Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? by Marion Meade
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Book Reviews of Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?
Book Review: Well done.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an excellent biography and a great introduction to the life of Parker. And what a character she was--could ANYONE be bored reading this?Book Review: Yes no maybe
Summary: 3 Stars
I admit I knew very little about Dorothy Parker's life before reading this bio, and a decent amount after. But I must say I found this a very clumsily written, and apparently utterly un-edited, piece of work -- eg, just who, exactly, is Ms. Meade concerned with when writing
"of the tragedies that would be recognized by twentieth century women as peculiarly their own: the gut-searing loneliness of the women who have 'careers,' the women who don't marry, the women who do but divorce; the women deprived of maternal warmth and comfort who are condemned to seek love forever in the barren soil of husbands and children and even animals; women howling primitively for nourishment, flanked on one side by rejecting mothers and on the other by rejecting lovers."
Ah, the primitive howlings for barren animal love. Dorothy, we hardly knew ye.
Book Review: What Fresh Smell Was This?
Summary: 3 Stars
Not my kind of biography. Its gossipy tone wore thin after the first fifty pages; after that, I spent the rest of the read searching (in vain) for some pattern, some contingency, some attempt on Meade's part to present the events of Parker's tragic life in any sort of meaningful way. If such a framework was there, I missed it. It just read like a long, dreary cat fest to me.Also, was I the only one that noticed how poorly edited this book was? I counted six passages where the same information was repeated twice --- again, not in a meaningful way, just phrases redundantly stuck there, like two forks in a Thanksgiving turkey.
I gave it 3 stars instead of one or two, because I thought it might be a interesting read for someone who enjoys a biography with a lot of juicy gossip.
Book Review: Everything you Care to Know and Too Much More!
Summary: 3 Stars
An extremely enjoyable account of a rather sad Life but a trifle too long for what it is worth.( Dare I suggest her " talent "was comparatively "limited" ) Though I must confess I enjoyed it very much which makes me wonder what I am "worth"!Book Review: What Editing Hell Made The Reading Likewise
Summary: 2 Stars
Dorothy Parker, What Fresh Hell Is This?, Marion Meade; Villard Books [Random House] (Hardcover, 1987)
What a ghastly waste of resources, time, & money (I made it to page 309).
The details will bore you; forego reading Fresh Hell, a book that - in its present form - only the members of a wobbly literary cult could admire (& even finish reading).
We would be lucky to see a re-edited, abridged version - for even in its present condition, the benefits of the author's dedication & research are obvious (especially appreciated was the simple truth about Robert Benchley's frenzied private life - suspiciously romanticized by his son Nathaniel in a 50s biography - & the author's remorseless disdain of Parker's inexhaustible self-pity & uncontrollably venomous tongue).
From an earlier review: "Was I the only one that noticed how poorly edited this book was?"
No. She is not alone.
Parker's life was often quite interesting, when it wasn't torpedoed with self-inflicted trouble (the fate of U-boat 869 comes to mind).
But to elect to publish this tediously overwritten (414 pages) & badly edited biography about someone whose two husbands committed suicide; whose greatest non-marital romantic disappointment was a 24-carat cad who ultimately blew his brains out at the Martha's Vineyard airport; & who herself vehemently alienated almost every friend & squandered whatever advantages she had ever acquired...
Services for the innumerable highlighters wasted on Fresh Hell will be held at Frank (not Alan) Campbell's.
Take a chance with, instead, the letters of S.J. Perelman - Don't Tread On Me - a chance "next" selection which turned out to be an instantly appreciated relief from the bile of the usual suspects in Fresh Hell.
DT's lively, vibrant writing released the reader from the depressing psychic residue of a narrative of a writer's life wasted & a biographer's talents forsaken by her apparently indifferent publisher.
Just be forewarned, that DT also has its own "Benchley" concealments that subsequent candid writers & sources have generously brought to light.