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Defining Style

Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
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Memoir

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Before Eddie Fisher took his place in history as Elizabeth Taylor’s most famous cuckold, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the pop music pantheon with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett. Been There, Done That is Fisher’s own account of the meteoric rise and painfully long decline of his career.

Edwin Jack Fisher, the son of Russian Jews, was born in Philadelphia in 1928. Although his family was poor and his parents dysfunctional, Fisher found refuge and comfort in his remarkable singing voice. He began performing on radio when he was still in junior high, and by the time he was 15, he says, he was earning more money than his hard-working father. His radio shows and appearances in the Catskills quickly revealed Fisher as a talent to watch. He signed with RCA Records and, after a few false starts, had his first hit, Thinking Of You, in 1950, when he was 22 years old. He boasts that he had more consecutive hit records than the Beatles or Elvis Presley (which is demonstrably untrue) but he did rack up three No. 1’s and 16 Top 10’s during his 17 years on the charts.

As Fisher tells it, his attention to his career began faltering when he and Debbie Reynolds started dating. Their short and unhappy marriage was doomed, he insists, long before he began his much criticized affair with Elizabeth Taylor. He remains bitter and contemptuous toward Reynolds, but recalls with fondness his passionate marriage to Taylor. That marriage, also brief, ended abruptly when she dropped Fisher for her Cleopatra co-star, Richard Burton. Taylor’s incessant illnesses, as well as her flagrant infidelity, took further toll on Fisher’s work.

In spite of his outsized ego, Fisher is uproariously self-deprecating when he hits his story-telling stride a few chapters into the book. He is candid about his drug addictions, his failures as a father and husband, his indifference to the quality of songs he recorded, his ineptitude as an actor, and his appetite for beautiful women. On this last note, he claims affairs with Ann-Margaret, Marlene Dietrich, Connie Stevens (whom he also married), Kim Novak, Judith Exner, Juliet Prowse, Stefanie Powers, Mia Farrow, Angie Dickinson, and many more. Edward Morris is a book publisher and journalist.

Before Eddie Fisher took his place in history as Elizabeth Taylor's most famous cuckold, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the pop music pantheon with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett. Been There, Done That is Fisher's own account of the meteoric rise and painfully long…

Start Without Me

Gary Janetti’s keenly observed, hilarious memoir of his formative years in 1970s and ’80s Queens is equal parts acid and heart.
Biography

The public and private Mandela

Review by bookpagedev

One of Nelson Mandela’s closest friends and colleagues, Joe Slovo, noted in 1994 that "Without Mandela South African history would have taken a completely different turn." Mandela’s appeal was as a moral leader who sought unity and justice, reconciliation and forgiveness (but not forgetting). His many laudable personal qualities—including dignity, charm, loyalty, and a willingness to be conciliatory, combined with his inherent optimism about human nature and a shrewd and insightful intelligence—helped him to succeed in establishing democracy in South Africa. Above all, as Anthony Sampson makes clear in his outstanding new study, Mandela: The Authorized Biography, Mandela is a master politician who has understood what needed to be done and how to do it to achieve short-term objectives and long-term goals.
 
Sampson, a noted British journalist and author of many books, including The Anatomy of Britain, met Mandela in 1951 when Sampson was editor of the black South African magazine Drum. Like others through the years, at least once Sampson underestimated his subject. In writing a book at the 1957 Treason Trial, Sampson focused on other prominent African National Congress Leaders, "but not Mandela; I thought he was too detached to be a future leader, and would be less forthcoming." What Sampson failed to notice was that even at that early stage "the defense lawyers noticed that he had a quiet authority over his fellows, who often sought his legal advice; and his own testimony would reveal how deeply he considered his commitment to the cause."
 
To understand Mandela it is important to appreciate his commitment to the African National Congress, the country’s oldest (founded in 1912) and largest anti-apartheid organization. "Loyalty to an organization," he says, "takes precedence over loyalty to an individual." A Canadian diplomat pointed out in 1953: "The ANC is a great deal more than a political party. Representing as it does the great majority of articulate Africans in the Union, it is almost the parliament of a nation. A nation without a state, perhaps, but it is as a nation that the Africans increasingly think of themselves."
 
Sampson makes a strong case for his belief that Mandela’s 27 years of imprisonment was "the key to his development, transforming the headstrong activist into the reflective and self-disciplined world statesman." During that difficult period Mandela was not only a role model for other prisoners, but, in a sense, the leader of a government in exile.
 
Mandela’s devotion to the cause led to painful relationships with members of his own family; his political commitment "was at the expense of the people I knew and loved most."
 
Sampson explores both the public and private Mandela in this "authorized" biography. It is authorized in that Mandela gave the author personal interviews, "reading the draft typescripts and correcting points of fact and detail," but not interfering with the author’s judgments.
 
