What Hemingway's A Moveable Feast did for Paris in the 1920s, this charming yet undeceivable memoir does for Greenwich Village in the late 1940s. I...
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Jun 15, 2009
Aaron
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Maybe it's because I just finished reading Incognegro, a thin graphic novel that leverages the idea of "passing" into a lot of interesting narrative turns, that I found Kafka was the Rage frustrating. I often was drifting to the story that Broyard does not tell, the one where he is a black man passing as white in an environment that prides itself on being open minded and bohemian.
It does not help that he essentially dares us to think about this untold story when he writes More...
It does not help that he essentially dares us to think about this untold story when he writes More...
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Oct 17, 2007
Ro
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"It was the talkers who gave me the most trouble. Like the people who had sold me books, the talkers wanted to sell me their lives, their fictions about themselves, their philosophies. Following the example of the authors on the shelves, infected perhaps by them, they told me of their families, their love affairs, their illusions and disillusionments. I was indignant. I wanted to say, Wait a minute! I've already got stories here! Take a look at those shelves!" Anatole Broyard "Kaf
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Sep 28, 2007
Anne
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In this memoir, literary critic Broyard tells the story of his life in Greenwich Village in post-WWII 1946. It's a free-thinking time, where eveyone appears obsessed with books, ideas, and art. This reminded me so much of the beat writers in San Francisco, but as Broyard points out, minus the drugs. In some ways it seems like a frustrating pointless life and time, with people moving in and out of each other's lives, discussing philosophy, but finding no answers. In other ways, it gave me this re
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Oct 07, 2009
Ciara
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i am willing to concede that my dislike for this book is maybe just really subjective. it was recommended to me by a former writing teacher who absolutely RAVED about it & went into fits of ecstasy describing the way all of her writing friends soaked up the descriptive torrents of prose & felt that they were transported back to post-war greenwich village, etc etc. me...not so much. the book tops out at right around 120 pages & the only thing with a bigger font is "highlights magazine for ch
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Jun 14, 2010
Ellen
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Memoirs would not have such a bad reputation if they were all this spare, this precise. Plus, it doesn't hurt that he's writing about life in Greenwich Village in the 1940s, what it was like to own a bookstore before the paperback revolution, when "people would rush in wild-eyed, almost foaming at the mouth, willing to pay anything for Kafka," having sex when "sex was like one of those complicated toys that comes disassembled, in one hundred pieces, and without instructions,"
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Apr 05, 2009
Diana
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Jeg havde forventet noget andet af denne bog. Noget mere romanagtigt, måske, selvom det er en memoir. Den handler om forfatterens liv i Greenwich Village i New York i slutningen af 1940'erne. Han færdes blandt litterater og kunstnere og ønsker selv at blive en af de intellektuelle.
Bogen handler kort fortalt om sex og bøger. I små næsten selvstændige stykker fortælles der, om forskellige episoder, som har brændt sin ind i hans hukommelse og liv, om piger og venner, om den boghandel h More...
Bogen handler kort fortalt om sex og bøger. I små næsten selvstændige stykker fortælles der, om forskellige episoder, som har brændt sin ind i hans hukommelse og liv, om piger og venner, om den boghandel h More...
Dec 16, 2009
Casey
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I love books about scenes. The Beat scene, the hippie scene, the post-war Greenwich Village scene. I think this comes from my obsession with creating a vibrant community. This memoir certainly chronicles such a community. I especially liked how Broyard was always happening to meet huge literary figures. They may have held the rights to the real scene, but Broyard and his compatriots did a pretty decent job on their own.
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Oct 01, 2007
Stas
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A co-worker recommended something else by him. Then I remembered that I have this one: i picked up at a sale, just to trade it in for an extra dollar, but no one wanted it, so i still had it when today i needed something light to read.
It is a pleasant read, with some neat anecdotes, some astute observations, some genuine lyricism. But also some trifles.
I might pick up Human Stain now.
It is a pleasant read, with some neat anecdotes, some astute observations, some genuine lyricism. But also some trifles.
I might pick up Human Stain now.
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Apr 07, 2009
Adonis
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This is a memoir about the Greenwich Village after the second world war. Its about A man named Broyard and his experiences living in the Greenwich village. The story goes on into talking about his experiences, be that of his sexual encounters with other, like his landlord, or his expression on views on matters such as art and learning.
This book is very much a modern day tale as it is an insight on the changing world. Its really unlike most books i have ever read, because its so stright More...
This book is very much a modern day tale as it is an insight on the changing world. Its really unlike most books i have ever read, because its so stright More...
Oct 19, 2011
Vivian
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I wish I had read it long ago. Many of the passages are fabulous descriptions of the Village in 1946, and many are fabulous on the character of immediate post WW II America, and many are fabulous on thoughts about authors/literature/philosophy/the life of the intellect. However, there is too much about his weird girlfriend Sherri to make me totally enthralled with the book. Once she's gone, it's smooth sailing. I suspect that had Broyard not gotten so ill in 1988, he would have revised the m
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Dec 17, 2009
Bill
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Interesting look at post-War life in Greenwich Village. Not especially life-chaning or anything, but a well-constucted portrait of a particularly unique time and place in American history that I hadn't read a lot about before.
