Illumination and Night Glare: The Unfinished Autobiography of Carson McCullers (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography)
This book is in a Controlled Release!
1 journaler for this copy...
Arrived some time in the last three weeks, while I was out of town, from betterworldbooks.
Former library book, complete with plastic cover.
Former library book, complete with plastic cover.
After reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter recently, I wanted to know more about Carson McCullers. This is one book I got - the unfinished autobiography.
McCullers was fifty years old and bedridden when she started this. At times it was very difficult to do - she had to dictate to others, and even speaking was not always easy. Since having rheumatic fever as a child, she had several strokes throughout her life, culminating in a very bad one that left her in bed, waiting until she could have her leg removed (complications). She died before she finished.
Thus this is a first draft of part of the story. Based on what I've read of her working habits, she would have spent a great deal of time rewriting and editing after finishing a draft. She didn't get the chance, and we are probably the poorer for it.
The title she chose refers to inspirations and blocks in her writing life. It suggests that she intended that her autobiography delve into her writing and her relationships based on her writing, rather than on more personal sides of her. While she did make a note to include letters written between herself and her ex-husband Reeves (whom she married for a second time after WWII), she reveals very little about their relationship. She also skips entirely a significant relationship the two of them had with a third person (noted in the lengthy introduction by Carlos L. Dews). Very little "real" emotion makes it onto the page. I had the sense of her writing so as not to offend or alarm any friends. LIke a soft curtain was placed over the reality.
I was disappointed, therefore, in the autobiography itself. I wish she had had the time to finish it, as it might have become a very different book. I also found the letters between Carson and Reeves as, frankly, tiresome. Although both profess to great love for the other, I simply didn't feel it. I did enjoy reading the lengthy "outline" of "Lonely Hunter". The outline was used to sell the book to the publisher before it was finished, and it worked. It illuminates much in the book for anyone wanting to take it apart and understand the messages. It also reveals how much detail she put into her novels, how much planning and thinking.
McCullers was fifty years old and bedridden when she started this. At times it was very difficult to do - she had to dictate to others, and even speaking was not always easy. Since having rheumatic fever as a child, she had several strokes throughout her life, culminating in a very bad one that left her in bed, waiting until she could have her leg removed (complications). She died before she finished.
Thus this is a first draft of part of the story. Based on what I've read of her working habits, she would have spent a great deal of time rewriting and editing after finishing a draft. She didn't get the chance, and we are probably the poorer for it.
The title she chose refers to inspirations and blocks in her writing life. It suggests that she intended that her autobiography delve into her writing and her relationships based on her writing, rather than on more personal sides of her. While she did make a note to include letters written between herself and her ex-husband Reeves (whom she married for a second time after WWII), she reveals very little about their relationship. She also skips entirely a significant relationship the two of them had with a third person (noted in the lengthy introduction by Carlos L. Dews). Very little "real" emotion makes it onto the page. I had the sense of her writing so as not to offend or alarm any friends. LIke a soft curtain was placed over the reality.
I was disappointed, therefore, in the autobiography itself. I wish she had had the time to finish it, as it might have become a very different book. I also found the letters between Carson and Reeves as, frankly, tiresome. Although both profess to great love for the other, I simply didn't feel it. I did enjoy reading the lengthy "outline" of "Lonely Hunter". The outline was used to sell the book to the publisher before it was finished, and it worked. It illuminates much in the book for anyone wanting to take it apart and understand the messages. It also reveals how much detail she put into her novels, how much planning and thinking.
Sent to a member of Bookmooch.com
