Customer Reviews

Now And Then

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not like his novels, because this book is less edited--irrelevancies, parenthetical comments, asides, which slow down narrative. Masterful description of sights and sounds still there--characteristic of other New York writers, such as Breslin and Puzo-- but without ominousness of "Closing Time." Descriptions of Coney Island are superb; if he had grown up anywhere else, he and his life would have been very different. Has difficulty reading character in real life; describes one classmate as "an idealist;" T.S. Eliot told Donald Hall the same fellow was a shameless careerist for hounding widow Yeats for her husband's literary papers. Turns his contemporaties into rivals, unnecessarily.Subjects he avoids demonstrate Victorian propriety. Dislikes being an icon, despite seeking fame and writing for money. A romantic with a mystical streak who becomes nihilistic from disappointment--perfect for a post-war icon and truthful as far as it goes, which isn't far enough. Enough truth here to be worth reading. All criticism diminishes him, for example, even from people he detests. What writer would argue with that?