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Jan 28, 2012
Blue
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This was a really enjoyable read, the kind you hope for, a first-person account of a fascinating historical place/era from a person you relate to who writes well. But I didn't know he died before he could finish it! I was sorely disappointed. It feels like only a third or so of the book it was supposed to be, with its most important parts left untold. In some statement-on-writing artistic way, that's tantalizing and makes it all the more exceptional as a piece of literary art. But really, it suc
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Nov 15, 2009
Oleg
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After "War and Peace," I made mincemeat out of Anatole Broyard's little memoir.
Broyard's writing is crisp and witty at times. His subject matter is never 'just so;' he's always either into specifics of relationships (there's plenty about sex), or in the clouds looking over the timescape of post-war Greenwich Village.
And yet, each chapter is a piece unto itself, this isn't the day-to-day type memoir. We don't get to see how he lived, where they ate, etc. No, thi More...
Broyard's writing is crisp and witty at times. His subject matter is never 'just so;' he's always either into specifics of relationships (there's plenty about sex), or in the clouds looking over the timescape of post-war Greenwich Village.
And yet, each chapter is a piece unto itself, this isn't the day-to-day type memoir. We don't get to see how he lived, where they ate, etc. No, thi More...
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Jan 26, 2009
Hilary
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A funny, hanuting and sensuous menoir that pays homage to a lost bohemia as it was experienced by a young writer eager to find not only his voice but also his place in avery special part of the world.
It's pages are charged with feeling; Broyard's irony paired with his unabashed nostalgia made me long to have been part of the Village as it was in his time, post WWII 1946. My favourite quote is" If it hadn't been for books, we would have been completely at the mercy of sex". More...
It's pages are charged with feeling; Broyard's irony paired with his unabashed nostalgia made me long to have been part of the Village as it was in his time, post WWII 1946. My favourite quote is" If it hadn't been for books, we would have been completely at the mercy of sex". More...
Mar 06, 2009
Joe
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As a memoir, this book isn't too interesting. Too much focus on the author's sexual life (which normally I would like, but - ho hum) and then when he moves away from his sex life, he's even less interesting. As a sociological examination of Greenwich Village in the late 1940s, it's kind of interesting. The level of precious pretentiousness is fascinating, sad and pathetic. "Poor" hipsters (who all had a home somewhere to go to) and wannabe hepcats roamed the streets striking poses of s
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Apr 21, 2011
Very
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At first, I was enthralled. The writing was full of lovely but apt similes and lots of talk about New York in its bohemian heyday. I could read that kind of thing all day long, and I was prepared to do so. But soon I started to notice that he relies on similes a little too much (in fact, I should say way too much, to the point of parody) because he doesn’t really know how to write an actual scene – with movement and dialogue. He mostly likes to capture an image. This memoir is like a bunch of te
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Aug 25, 2009
Lizzie
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A birthday present from my sister! Thanks sister.
I wavered on whether or not I liked Broyard's outlook as a memoirist. There are some excellent thoughts and sentences like "When would I come to the end of her originality?" And I appreciate views like his from lovers of New York City, which is different to each person let alone to each decade. I pretty much couldn't picture anything at all about being here in 1946 and 1947, and now I can imagine at least a little. This More...
I wavered on whether or not I liked Broyard's outlook as a memoirist. There are some excellent thoughts and sentences like "When would I come to the end of her originality?" And I appreciate views like his from lovers of New York City, which is different to each person let alone to each decade. I pretty much couldn't picture anything at all about being here in 1946 and 1947, and now I can imagine at least a little. This More...
Nov 12, 2011
James
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This is a book that carries you away to another time and place written by a near perfect writer. It was a joy to read and imagine the feeling of excitement experienced by the denizens of Greenwich Village in 1946. Broyard's memoir is full of life, yet the undercurrent of mortality seems to be there as well.
The memoir reads like a story, one that is full of unique moments -- literary bon mots -- whether chatting with Delmore Schwartz at the San Remo Bar, running into Auden on the street or More...
The memoir reads like a story, one that is full of unique moments -- literary bon mots -- whether chatting with Delmore Schwartz at the San Remo Bar, running into Auden on the street or More...
May 30, 2009
Danielle
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Everyone simply must -- okay, well should -- read the last chapter of this memoir, at the very least. It is thick with insight and knowledge about the potential alienation and disabling awkwardness of sex. Here's just one excerpt that really caught my eye:
"In Portnoy's Complaint, Portnoy says that underneath their skirts girls all have cunts. What he didn't say -- and this was his trouble, his real complaint -- was that underneath their skirts they also had souls. When they More...
"In Portnoy's Complaint, Portnoy says that underneath their skirts girls all have cunts. What he didn't say -- and this was his trouble, his real complaint -- was that underneath their skirts they also had souls. When they More...
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May 29, 2010
Gregory
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“I can’t tell this particular story – I can only edit it.”
