the literary life
Scottie Bowman (bowman@mail.indigo.ie)
Tue, 22 Sep 1998 20:47:23 +0000
Joyce Maynard has arrived in London & is pushing her book
on all the literary chat shows. Regardless of her physical
appearance or her manner, the facts as she reports them
about her time with JD (the dietary habits, the spartan conditions
of life & so on) carry considerable persuasiveness. And on this
basis - laying aside my Viennese accent, cigar & false beard -
I'd be inclined to pronounce him a rather sad control freak.
I have no way of knowing how true is her description of his rage
at her impending publication. But I suspect - on past form - if her
report were really contestable he would already have contested it.
Since he hasn't, my personal reaction is: `What a cheek !'
What a bloody cheek to think he has the right to interdict some
other poor sod trying to make a couple of dollars from her pen.
One wonders how many of his acquaintances have, perhaps with
some pain, recognised, themselves in his own literary contrivances.
Ernie Hemingway once pointed out that writers were like gypsies.
We should back each other up in the face of a hostile world, pass
along the good touches, give warning of where the cops are
especially troublesome, provide cover stories where necessary.
Not piss into a fellow vagrant's tent.
Scottie B.