From Publishers Weekly
In 16 essays adapted from reviews, book introductions and public lectures, Doctorow explores the theme of literary and scientific creation, considering how creators shape, and are shaped by, the culture that surrounds them. Most of the essays focus on American writers: Doctorow incisively considers the "American consciousness" of Edgar Allan Poe, laments the paradoxical racism of Uncle Tom's Cabin, revels in the Shakespearean riffs of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and pinpoints the "conflicting visions of the same past" in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Doctorow usefully contrasts Ernest Hemingway's distinctly American treatment of the Spanish Civil War in For Whom the Bell Tolls with that of his French contemporary André Malraux, and he commends Arthur Miller's moral seriousness. Ranging outside of literature, Doctorow praises the comic genius of his childhood idol, Harpo Marx, tracing his anarchic clowning to a childhood of poverty spent outwitting the urban forces arrayed against him. He examines soberly the national and institutional climate in which the atom bomb's creators were immersed: the bomb's "components were either uranium isotopes or plutonium... and a dread of the malignant war-machined sociopathy of Adolf Hitler." Brilliantly written, Doctorow's cultural and literary analysis abounds in acute literary characterizations and mordant observations. (Sept. 19)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Audiofile
Doctorow's voice is rich and deep and full of intelligence, inviting the reader to attend to what he says. It's a pleasure to hear him speak, and seem also to think his way through, this collection of 16 essays, gathered from his introductions, reviews, and public lectures. The writings themselves explore creativity, mostly literary--with selections on Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Sinclair Lewis, and Ernest Hemingway. A few pieces discuss creative acts in other spheres, as well--Harpo Marx, Albert Einstein. These personal reflections are not anchored by tight, formal theses; rather, they create a context for making stimulating observations on their topics and are well presented in Doctorow's smart reading. G.H. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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