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A review by brizreading
Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years by Michael Palin
4.0
A long, funny, fascinating and intimate selection of "the nice one"'s personal diaries. Hidden beneath these rather quotidian observations on restaurant meals, meetings with producers, trips up to the family, and occasional writing sessions with Terry Jones or the rest of the Pythons, is the remarkableness of Michael Palin himself. Remarkable because he seems to have been mind-bogglingly prolific: these diaries, already at 600+ pages, are only 20% of the total diaries he kept for himself. In one section (perhaps 1977 or so?), he decides to write a novel. It takes him two months. He writes scripts, hosts Saturday Night Live, becomes a Board Member of the Shepperton Studios, and does this all with ample time to spare. In fact, you start thinking Palin led a really relaxed, charmed life in the 1970s - until you look at the amazing output.
As a diarist, he was also remarkably observant: tending more towards lush physical descriptions of the places he visits, the food he eats, the people he meets. It's very light on any discussion on feelings or emotions or speculations: Palin seems to be very firmly on the ground with both feet, and he seems to trouble himself mostly with what is actually happening (not what he wants or thinks or whatever). This makes him a unique diarist as well. (Of course, all the inner monologues about feelings may have just been left out of publication.)
Of especial interest are also the context of 1970s Britain (the IRA terrorism was especially fascinating, and horrifying - I had no idea Lord Mountbatten's death was so grisly), the low-level famousness of London glitterati (Derek Jacobi! oh, I love him), Palin's homeowner-ness in Camden (the Resident's Association meetings! ha), and the occasional insights into the other Pythons. I already knew that John Cleese was "the angry one", Graham Chapman suffered from alcoholism, and so on. But it was amazing how, well, real that all was.
I'm not sure this book will be of great interest to people who don't already know Palin and his work. I was a huge Python fan in school, and gobbled up much of the Python spin-offs too: Terry Gilliam's films (Time Bandits, Jabberwocky). The Palin/Jones team always wrote my favorite material. Sure, the Cleese/Chapman stuff sometimes had me LOLing very hard, but the Palin/Jones stuff filled me more often with delight.
Looking forward to tackling the next tome - on the 1980s - though I may give myself a bit of a breather first.
As a diarist, he was also remarkably observant: tending more towards lush physical descriptions of the places he visits, the food he eats, the people he meets. It's very light on any discussion on feelings or emotions or speculations: Palin seems to be very firmly on the ground with both feet, and he seems to trouble himself mostly with what is actually happening (not what he wants or thinks or whatever). This makes him a unique diarist as well. (Of course, all the inner monologues about feelings may have just been left out of publication.)
Of especial interest are also the context of 1970s Britain (the IRA terrorism was especially fascinating, and horrifying - I had no idea Lord Mountbatten's death was so grisly), the low-level famousness of London glitterati (Derek Jacobi! oh, I love him), Palin's homeowner-ness in Camden (the Resident's Association meetings! ha), and the occasional insights into the other Pythons. I already knew that John Cleese was "the angry one", Graham Chapman suffered from alcoholism, and so on. But it was amazing how, well, real that all was.
I'm not sure this book will be of great interest to people who don't already know Palin and his work. I was a huge Python fan in school, and gobbled up much of the Python spin-offs too: Terry Gilliam's films (Time Bandits, Jabberwocky). The Palin/Jones team always wrote my favorite material. Sure, the Cleese/Chapman stuff sometimes had me LOLing very hard, but the Palin/Jones stuff filled me more often with delight.
Looking forward to tackling the next tome - on the 1980s - though I may give myself a bit of a breather first.