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jola_g's review
3.0
I hoped Great Friends (1980) would fall somewhere between [b:Written Lives|21847034|Written Lives|Javier Marías|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1396673023l/21847034._SY75_.jpg|516775] and [b: Partial Portraits|57001611|Partial Portraits|Henry James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1612811561l/57001611._SY75_.jpg|2314381]. The fact that David Garnett was a writer himself and a member of the Bloomsbury Group whetted my appetite even more. Unfortunately, the author lacks Javier Marías's charm and Henry James's elegance.
His book is a collection of seventeen sketches about the writers he happened to know personally. The list of people featured in Great Friends looks pretty impressive although I wish it included more female authors:
It is remarkable how many literary luminaries David Garnett had connections to, mostly thanks to his family: his father was an influential editor, his mother a translator and his second wife Virginia Woolf's niece.
I found the collection uneven. The sketches were previously published in different places and their formats range significantly: from intimate memories to rather lukewarm essays. The first sketches resonated with me the most, especially the one about Joseph Conrad. Some were bland and lacklustre despite fascinating subjects. The author's self-aggrandizing tendency annoyed me and the hints at his sexual attractiveness — for instance, he was almost seduced by D.H. Lawrence's wife — felt cringy. I understand that the episodes like this pleasantly tickled his self-esteem but I doubt if they hold much significance for future generations.
As usual, reading this kind of book makes you vulnerable to the risk of changing your attitude to the writers you adore. If I were a diehard fan of D.H. Lawrence, his letter, which David Garnett quotes in extenso, would have jeopardized my enthusiasm for sure: at some point, Lawrence suspected that Garnett was gay and expressed his views on homosexuality. Inward corruption and triumphant decay are one of the gentlest epithets he uses. Interestingly, two years after this hateful homophobic manifesto Lawrence developed an intense erotic friendship with a young Cornish farmer.
If you idolize Joseph Conrad and do not want things to change, it would be better to avoid reading his condescending opinion on Ford Madox Ford in a quoted letter to John Galsworthy: Ford's conduct is impossible ... He is a megalomaniac who imagines he is managing the Universe and that everybody treats him with the blackest ingratitude. A fierce and exasperating vanity is hidden under his calm manner which misleads people. I do not hesitate to say that there are cases, not quite so bad, under medical treatment.
David Garnett's portrayals of some obscure writers made me feel motivated to explore them and this is the main advantage of Great Friends. Besides, most of the time I liked the author's sense of humour, for example, his parody of Henry James's style: If James had ever written, 'The cat sat on the mat', when he came to rewrite, he might have improved that statement thus : 'Not purring, but with what empathy she rested until the door should open and morsels from le boucher chevaline tempt her to rise. Until then she was immobile on — I was almost forgetting to say — the mat.'
Overall, the collection did not quite hit the mark. Most of David Garnett's friends seem great indeed but I cannot say the same about his book.
Karen Hollingsworth, Channeling Hemingway.
His book is a collection of seventeen sketches about the writers he happened to know personally. The list of people featured in Great Friends looks pretty impressive although I wish it included more female authors:
It is remarkable how many literary luminaries David Garnett had connections to, mostly thanks to his family: his father was an influential editor, his mother a translator and his second wife Virginia Woolf's niece.
I found the collection uneven. The sketches were previously published in different places and their formats range significantly: from intimate memories to rather lukewarm essays. The first sketches resonated with me the most, especially the one about Joseph Conrad. Some were bland and lacklustre despite fascinating subjects. The author's self-aggrandizing tendency annoyed me and the hints at his sexual attractiveness — for instance, he was almost seduced by D.H. Lawrence's wife — felt cringy. I understand that the episodes like this pleasantly tickled his self-esteem but I doubt if they hold much significance for future generations.
As usual, reading this kind of book makes you vulnerable to the risk of changing your attitude to the writers you adore. If I were a diehard fan of D.H. Lawrence, his letter, which David Garnett quotes in extenso, would have jeopardized my enthusiasm for sure: at some point, Lawrence suspected that Garnett was gay and expressed his views on homosexuality. Inward corruption and triumphant decay are one of the gentlest epithets he uses. Interestingly, two years after this hateful homophobic manifesto Lawrence developed an intense erotic friendship with a young Cornish farmer.
If you idolize Joseph Conrad and do not want things to change, it would be better to avoid reading his condescending opinion on Ford Madox Ford in a quoted letter to John Galsworthy: Ford's conduct is impossible ... He is a megalomaniac who imagines he is managing the Universe and that everybody treats him with the blackest ingratitude. A fierce and exasperating vanity is hidden under his calm manner which misleads people. I do not hesitate to say that there are cases, not quite so bad, under medical treatment.
David Garnett's portrayals of some obscure writers made me feel motivated to explore them and this is the main advantage of Great Friends. Besides, most of the time I liked the author's sense of humour, for example, his parody of Henry James's style: If James had ever written, 'The cat sat on the mat', when he came to rewrite, he might have improved that statement thus : 'Not purring, but with what empathy she rested until the door should open and morsels from le boucher chevaline tempt her to rise. Until then she was immobile on — I was almost forgetting to say — the mat.'
Overall, the collection did not quite hit the mark. Most of David Garnett's friends seem great indeed but I cannot say the same about his book.
Karen Hollingsworth, Channeling Hemingway.
bookcrazylady45's review
3.0
Each of the famous people written about in this book are presented from a point of view new to me. The book added unexpected detail to the lives of many famous people. The perspective was unique and personal and therefore more real than many biographies written from research.
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