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Sympathy for the Devil : Four Decades of Friendship with Gore Vidal by Michael Mewshaw (2015, Hardcover)
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- Buy It NowSympathy for the Devil: Four Decades of Friendship with Gore Vidal by Mewshaw
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherFarrar, Straus & Giroux
ISBN-100374280487
ISBN-139780374280482
eBay Product ID (ePID)201619622
Product Key Features
Book TitleSympathy for the Devil : Four Decades of Friendship with Gore Vidal
Number of Pages224 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2015
TopicLiterary, American / General
IllustratorYes
GenreLiterary Criticism, Biography & Autobiography
AuthorMichael Mewshaw
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height0.8 in
Item Weight11.6 Oz
Item Length8.5 in
Item Width5.7 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2014-016971
Reviews"Michael Mewshaw's Sympathy for the Devil , his reminiscence of Gore Vidal, proves easy to praise--swift, canny, sensitive, and unafraid." -- John Domini, Bookforum "[Mewshaw's] Vidal is brilliantly alive, raunchy, as easily offended as he is quick to give offense--and then, finally, desperately self-hating, vituperative, and alone." -- Julia M. Klein, The Boston Globe "Michael Mewshaw knew Vidal as a friend for nearly forty years, and he pays his respects to him in this affectionate, sympathetic biography. [ Sympathy for the Devil is] a thoroughly entertaining, breezy and up-close memoir about a public man of 'wealth and taste' who prided himself on his pride." --Tom Lavoie, Shelf Awareness "Fascinating . . . Sympathy for the Devil might be the perfect Vidal biography because it reveals a figure that is more human - more flawed, more interesting, more real - than the caricature that the public came to accept as the bona fide Gore." --Doug Childers, Richmond Times "Exceptionally entertaining." --Michael Dirda, The Washington Post "Mewshaw develops a picture of his friend as quixotic, a devoted life-mate to his companion Howard Austin, an avuncular if not fatherly figure and often a raging provocateur at dinner parties, banquets and conferences-except when he's not. Mewshaw records a lot of sharp, witty one-liners which, as he reveals, Vidal practiced and polished before he delivered them. And the vast amounts of alcohol the writer imbibed on a daily basis reveal him to be a contradictory character . . . A study of friendship with a famous man, easy to admire and difficult to love." --Alan Cheuse, NPR, All Things Considered "In Sympathy for the Devil , Michael Mewshaw removes the mask to reveal a man much more complexand tortured than most fans of Vidal's writings might ever have dared imagine . . . The decline andfall of Gore Vidal is a painful but perversely exciting read. Behind the patrician veneer was clearly a troubled man." --Robert Collison, The Toronto Star "A companionable account that finally succeeds in living up to its title. The reader, too, will feel sympathy for the old devil . . . there is little doubt that Mewshaw's affection for Vidal is genuine." --James Campbell, The Times Literary Supplement, Mewshaw develops a picture of his friend as quixotic, a devoted life-mate to his companion Howard Austin, an avuncular if not fatherly figure and often a raging provocateur at dinner parties, banquets and conferences-except when he's not. Mewshaw records a lot of sharp, witty one-liners which, as he reveals, Vidal practiced and polished before he delivered them. And the vast amounts of alcohol the writer imbibed on a daily basis reveal him to be a contradictory character . . . A study of friendship with a famous man, easy to admire and difficult to love., Praise for Sympathy for the Devil "Michael Mewshaw's Sympathy for the Devil , his reminiscence of Gore Vidal, proves easy to praise-swift, canny, sensitive, and unafraid." -John Domini, Bookforum "[Mewshaw's] Vidal is brilliantly alive, raunchy, as easily offended as he is quick to give offense-and then, finally, desperately self-hating, vituperative, and alone." -Julia M. Klein, The Boston Globe Praise for Michael Mewshaw "Perhaps the best American writer you never heard of." - San Francisco Chronicle, Michael Mewshaw knew Vidal as a friend for nearly forty years, and he pays his respects to him in this affectionate, sympathetic biography. [ Sympathy for the Devil is] a thoroughly entertaining, breezy and up-close memoir about a public man of 'wealth and taste' who prided himself on his pride., Fascinating . . . Sympathy for the Devil might be the perfect Vidal biography because it reveals a figure that is more human - more flawed, more interesting, more real - than the caricature that the public came to accept as the bona fide Gore., [Mewshaw's] Vidal is brilliantly alive, raunchy, as easily offended as he is quick to give offense--and then, finally, desperately self-hating, vituperative, and alone., Praise for Michael Mewshaw "Perhaps the best American writer you never heard of." - San Francisco Chronicle, In Sympathy for the Devil , Michael Mewshaw removes the mask to reveal a man much more complexand tortured than most fans of Vidal's writings might ever have dared imagine . . . The decline andfall of Gore Vidal is a painful but perversely exciting read. Behind the patrician veneer was clearly a troubled man., "Michael Mewshaw's Sympathy for the Devil , his reminiscence of Gore Vidal, proves easy to praise-swift, canny, sensitive, and unafraid." -John Domini, Bookforum "[Mewshaw's] Vidal is brilliantly alive, raunchy, as easily offended as he is quick to give offense-and then, finally, desperately self-hating, vituperative, and alone." -Julia M. Klein, The Boston Globe, A companionable account that finally succeeds in living up to its title. The reader, too, will feel sympathy for the old devil . . . there is little doubt that Mewshaw's affection for Vidal is genuine., Michael Mewshaw's Sympathy for the Devil , his reminiscence of Gore Vidal, proves easy to praise--swift, canny, sensitive, and unafraid.
Dewey Edition23
Dewey Decimal818/.5409 B
SynopsisA generous, entertaining, intimate look at Gore Vidal, a man who prided himself on being difficult to know Detached and ironic; a master of the pointed put-down, of the cutting quip; enigmatic, impossible to truly know: This is the calcified, public image of Gore Vidal--one the man himself was fond of reinforcing. "I'm exactly as I appear," he once said of himself. "There is no warm, lovable person inside. Beneath my cold exterior, once you break the ice, you find cold water." Michael Mewshaw's Sympathy for the Devil , a memoir of his friendship with the stubbornly iconoclastic public intellectual, is a welcome corrective to this tired received wisdom. A complex, nuanced portrait emerges in these pages--and while "Gore" can indeed be brusque, standoffish, even cruel, Mewshaw also catches him in more vulnerable moments. The Gore Vidal the reader comes to know here is generous and supportive to younger, less successful writers; he is also, especially toward the end of his life, disappointed, even lonely. Sparkling, often hilarious, and filled with spicy anecdotes about expat life in Italy, Sympathy for the Devil is an irresistible inside account of a man who was himself--faults and all--impossible to resist. As enlightening as it is entertaining, it offers a unique look at a figure many only think they know.
LC Classification NumberPS3543.I26Z79 2015