“Looking back at the late 1940s, it seems to me now that Americans were confronting their loneliness for the first time. Loneliness was like the morning after the war, like a great hangover. The war had broken the rhythm of American life, and when we tried to pick it up again, we couldn’t find it – it wasn’t there. It was as if a great bomb, an explosion of consciousness, had gone off in American life, shattering everything.”
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“Looking back at the late 1940s, it seems to me now that Americans were confronting their loneliness for the first time. Loneliness was like the morning after the war, like a great hangover. The war had broken the rhythm of American life, and when we tried to pick it up again, we couldn’t find it – it wasn’t there. It was as if a great bomb, an explosion of consciousness, had gone off in American life, shattering everything.”
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Aug 16, 2010
Karissa
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Not the type of book I would normally read, but I was lent this book by a friend who really enjoyed it. I would still say that it's not my normal cup of tea; however, I found a lot of really interesting thoughts and points of introspection that I really appreciated, as well as an interesting picture of what the times were like. Most intriguing of all is the relationship with Sherri that Broyard tells, and his inability to tap into her world. Sadly, the postscript tells how this memoir was not
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Sep 21, 2008
Isa
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Broyard's descriptions of the post-war intellectual life in New York City and the beginning of his adult consciousness are beautiful to read...his ability to parlay his internal experience onto the surrounding landscape is amazing.
One wonderful passage:
"It was as if we didn't know where we ended and books began. Books were our weather, our environment, our clothing. We didn't simply read books; we became them. We took them into ourselves and made them into our histories. More...
One wonderful passage:
"It was as if we didn't know where we ended and books began. Books were our weather, our environment, our clothing. We didn't simply read books; we became them. We took them into ourselves and made them into our histories. More...
Nov 26, 2011
Rick
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One word: pretentious. While Broyard's autobiographical love letter to Greenwich Village circa 1946 is touchingly written, in the end it leaves with an effect that one gets when been taken by a scam artist. The book opens wonderfully and I have a lot of praise for most of it, but that last chapter really tore most the work Broyard laid in previous chapters to ruin. There's a fine line between relating a coming-of-age story and claiming that the entire country come-of-age as you were doing so. Br
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Mar 12, 2009
Andrew
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This was a nice, quick read. Too bad it's unfinished, but there are some nice scenes that capture what it was like in the Village right after World War II. Not super heavy on insight or meaning, it's nonetheless a pleasure to read, more so for the humorous turns of phrase, though I ain't gonna lie--there's a lot of sex, if tactfully handled.
Mar 28, 2010
Craven
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Broyard is a good writer and I enjoyed the stories and reflections that he chose to give us. He excellent at description when it comes to people giving you a rich picture of the person who he's describing.
Broyart is a bit of an aesthete and a bit too obsessed with beauty, though, to ever be one of my favorite writers or for me to seek out anything else of his. Not bad, though.
Broyart is a bit of an aesthete and a bit too obsessed with beauty, though, to ever be one of my favorite writers or for me to seek out anything else of his. Not bad, though.
Jan 12, 2011
Susann
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Apparently I am one of the few New Yorkers who doesn't want to time travel to Greenwich Village, circa late 1940s/1950s. Doesn't strike me as such a fabulous time for women.
Some beautiful language in here. I already gave away my copy, but loved the line about the sun buttering up Prospect Park.
Some beautiful language in here. I already gave away my copy, but loved the line about the sun buttering up Prospect Park.
Jul 03, 2009
Naomi
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The picture on the cover entices you to step into 1946 New York City. The book, however, does not. I had hoped Kafka would convey the atmosphere, the history, the fervor, and the spirit of Greenwich Village. Instead, Broyard produces little more than a bildungsroman, and a poor one at that. Intermittent mentions of Dylan and Kafka do not a Greenwich Village memoir make.
To be fair, Broyard does have the "memoir" disclaimer, so perhaps I should not have expected more. An More...
To be fair, Broyard does have the "memoir" disclaimer, so perhaps I should not have expected more. An More...
Jan 29, 2009
Lara
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A recent conversation prompted me to reread this one. Anatole Broyard was such a graceful writer...I wish today's memoirists would follow his lead and abandon the confessional for a keen eye, quick wit, and more removed perspective on their own lives.
Aug 27, 2010
Britt
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Loved, loved, loved this book. It opened a door in my mind that will never be shut...a whole new way of looking at addiction, the era of the Beat Generation/poets, and life as a gay male, before it was accepted as a lifestyle in American culture.
Sep 23, 2010
Elisabeth
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Set in Greenwich village in the 1940's, this beautifully written memoir paints an unforgettable portrait of a time and place that is gone, yet so influential that it is recognizable in our culture today. Written in a nostalgic tone, Broyard still manages to write with a voice that is very much alive in the moments he immortalizes here.
This book is a catalogue of the original beatnik youth culture that set the stage for subsequent cultural revolutions on a grander scale. His affair More...
This book is a catalogue of the original beatnik youth culture that set the stage for subsequent cultural revolutions on a grander scale. His affair More...
