley to remain an enigma when, in fact, he is has been explained better elsewhere by Christopher Lasch.

This, despite claims to the contrary, is a conventional chronological biography. There's little that's illuminating or even interesting in this book. Exley's life is described as a child, as a successful novelist, and as an inevitably deteriorating drunk. Maybe Exley was simply not a good subject for a biography. He seems to have been nothing more than an irresponsible mooch. The attempts to explain Exley's behavior are very weak. Why does Exley wind up in an insane asylum on two occasions? Does one go to insane asylums because they are inherently lazy and irresponsible or is there something about them that explains why they are so troubled. The few stabs at explaining Exley are meaningless shots in the dark. For the most part this book just chronicles, without any explanation, a life that I'd guess was more complex than it's made out to be in the biography. According to MISFIT Exley was one of the most unattractive reprehensible persons ever to appear on the planet. Maybe that's the truth.

Most of this book is Yardley's reflections on Exley: his work and what his life meant. It is not much in the way of hard biography. I get the feeling that Yardley, though he admired and was fascinated by Exley, was not up to the task of a serious biography.

In the preface Yardley demurs that this is not possible because Exley left so few traces of himself behind.

Ha! An unconvincing excuse. There be other authors who have left a lot less, and that didn't stop hordes of biographers.

I think Yardley found it easier to surmise than actually do the legwork. However, 5 stars because the book is so exquisitely written.

Do yourself a favor and skip p. 29.

I'm divided on "Misfit." I'm relieved that the book isn't an 800 page hagiography, relentless detailing every awful event in Exley's life. What a candidate he would be for that kind of treatment, apparently! Yet in abandoning traditional biographic approaches like chronicling dates and places and keeping it freeform, Yardley goes up against some awesome competition for chronicling Exley's life: Exley himself, in A Fan's Notes, Pages from a Cold Island, and Last Notes from Home. I enjoyed this book but it seemed a little breezy, an homage to the elusive Exley rather than any definitive tackling of his "strange" life. A Fan's Notes still rules!