Customer Reviews

A smattering of ignorance

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I 'discovered' Oscar Levant in "An American in Paris" on the TCM movie channel on TV. I considered he was the most interesting thing in the film which otherwise was fairly boring. This book was the first thing I could find by him and was a surprise. Though quite of lot of the musical references and the people mentioned were unfamiliar to me (i.e. before my time) I still found the book very funny and extremely well-written. The chapters including Harpo Marx were a hoot and the ones on George Gershwin fascinating. Since reading this book I have bought both of Oscar Levant's other books, his life story by Kashner and Schoeberger (a great book, this) and several of his records and DVDs and he is surely one of the most amazingand unique characters I have ever encountered, sadly many years after his death. Although Levant was a difficult and in many ways a tragic character, I would recommend this book (and his others) to anyone who wants to read something a little different and who has a fascination with the entertainment industry of the last century.

Twenty or so years ago, I found a 1959 reprint of this book, A SMATTERING OF IGNORANCE, in a thrift shop and it provided me a new hero - Oscar Levant. Such a witty man! I'd almost say he was funnier than Groucho. Without doubt, I've never encountered a more entertaining raconteur. Levant's anecdotes all shed light on the fascinating worlds of music, show business and letters of a classic era. He was a very good pianist with a particular affinity for the music of his friend George Gershwin, and it would certainly surprise many nowadays to learn that for a while early in the 1940s, he was the most successful pianist in the world in monetary terms.

There are five chapters in my copy of this book, all breezy and inviting. They are:

"Music in Aspic" - concerning orchestras and, especially, their renowned conductors. Hilarious!

"Memoirs of a Mute" - Who else but Harpo Marx!

"A Cog in the Wheel" - music in Hollywood

"My Life (or the Story of George Gershwin)" - Levant's musical life was famously bound up with the Gershwins... for better and worse.

"The Boys Are Marching" - Aaron Copland and other contemporary composers

Also, an introduction by the writer S. N. Behrman and a short afterword by Levant entitled "Con Sordine". 189 pages. Easy to pick up and set down, A SMATTERING OF IGNORANCE can be read satisfyingly a few pages at a time. It will surely become one of your favorites!