This book perfectly complements Mandela’s own autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, published in 1994. It allows us to see Mandela through the eyes of others and brings the story up to the present. Sampson was given access to important papers, including Mandela’s unpublished prison diary. He interviewed hundreds of people who have known the subject, and the result is a balanced portrait of a man who is, in his own words, "no angel." One example: "He has been right about one big issue where so many have been wrong. His persistence had a difficult downside: he could be very stubborn in thinking he was right about everything, and sometimes loyal to doubtful allies who brought him much criticism. But his loyalty to his own principles and friends gave him the edge over other world leaders who had forgotten what they stood for."
 
Roger Bishop is a regular contributor to BookPage. 

One of Nelson Mandela's closest friends and colleagues, Joe Slovo, noted in 1994 that "Without Mandela South African history would have taken a completely different turn." Mandela's appeal was as a moral leader who sought unity and justice, reconciliation and forgiveness (but not forgetting).…

NonfictionMusicBiography

Shine Bright

Review by Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

Novelist, journalist, editor and television producer Danyel Smith’s Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop radiates brilliance. In dazzling prose, she casts a spotlight on the creative genius of Black women musicians including Mahalia Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Mariah Carey, Marilyn McCoo and many more.

Weaving together the threads of memoir, biography and criticism, Smith illustrates how her intense love of music has been shaped by Black women’s art. These women helped her find her way as a Black girl in 1970s Oakland, giving her strength and the confidence to write about the music that defined her life. Now, when people ask Smith, “Why does Tina Turner matter? Why is Mary J. Blige important?” her answers, she writes, “are passionate and learned because I want credit to be given where credit is due.” For Smith, this especially includes giving Black women credit for being the progenitors of American soul, R&B, rock ’n’ roll and pop.

For example, Smith traces the career of Cissy Houston who, as part of the singing group the Sweet Inspirations, shaped the sound of megahits such as “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Son of a Preacher Man”—works that became foundational to the classic rock format and went on to influence everyone from the Counting Crows to U2. As Smith writes, “The Grammy Awards of the artists they have influenced would fill a hangar,” yet the Sweets are rarely mentioned in connection to these and other iconic songs.

As Smith teases out the immeasurable influence of both underappreciated background singers and idols who are household names, she illuminates the qualities these artists have in common, “most of which revolve around the transmogrification of Black oppression to fleeting and inclusive Black joy.” Combining the emotional fervor of a fan and the cleareyed vision of a critic, Smith charts a luminous new history of Black women’s music.

Combining the emotional fervor of a fan and the cleareyed vision of a critic, Danyel Smith charts a luminous new history of Black women’s music.
NonfictionEssaysArts & Culture

Some of My Best Friends

Review by Celia Mattison

Tajja Isen’s debut essay collection reveals her as a multihyphenate talent—voice actor, singer, editor, writer, law school graduate—with a delicious knack for wordplay and language. In Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service, Isen writes about the disparity between the “token apologies and promises” made by white people and what Black people actually want and take for themselves.

The strongest essay, which lends its name to the book’s title, examines the relationship white women have to power and pain, which Isen dubs the “aesthetics of vulnerability.” Continuing a thread from the previous essay about the popularity of Black trauma writing, Isen looks at how self-indulgence has been romanticized by white female artists. “If you’re always in pain you’ll never want for material,” she writes of these white artists’ impulse to glamorize their sadness.

Another standout essay is “Hearing Voices,” Isen’s personal exploration of voice acting as a transformative and potentially empowering art form. In addition to outlining her own experiences as a Black voice actor, she discusses “Big Mouth,” “Central Park” and “The Simpsons,” three animated shows that cast white actors to voice nonwhite characters and then apologized for this choice in 2020.

This essay also underlines a central weakness of the book: It already feels dated. Scanning the table of contents feels like reading a list of Twitter’s most popular trending topics from 2020. In the churn of the modern news cycle, it seems inevitable that not every moment referenced would have cultural staying power, but it’s especially frustrating when Isen chooses intentionally ephemeral data points, like viral trailers for made-for-TV movies or deleted Instagram posts.

In the book’s most compelling moments, Isen makes the churn the point: Whatever Starbucks or Lena Dunham did and subsequently apologized for in 2020 is something they’ll do again in 2030. Rather than revealing a new issue, the “Big Mouth” casting controversy confirmed something Isen had already learned early in her voice acting career: “The problem is the ivory grip on what Black sounds like.”

Throughout the collection, Isen engages the greatest hits of leftist Twitter discourse but with the type of nuance that’s impossible in 280 characters. She admits to “keeping an eye on the writers at the vanguard, seeing what kind of behavior gets rewarded,” and that’s reflected in the originality of Some of My Best Friends’ content—but it’s Isen’s original perspective and clever language that will win over readers.

