Tough Guy
Autor Richard Bradforden Limba Engleză Hardback – 17 ian 2023
Imagineați-vă un tânăr din Brooklyn care, proaspăt întors din Pacific, decide că literatura americană are nevoie de un seism. Notăm cu interes cum Richard Bradford nu scrie doar o biografie, ci analizează viața lui Norman Mailer ca pe o lentilă deformată prin care se vede istoria Americii de la Al Doilea Război Mondial până la alegerea lui Barack Obama. Impactul lui Mailer asupra literaturii a fost colosal; fără realismul brutal din The Naked and the Dead, pe care Bradford îl analizează riguros, peisajul ficțiunii militare care a inclus ulterior Catch 22 ar fi arătat complet diferit. Descoperim aici un portret neiertător, construit din scrisori personale, jurnale și coloane de ziar, care ne dezvăluie un 'narcisist literar' aflat într-o perpetuă repetiție pentru marele rol al vieții sale. Putem afirma că această lucrare este o examinare a ferocității, documentând nu doar succesele — cele două premii Pulitzer pentru The Armies of the Night și The Executioner's Song — ci și eșecurile diplomatice cu Hemingway sau criticile dure primite de la Eleanor Roosevelt. Cartea este structurată în 16 capitole dense, pornind de la originile sale din Brooklyn, trecând prin faza de 'White Negro' și terminând cu anii de retragere marcați de figuri precum Picasso sau Oswald. Pe același raft cu Norman Mailer: A Double Life de J. Michael Lennon, dar cu un accent mult mai tăios pe latura controversată și pe modul în care viața sa personală a fost un laborator pentru personajele sale, volumul lui Bradford refuză să menajeze legenda.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 1448218144
Pagini: 304
Dimensiuni: 158 x 236 x 30 mm
Greutate: 0.6 kg
Editura: Bloomsbury USA
Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom
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De ce să citești această carte
Recomandăm această biografie cititorilor care doresc să înțeleagă mecanismele din spatele mitului Norman Mailer. Dincolo de premiile Pulitzer, veți descoperi un portret psihologic complex și adesea incomod al unui autor care a definit spiritul american postbelic. Este o lectură esențială pentru cei interesați de istoria literară și de modul în care egoul unui scriitor poate modela o întreagă epocă culturală.
Despre autor
Richard Bradford este profesor de engleză la Universitatea din Ulster și un biograf de renume, cunoscut pentru abordările sale critice și adesea controversate. În opera sa anterioară, Bradford a explorat viețile unor figuri iconice precum Philip Larkin, George Orwell sau Patricia Highsmith în Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires. Expertiza sa în analiza personalităților literare complexe se reflectă și în lucrarea de față, unde combină rigoarea academică cu un stil narativ incisiv. A scris pentru publicații prestigioase precum The Spectator și The Sunday Times, fiind o voce autorizată în critica literară contemporană.
Descriere
Twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, firstly in 1969 for The Armies of the Night and again in 1980 for The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer's life comes as close as is possible to being the Great American Novel: beyond reason, inexplicable, wonderfully grotesque and addictive.
The Naked and the Dead was acclaimed not so much for its intrinsic qualities but rather because it launched a brutally realistic sub-genre of military fiction - Catch 22 and MASH would not exist without it. Richard Bradford combs through Mailer's personal letters - to lovers and editors - which appear to be a rehearsal for his career as a shifty literary narcissist, and which shape the characters of one of the most widely celebrated World War II novels.
Bradford strikes again with a merciless biography in which diary entries, journal extracts and newspaper columns set the tone of this study of a controversial figure. From friendships with contemporaries such as James Baldwin, failed correspondences with Hemingway and the Kennedys, to terrible - but justified - criticism of his work by William Faulkner and Eleanor Roosevelt, this book gives a unique, snappy and convincing perspective of Mailer's ferocious personality and writings.
Cuprins
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Brooklyn Boy
2. Odd Man Out
3. Pacific Grim
4. Waiting For Fame
5. Back Home
6. The Deer Park
7. Norman Mailer: The Death of the Novel
8. 'The White Negro'
9. How Not To Murder Your Wife
10. Time For Something Different?
11. Apocalypse Now
12. Politics and the Women
13. The Biographer's Song
14. Pharaohs and Tough Guys
15. A Clandestine World Revealed
16. Retirement: With Picasso, Oswald, Christ and Hitler
Bibliography
Index
Recenzii
British academic Bradford seems to thrive [...] when sniping, deriding perceived flaws of style and soul.
absorbing [.] Bradford draws from myriad sources to craft an indelible portrait of the artist as a fascinating, never-boring man.
... the book's very existence attests to a more complicated reality. It would be naïve to suppose that the renewed attention on Mailer has nothing to do with the scandals attached to his name. It would also be naïve to pretend that he was not a great American writer.
... if this lively biography ends up being a damning speech for the prosecution, well, pugilistic old Norman is simply receiving a dose of his own medicine. You can imagine Mailer's ghost becoming suitably energised to rise from his sulphurous grave to box Bradford's lights out.
compulsively readable.[a] solid multifaceted critique of Mailer
... there are some interesting asides and neat apercus.
Tough Guy: The Life of Norman Mailer brings the life of an epic personality down to earth for a modern-day re-evaluation. Author Richard Bradford writes of Mailer's storied life in a fair and objective manner, leaving the reader to judge Mailer's words and actions [.] Bradford's book is as fascinating and awe-inspiring as his subject
the story itself is so gripping (even jaw-dropping)
the book [does a] careful investigation into the subtle, emotional aspects of power between men.
Tough Guy adequately charts the controversies, the scandals, the successes, and the failures - in literature and in life - of its complicated subject
A good illustration of the risks of elevating Mailer to sainthood is found in a new biography. Richard Bradford's Tough Guy: The Life of Norman Mailer is a slender volume that tends to summarize huge amounts of information in single pages. Bradford's hasty approach . has the advantage of plainly and clearly stating Mailer's profound limitations.he has a gift for making Mailer look and sound preposterous - and rightly so.
Bradford's book has all the personal info you want to know.
"Tough Guy" is well-written and lurid, its subject a cautionary tale. [it] will hold your attention.
[H]e has a penchant that's incredibly refreshing in the 21st century because it's so rare: he sometimes allows himself to dislike his subjects. This makes Tough Guy a bracing reading experience. his analyses are also superb. Norman Mailer would certainly have sued Richard Bradford over this book, and that should stand as its strongest recommendation.
queasily compelling . a colourful and bracing read . memorably scathing
Tough Guy makes a sturdy case for Mailer as, if not a great guy, the author of era-defining books and a cultural force worth reckoning with... Veteran biographer Bradford reliably illuminates how Mailer's work reflected his life at the time. Bradford is unsparing in his criticism of Mailer.
Bradford is a fluent narrator and provides a useful refresher on the salient details of a long and interesting life. Tough Guy will satisfy salacious appetites as it explores Mailer's relational dynamics and sexual proclivities, his alcohol and drug use, his penchant for fisticuffs. . Efficient and gossipy, Tough Guy does ample justice to Mailer the charismatic self-marketer, one of the baddest of the bad boys of postwar American literature.
... told in forensic detail by Richard Bradford...
This may be the best biography Mailer deserves: for after all the best possible things have been said about Mailer, it's hard to feel he made the most of his talent.