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The End of My Life
Book by Bourjaily, Vance Nye
- GenresNovels
278 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
About the author
Vance Bourjaily
40 books10 followersSee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vance_Bo...
Vance Bourjaily, a novelist whose literary career, like those of Norman Mailer and James Jones, emerged out of World War II and whose ambitious novels explored American themes for decades afterward.
Mr. Bourjaily (pronounced bor-ZHAY-lee) never achieved the top rank of recognition that was predicted for him after publication of his first novel, “The End of My Life,” in 1947, and he figured prominently when critics made lists of writers who were underappreciated or whose promise had gone unfulfilled. But he had a long and substantial career in letters of the sort that was far more prevalent a half-century ago than it is today.
Not only a serious novelist, Mr. Bourjaily was also a teacher who spent more than two decades at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and five years at the University of Arizona before becoming the first director of the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at Louisiana State University. He worked as a journalist and an editor. He wrote short stories, essays and reviews. He was also a serious literary socialite.
“Everyone came to Bourjaily’s parties in the early 1950s,” Esquire magazine said about him in the 1980s, naming Mailer, Jones, William Styron and others as attendees. At one party Mr. Bourjaily introduced Jones to the actor Montgomery Clift, a pairing that would lead to one of Clift’s signature roles, the brooding bugler Prewitt in the film version of Jones’s novel “From Here to Eternity.”
Mr. Bourjaily’s novels often explored what it meant to be an American at a particular historical moment. His second book, “The Hound of Earth” (1955), grounded in the cold war, is about an Army scientist who has gone AWOL in guilt-ridden flight after contributing to the development of the atomic bomb. His third, “The Violated” (1958), a psychologically astute profile of four characters over 25 years — a period with World War II at its center — prompted the critic Irving Howe to write that Mr. Bourjaily was “one of the few serious young novelists who has tried to go directly toward the center of postwar experience.”
His other books include “Confessions of a Spent Youth,” a picaresque, autobiographical tale largely about the war and sex; “The Man Who Knew Kennedy,” which tells of the decline into suicide of a young man who seemingly has everything, and which reflects Mr. Bourjaily’s view that the nation’s golden postwar years were curtailed by the assassination of the president in 1963; and “Brill Among the Ruins,” a Vietnam-era parable focusing on a middle-age Midwestern lawyer.
As generally well reviewed as these and other books of his were, Mr. Bourjaily seemed always to be measured against his first, “The End of My Life,” which was commissioned by the editor Maxwell Perkins while Mr. Bourjaily was still in the Army. The novel, about a young man coping with his war experiences, was lavishly praised by the critic John W. Aldridge in his influential book “After the Lost Generation.” Aldridge drew comparisons to Fitzgerald and Hemingway.
“No book since ‘This Side of Paradise’ has caught so well the flavor of youth in wartime,” Aldridge wrote, “and no book since ‘A Farewell to Arms’ has contained so complete a record of the loss of that youth in war.”
Vance Nye Bourjaily was born in Cleveland on Sept. 17, 1922. His father, Monte Ferris Bourjaily, a Lebanese immigrant, was a journalist who became editor of the United Features Syndicate. His mother, Barbara Webb, wrote feature articles and romance novels.
Vance Bourjaily, a novelist whose literary career, like those of Norman Mailer and James Jones, emerged out of World War II and whose ambitious novels explored American themes for decades afterward.
Mr. Bourjaily (pronounced bor-ZHAY-lee) never achieved the top rank of recognition that was predicted for him after publication of his first novel, “The End of My Life,” in 1947, and he figured prominently when critics made lists of writers who were underappreciated or whose promise had gone unfulfilled. But he had a long and substantial career in letters of the sort that was far more prevalent a half-century ago than it is today.
Not only a serious novelist, Mr. Bourjaily was also a teacher who spent more than two decades at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and five years at the University of Arizona before becoming the first director of the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at Louisiana State University. He worked as a journalist and an editor. He wrote short stories, essays and reviews. He was also a serious literary socialite.
