Pentimento (Back Bay Books) [Paperback]

Lillian Hellman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Back Bay Books | Publication Date: March 29, 2000

In this widely praised follow-up to her National Book Award-winning first volume of memoirs, An Unfinished Woman, the legendary playwright Lillian Hellman looks back at some of the people who, wittingly or unwittingly, exerted profound influence on her development as a woman and a writer. The portraits include Hellman's recollection of a lifelong friendship that began in childhood, reminiscences that formed the basis of the Academy Award-winning film Julia.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Hellman's 1973 title was the second of three volumes of memoirs written after she had dried up as a playwright. These remembrances have come under fire by many who claim she lifted some of these stories from others, such as the famous "Julia" chapter upon which the film was based, and completely invented others. Whether fact or fiction, begged, borrowed, or stolen, who cares? This book makes for great reading.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

"Lillian Hellman (1905-1984) is best known as the author of the plays The Children's Hour, The Little Foxes, Watch on the Rhine, Another Part of the Forest, The Autumn Garden, and Toys in the Attic. She also wrote three volumes of autobiography: An Unfinished Woman, for which she received the National Book Award in 1969, Pentimento, and Scoundrel Time.

Wendy Wasserstein is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright whose works include An American Daughter, The Sisters Rosenzweig,The Heidi Chronicles, Isn't It Romantic, and Uncommon Women and Others."

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books; Reissue edition (March 29, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316352888
• ISBN-13: 978-0316352888
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Infamous Miss Hellman, November 5, 2007

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pentimento (Back Bay Books) (Paperback)

Lillian Hellman's PENTIMENTO, A loose collection of autobiographical essays and stories, has been both controversial and famous, and very specifically so for "Julia." In this particular tale, Hellman describes her attempt to aid a friend by smuggling money to support anti-Nazi efforts in 1930s Germany--and subsequently finding herself unable to protect Julia from the ferocity of the Nazi machine. Powerfully written, it is the centerpiece of the book, and in 1977 was adapted into a very popular and much-praised film starring Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave.

It was at this point, however, that controversy arose. The film caught the attention of Muriel Gardner, who promptly asserted that she was 'Julia' and the story itself was significantly based on her own life and work in pre-World War II Germany. She also stated that she had never met Lillian Hellman--but it transpired that she and Hellman had at one time shared the same attorney, who was well aware of her past and who could have described it to Hellman.

Hellman flatly stated that Gardner was not 'Julia' and insisted that the story, while altered re details and circumstances to protect the identities of those involved, was indeed factual. As more details of Gardner's life came to light, however, it seemed increasingly likely that Hellman had indeed made use of it in creating the story, and the dispute continues to provoke strong feelings even some thirty years after the deaths of both Hellman and Gardner.

It was not the first time Hellman had been accused of literary fraud and it would not be last. During her long love affair with novelist Dashiell Hammett, Hellman was frequently accused of draining his ideas to further her own work. In 1979 writer and critic Mary McCarthy prompted a suit for slander when she described Hellman's work by saying "every word she writes is a lie, and that includes 'and' and 'the!'" But regardless of how Hellman came by her ideas, there is no getting around the fact that she had the gift: at her best, she was the equal of the best of the best, turning out several masterpiece dramas and three autobiographical works that jolted best seller lists from end of the country to the other.

PENTIMENTO is the second of these autobiographies, published in 1973 between the equally famous UNFINISHED WOMAN (1969) and SCOUNDREL TIME (1976.) And although "Julia" remains the most famous--or perhaps most infamous--work in the collection, Hellman is actually at her finest in the other stories she tells, most particularly those that center on her childhood home of New Orleans.

In both these writings and others, Hellman shows a remarkable gift for capturing place, time, and character, zeroing in on her New Orleans family, her lover Hammett, and the legendary Tallulah Bankhead to name but a few. From the lunacy of personalizing condoms in Hollywood to the drunken jitters of opening night on Broadway, Hellman makes you see it, feel it, touch it, taste it. It is a brilliant accomplishment--and if you suspect that the stories on which she hangs these talents are at best misrecalled, at worst deliberate falsifications--is this not, after all, what we demand that writers do? Recast reality in order to spin a good story? Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Woman's Life: Real Stuff, January 5, 2001

By 

Deborah Martinson (Burbank, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pentimento (Back Bay Books) (Paperback)

Pentimento is a brilliant--and entertaining--portrait of a woman's life seen through the doubleness of "then and now." Hellman sketches the people within her life, now housed in her memory. Although dubbed a memoir, it transcends a mere record of Lillian Hellman's life and portrays instead the way in which a woman's history merges with the memory of it. Each chapter is a portrait of someone or something symbolically important, and each is written in a different style reflecting its content and theme. Not history, not autobiography, not fiction, Hellman tried instead to get the feeling of her life right, to find something individual and universal. Drama, humor, tragedy--it's here, and it's important.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Portrait of a Fascinating Life, September 13, 2002

By 

Scott E. Amundsen (Oneonta, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pentimento (Back Bay Books) (Paperback)

Lillian Hellman, one of the great playwrights of the Twentieth Century, bares her soul in this electrifying collection of vignettes about her life in the theatre; her friends and family; her complex relationship with the great Dashiell Hammett; and much more.

Reading this book is like listening to Hellman talk intimately about her life. It is a true memoir; she does not remember details; the conversations tend to be fragmented, and she freely admits that her memories may have been blurred by the passage of time (and in some instances, Hellman's consumption of liquor).

Hellman was an extraordinary writer and an extraordinary woman. In PENTIMENTO she reveals herself as few writers have ever done. She makes no attempt to portray herself as a hero or a villain, but as a real, living, breathing woman with changing views and difficult but fascinating relationships.

Some people have questioned the truth of some of the stories in this book. Hellman does not claim to be an historian; she is merely a human being talking about the things, places, and people of her life. It is precisely because the book is so fragmented and uneven that it rings so true.

All in all, a MUST READ!!