Tajja Isen’s debut essay collection reveals her as a multihyphenate talent with a delicious knack for wordplay and language.
NonfictionMemoirAmerican History

Because Our Fathers Lied

Review by Roger Bishop

Robert S. McNamara served as secretary of defense in the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson administrations and was the primary architect of America’s war strategy in Vietnam in the 1960s. Even as the war became increasingly unpopular, Robert continued to insist that progress was being made, that victory was just around the corner. He didn’t admit his mistakes, even when doing so could have changed history. Many veterans and protesters still believe Robert never fully apologized for his role in the war—including his only son.

Craig McNamara’s loving but brutally honest account of his difficult relationship with his father, Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, From Vietnam to Today, tells of his father’s reluctance or inability to engage him in serious discussion about the evils of the war, or to apologize to the country. Veterans wanted Robert to understand the true cost of the war in human terms of lost lives and limbs rather than “lessons learned in the war,” as Robert put it in his 1995 book, In Retrospect. When that book was published, Craig asked his father why it took 30 years for him to try to explain himself. “Loyalty” was his father’s only answer. For Craig, this meant loyalty to the presidents he served without regard for ordinary people. This loyalty to the system eventually got Robert appointed as president of the World Bank and led to other personal advantages. “Loyalty, for him, surpassed good judgment,” Craig writes. “It might have surpassed any other moral principle.”

After Robert was out of government, but as the war continued, Craig received a draft notice. During his physical, he was found medically disqualified to serve because of being treated for stomach ulcers for several years. Despite his opposition to the war, not going to Vietnam as a soldier still made him feel overwhelming guilt. To cope, he set off on a motorcycle trip through Central and South America.

Through life-changing experiences during his travels, Craig discovered his love of farming and began a new direction for his life. He is now a businessman, farmer, owner of a walnut farm in Northern California and founder of the Center for Land-Based Learning. By making different choices than his father, Craig has begun to make peace with his family’s complicated legacy. His mother always played a positive role in his life (the memoir is dedicated to her memory) and acted as a “translator” between father and son, but it took years for Craig to understand how dysfunctional his family was with respect to speaking the truth.

Because Our Fathers Lied gives readers a vivid, front-row view of the divisiveness in one very prominent family, and through that family, a view of the national divisiveness that continued long after the Vietnam War.

Many Vietnam War veterans and protesters still believe Robert S. McNamara never fully apologized for his role in the war—including his only son.
LiteratureArts & Culture

Review

Review by bookpagedev

The actress Rachel Roberts wrote in her memoirs that everybody has a story and a scream. The Italian novelist Cesare Pavese said, No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide. Both Roberts and Pavese killed themselves.

What Mark Seinfelt has done in his new study is to give us the stories, the screams, and, inasmuch as they can be determined, the reasons for suicide of 50 celebrated writers of the past 100 years. Defining his parameters, Seinfelt notes that suicide was a rare phenomenon among writers and artists before 1900. In Greek and Roman times, when self-murder was often viewed as a noble way to defy persecution or stand up for one’s principles, such figures as Socrates, Cato, and Seneca chose suicide as a virtual affirmation. But in our century, only a few ideologues have deliberately sacrificed themselves to a cause, a protest, or a dogma. In the literary world, Yukio Mishima is perhaps the most striking example of such martyrdom.

Sometimes it seems that once Freud unlocked the subconscious and he had several writers as analysands a Pandora’s box of suicidal impulses was opened among the literati. Chronic depression, madness, alcoholism, drug addiction, existential despair, inconsolable feelings of worthlessnessÐall these things had plagued writers in earlier epochs. Yet suicide, once considered the gravest sin, was usually held at bay. Only in a century of unprecedented martial slaughter, nuclear holocaust, and genocide has it become a near-commonplace of intellectual life. For the Dadaists (whom Seinfelt does not address), it was the only act that made sense in a world in which reason played no part. It is not Seinfelt’s intention to illustrate theories or put the suicides he recounts into an overarching historical/psychological paradigm. His approach is that of the mini-biographer, with each writer’s life story discretely sketched, his or her career outlined, and the events leading up to suicide summarized. The chapters, one per writer, are often meager on analysis but are satisfyingly generous on vital detail. About a few of the most famous authors, such as Hemingway and Virginia Woolf, Seinfelt is both short-sighted and uninspired. But with writers less read, like Hart Crane (the subject of his longest chapter) or Stefan Zweig, he performs a more valuable service than merely rendering a downward spiral: He makes you want to read their work.

Final Drafts is an intriguing bedside-table book, better for dipping into than for reading at a stretch. The stories are necessarily grim and disturbing, but the subjects rarely fail to fascinate.

Randall Curb writes for The Oxford American, Southern Review, and American Scholar.

The actress Rachel Roberts wrote in her memoirs that everybody has a story and a scream. The Italian novelist Cesare Pavese said, No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide. Both Roberts and Pavese killed themselves.

What Mark Seinfelt has done…

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