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If we can't have an autobiography, then this is pretty good. Alexander Theroux was a close friend of Edward Gorey's and has a lot of first hand insight and quotes him often. What I find really interesting about Gorey outside of being a fan of his art is his view of the world--how he looks at life, pop culture and the influences that lead him to create the works of his career. If we can't have the actual voice of Edward Gorey to tell us, Alexander Theroux might be the next best thing.
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Not much is out there about the writer and illustrator Edward Gorey, at least not much that is consistent, which is why I was hoping this book would shed some light on this unique literary character. Perhaps it is fitting to Gorey's personality that it it does...and it doesn't. It is nice to learn that Gorey, whose wicked, macabre little books are gems of outre humor, was not the sort of person who "lived" his work, which is a way of saying he did not seem to be "weird." Eccentric, but not weird. If anything, he comes off as someone you would love to have come over to the house, were he so inclined to do so. The picture of Gorey that emerges (though it has to fight its way up) through "The Strange Case of Edward Gorey" is that of a man who absolutely cannot be pegged in any conventional way: a polymath with a fondness for both the highs and lows of culture; a caring, feeling individual who is proclaims not to need other people, but who has an army of close friends; a "recluse" who regularly gave interviews; and a singular artist who lacks the artistic temperament. What does not come through this book is how such an individual could find his place, unique as it was, in the 20th century. Nor does it offer much about mundane subjects like his working methods, or even how he managed to support himself while remaining essentially an underground artist (everybody knows Charles Addams by name; not that many know Gorey by name, even if they've seen his work).Read more ›
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Edward Gorey is a huge influence for me as an artist. I love his work and enjoyed reading this book so much.So happy I bought it, I will probably read it a second, third, and fourth time.
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This is a peculiar book. It goes on at length about what EG liked and disliked, and tells us a lot about the author's likes and dislikes too. It's entertaining, but repetative - I like knowing that EG loved Buffy The Vampire Slayer, like me, but didn't need telling four times. I suppose that, Gorey having been a non-travelling, non-marrying recluse, there's not much material to draw on. Theroux spins out what he has into a book that, I suppose, every Gorey fan has to read, there being little else of a biographical nature. Expect to get that warm feeling you get from realising that one of your heroes likes the same stuff as you, but not a lot of other feelings. Was Gorey gay? Theroux bangs on about this a fair amount. He also goes to great lengths comparing him to the likes of Auden and Henry James, for some reason. I learned things, I think I know Gorey a bit better, so the book did a job, I suppose.
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This is not a biography of Edward Gorey. It's a disorganized pile of gossip collected for all appearances exclusively for the gratification of the author's ego. On page 15 he dribbles on about the charities Gorey contributed to on his death, and from there the timeline is just totally muddled. It reads like a stream-of-consciousness journal exercise. The author name drops all over the place, and makes garbled lists of Gorey's likes and dislikes. He seems addicted to run-on sentences, reapeats himself often, and jumps about in every paragraph. There are no chapters, no organization of any kind. Some of the things he feels the need to share about Gorey's opinions are the sort of gossipy things one might say in passing but you would probably not want carelessly repeated after your death, and it leaves one feeling that the author had no respect for Gorey's confidence, and was really taking advantage of his aquaintence with the artist. If you can stomach the TMZ style frivolous gossip and you drag yourself through his endless run-on sentances and rambling, pointless paragraphs, you might find a few fun facts (E.G. Loved "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"!) etc.. Unfortunately this book left me annoyed with the author far more than it enlightened me on one of my favorite artists.
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This is first and foremost a memoir and not a biography. Anyone expecting a biography of Gorey, as some of the other reviewers seem to have been, is going to be a little puzzled. Theroux takes a conversational approach to Gorey, the man and the artist, and riffs rather than explores. This is pleasurable and avoids the inevitable clumsy voyuerism that comes from the biographies of intensley private people. Theroux opens us up to the Gorey he knew and allows us to witness their friendship without stomping through those parts of his life that Gorey kept private. It is not always chronological but rather flows from theme to theme and person to person. Theroux highlights Gorey's importance as an American writer and artist through comparison to his contempories and heroes. It is not hagiography. Gorey's flaws are exposed but are also allowed to sit as they are the flaws of an individual who lived alone and did little harm.
It is wonderfully written and readable but the reader will get the impression that like the great John Watson MD Theroux is a little in awe of his subject and does not fully understand him. A small case in point is Theroux's attitude to TV a younger writer would have been more sumpathetic, I think, to Gorey's fascination with disposable pop-culture like Ren and Stimpy, which Theroux seems never to have watched. I suspect Gorey was enough of a realist to draw little distinction between Dallas and the victorian tripple-deckers he read while Theroux the novelist priveliges high-culture.
This is a real delight full of small pleasures like lists of cat names, descriptions of desserts, and early hollywood gossip. My one caveat would be that it is probably only of interest to the fanatic and anyone wating a more rounded view of Gorey should look at Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey as well.
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