“Everyone came to Bourjaily’s parties in the early 1950s,” Esquire magazine said about him in the 1980s, naming Mailer, Jones, William Styron and others as attendees. At one party Mr. Bourjaily introduced Jones to the actor Montgomery Clift, a pairing that would lead to one of Clift’s signature roles, the brooding bugler Prewitt in the film version of Jones’s novel “From Here to Eternity.”
Mr. Bourjaily’s novels often explored what it meant to be an American at a particular historical moment. His second book, “The Hound of Earth” (1955), grounded in the cold war, is about an Army scientist who has gone AWOL in guilt-ridden flight after contributing to the development of the atomic bomb. His third, “The Violated” (1958), a psychologically astute profile of four characters over 25 years — a period with World War II at its center — prompted the critic Irving Howe to write that Mr. Bourjaily was “one of the few serious young novelists who has tried to go directly toward the center of postwar experience.”
His other books include “Confessions of a Spent Youth,” a picaresque, autobiographical tale largely about the war and sex; “The Man Who Knew Kennedy,” which tells of the decline into suicide of a young man who seemingly has everything, and which reflects Mr. Bourjaily’s view that the nation’s golden postwar years were curtailed by the assassination of the president in 1963; and “Brill Among the Ruins,” a Vietnam-era parable focusing on a middle-age Midwestern lawyer.
As generally well reviewed as these and other books of his were, Mr. Bourjaily seemed always to be measured against his first, “The End of My Life,” which was commissioned by the editor Maxwell Perkins while Mr. Bourjaily was still in the Army. The novel, about a young man coping with his war experiences, was lavishly praised by the critic John W. Aldridge in his influential book “After the Lost Generation.” Aldridge drew comparisons to Fitzgerald and Hemingway.
“No book since ‘This Side of Paradise’ has caught so well the flavor of youth in wartime,” Aldridge wrote, “and no book since ‘A Farewell to Arms’ has contained so complete a record of the loss of that youth in war.”
Vance Nye Bourjaily was born in Cleveland on Sept. 17, 1922. His father, Monte Ferris Bourjaily, a Lebanese immigrant, was a journalist who became editor of the United Features Syndicate. His mother, Barbara Webb, wrote feature articles and romance novels.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 6, 2013
This is a major American novel of the mid-20th century that unfortunately is out-of-print and difficult to find. This isn't a typical war novel-it's anti-war and a beautiful exploration of values, a male-female relationship, the effects of war on my parents' generation and much more. Writing of this quality puts this first novel published in 1947 in the company of truly memorable novels of the 40's and 50's. Read it if you can get you hands on a copy.
October 6, 2017
This book was a fascinating read by an exceptional writer. And I grew disgusted with the idiot main character.
February 4, 2022
This 1947 book was a terrific read. It has a cynical anti-hero as its main character and you follow this man from a passionate love affair to his service as an ambulance driver during WWII. There is a charming part where he romances a woman whom he hardly knows and another exceptional section where another character who is a musician learns to communicate with an Arab musician using a unique middle eastern instrument without any written language. These two sections alone make me want to read other books by this writer. I found this book on a list of novels with gay characters that were written prior to 1969. The gay characters are tangential to the story but are treated with dignity.
May 26, 2015
Originally published in 1947 and largely based on the author’s own experiences in WWII, Bourjaily’s first novel is a compelling account of a young man trying to cope with his time as an ambulance driver and the alternating terror and boredom that it entails. Bourjaily perceptively explores male relationships – including homosexual ones – under the stress of war and effectively conveys the frequent sense of bewilderment that his protagonists face when the complexity of modern day warfare makes understanding the issues of good and evil particularly hard to compute. It’s a raw and authentic account, and one of the best war – indeed anti-war – novels I’ve come across. Bourjaily is not well known today and that’s a pity, for this is writing of a very high standard indeed and the book is a thoughtful exploration of the devastating and far-reaching effects of war on its participants. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews