What Would Lynne Tillman Do?

January 27, 2014
“The art of underexplanation” characterizes this eclectic assortment of essays, anecdotes, interviews, reviews, and vignettes from novelist and critic Tillman (Someday This Will Be Funny). In a flexible, wise, and wryly funny voice, she studies subjects as varied as President Obama, art, language, literature, film, and music (from Chet Baker to the Rolling Stones). Consciousness, time, and desire, as well as problems of authenticity, ideology, and taste emerge as leitmotifs, though Tillman’s real subject is the making of art, particularly the ways in which the meaning of an object “is re-made by passing generations of readers and viewers.” Though some selections lend the book an elegiac note, the prevailing chord is Tillman’s relentlessly ironic self-awareness, as the title suggests. She is too experienced to indulge in nostalgia, too informed to take sides—nothing is sacred, nothing is taboo, and she aims to “trample complacency of all types”—but she proves an excellent reader: perceptive, generous, insightful, and knowing, especially when writing about Edith Wharton, Charles Henri Ford, and Gertrude Stein. This compulsively readable collection is like eavesdropping on the polished chatter of an exceptionally clever and well-read party guest, one who understands that elaboration is the antithesis of wit. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary Agency.

January 15, 2014
A miscellany of essays, critiques, narrative explorations and diversions from a literary iconoclast. These are shorter works by Tillman (Someday This Will Be Funny, 2011, etc.), but it's a generous set, allowing one essay for each letter of the alphabet. The collection starts with a return to previous targets, as "The Last Words Are Andy Warhol" examines the little-known 1968 book a: A Novel using a shopping list as context for delving into Tillman's beloved Warhol. "Nothing is Lost or Found: Desperately Seeking Paul and Jane Bowles" is a fond remembrance of the famously besotted writers. A little later, "White Cool" gives a heartbreaking flash of famed jazz musician Chet Baker. Tillman is a fantastic writer in long-form or short, and the exercise of turning that famous intellect on herself seems to make her more abrupt yet more focused. In "Try Again," she discusses the creative process: "No one strong-arms you into becoming an artist or writer--most often you're dissuaded--and volunteers who bemoan their chosen gig seem disingenuous. Visual artists are often called to account for their choices and asked to defend their positions. Few occupations other than finance, politics and crime entail this reckoning. Writers and artists may ask themselves why they make art or write, and many feel the pointlessness of their self-chosen jobs, but all rebuttals and answers to their existential questions rest on faith in Art or Literature. Faith itself will be tested." The collection doesn't even really serve as an introduction to Tillman's work, although it certainly represents her wit. The most weighty piece here is "A Mole in the House of the Modern," a piercing deconstruction of Edith Wharton. In short, it's a nonessential pastiche of book reviews and other miscellaneous writings that reads less as a collage and more like someone handed you one drawer of a great writer's file cabinet. The world's culture dissected, one cunning, bemused essay at a time.

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May 1, 2014

Since the publication of her first novel, Haunted Houses, Tillman has written 11 additional books: fiction, nonfiction, short stories, and essays. This alphabetically arranged collection of essays contains everything from Tillman's author interviews with Paula Fox (One-Eyed Cat) and others to reviews of Spike Jonze movies. The author's comments on the Rolling Stones' 1965 New York City concert describe her disappointment with all that didn't happen at the performance of her favorite "rebel" band that suited her depressed college student persona. In "The Virtual President," she comments on the news media, Hillary Clinton, and President Barack Obama. VERDICT Tillman's essays cover death, Andy Warhol, and a broad spectrum of photography, literature, philosophy, music, and politics. She juxtaposes her personal responses with criticism of the arts in a collection that demonstrates her aptitude for humor, candor, and scholarship.--Joyce Sparrow, Kenneth City, FL

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2014
What Tillman does is write with verve, candor, warmth, and unconventional intelligence. She's written five novels (American Genius, 2006) and four short story collections (Someday This Will Be Funny, 2011) and many essays, a substantial number of which are showcased in this scintillating retrospective collection enthusiastically introduced by novelist Colm Tib-n. Tillman delves into art, film, literature, politics, memory, failure, and death. Organized alphabetically by subject, the book begins with thoughts about Andy Warhol and moves on to Tillman's befriending of Paul Bowles and thwarted attempt to make a film based on Two Serious Ladies, a novel by his wife, Jane Bowles. Photographers Nan Goldin and Diane Arbus, writers Gertrude Stein and Edith Wharton, and filmmaker John Waters all snare Tillman's critical attention. Here, too, are superbly simpatico interviews with Paula Fox and Harry Mathews, and a hilarious account of the Rolling Stones' first New York concert on May 1, 1965. A self-described writer of catholic or promiscuous inclinations, Tillman is an astute and lucid chronicler and critic, vanquisher of complacency, and advocate for unchained creativity and rigorous artistry.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)