by Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein (2006)
27 contributors to The New York Review of Books tell of their deep and abiding friendships with other poets, writers, artists, composers, and scientists of equal stature.
J.M. Coetzee
In these fictionalised memoirs using third-person narration, Coetzee examines his childhood within the sphere of his parents' unhappy marriage, his desire for his mother and for independence from her, and his feelings towards a multi-racial South African society.
Michael Posner
"Novelist, essayist, satirist, and iconoclast, Mordecai Richler was one of Canada's most skilled and popular writers. Controversial too. His early novels outraged some in Montreal's Jewish community and his later non-fiction work outraged some Quebec nationalists. But from the beginning, his tremendous talent was indisputable and such literary triumphs as The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and, later, Barney's Version cemented his reputation as a brilliant, gutsy writer both in Canada and internationally. His death in July 2001 prompted tributes from around the world that acknowledged his humour, intellect, and irrepressible curmudgeonliness." "In The Last Honest Man Michael Posner has deftly woven hundreds of personal, intimate memories of Richler into a rich biography of the writer's life. Through the words of his family and friends, colleagues and rivals, editors, writers, filmmakers, drinking pals, and others, a complex picture of the writer emerges, one that captures him in all his guises: the grumpy and the high-spirited man, the observer and the engaged, the generous and the distanced, the enthusiastic and the sardonic, the man as consummately at ease in the Ritz Hotel as in his favourite Montreal watering hole, Winnie's, but awkward in crowded social situations." "Drawing on 150 interviews conducted in London, Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles - and on richler's own letters and writings - Michael Posner has composed an unconventional biography, one that delivers a wonderful and highly textured portrait of this multifaceted artist. Book jacket."--Jacket.
Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brien, the author of "The Country Girls" trilogy, "The Light of Evening," and "Byron in Love," portrays the events, people, emotions, and landscape that contributed to her rich and heady life. She is the recipient of the James Joyce Ulysses Medal, and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Michael Savage
"In the spirit of the holiday season, beloved author and radio host Michael Savage's Train Tracks reminds us how every member of our family-in fact, each individual we encounter through time-contributes essential gifts to our life story. In the title chapter, set in the early 1950s, Savage remembers the excitement and mystery of riding the train from New York's old Penn Station to rural Pennsylvania at the start of the holiday break. Drawn from Savage's own journey from poor immigrant's son to media stardom, these deeply personal true tales show us that even in today's homogenizing times, we are all charting a unique destiny as we journey through life."--Jacket p. [2].