BARTLEBY AND ME: Reflections of an Old Scrivener, by Gay TaleseGay Talese has a tic.
I want to get this out of the way because in general I have such tremendous admiration for the man: that debonair eminence of ye olde New Journalism who is both a living landmark of Manhattan and his own best character.
It’s a writerly tic, the retro habit of referring to women by the color of their hair, but as noun rather than adjective.
If occasionally feeling as if you’re trapped in a Peter Arno cartoon is the price of admission to a new work by Talese, sign me up.
But only one chunk of his latest book, “Bartleby and Me,” from which the above quotations are drawn, can fairly be called new.
Persons:
Scrivener, Gay Talese Gay Talese, It’s, ”, you’re, Peter Arno, Nicholas Bartha
Organizations:
olde New Journalism
Locations:
Manhattan, Romanian