I can forgive a lot of things. I can ignore a lot of things. I like nonfiction. I love memoir. Both of these things often lead us to talking about ourselves–our memories, experiences, ideas, personal philosophies.
I can read a lot of styles. I enjoy a lot of time periods, genres & authors.
This is all to say that it is not Gertrude Stein that I dislike. It is not her writing style or her excitement about the period of literature that she was an essential part of. It happens to be one of my favorites–between the wars, the "Lost Generation" that she had a strong hand in helping (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce..).
Can I blame her for how awesome she thinks she is? Not fully. But I can blame her for using "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" to talk about her own life, her accomplishments & merits. Powell's Books casts this in a friendly light:
Largely to amuse herself, Gertrude Stein wrote this book in 1932..using as a sounding board her companion Miss Toklas, who had been with her for twenty-five years. The book is full of the most lucid and shapely anecdotes, told in a purer and more closely fitting prose...than even Gide or Hemingway have ever commanded.It began entertaining, & I did find it educational (learning about Picasso, Paris, Hemingway & the like)... but after 100 pages of hearing her go on about herself, I couldn't take anymore. I still didn't know a thing about Toklas, Stein's longtime companion.
So instead of ending this on a negative, Stein-bashing note, I'll leave it more positively: I encourage you to read Stein's poetry rather than her nonfiction.
What disappointed you? Did you find a way to redeem it? Did it shake you off of the author on the whole?
0 comments:
Post a Comment