Rating: 
Summary: WildRollerCoaster Ride With Unique,Eccentric Author!
Review: This is easily the best bio I've read of any writer, who is not included among the historical/political types. Once you get to page 50 or so, guaranteed you'll be swept along in this roller coaster, and hold tight! Not only does this tell you the truly harrowing personal story of a frustrated, sickly, bizarre genius of a writer, but the times (1930's -1992) become alive too. If you want to know the details of getting published,teaching, financial struggles of a world class author, then check this out! For a look at a chain smoking alcoholic with severe health conditions, including an illness in getting enough oxygen to the brain, here it is. And as study in mental illness of an artist, trying to raise a family, and at times living in harrowing conditions, this again is the book to read! In fact, it is very similar to the recent book/movie A BRILLIANT MIND switched from a scientist to an author. So check out this, and meanwhile read his "Collected Short Stories" , the incredible, very autobiographical tales by this uniquely gifted and always struggling writer of genius. No doubt this was a real labor of love for the author, too!
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: This is the best biography of a writer I've read since the Shirley Jackson biography "Private Demons". I agree with the previous poster who said that this should be a National Book Award nominee/winner.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: This is the best biography of a writer I've read since the Shirley Jackson biography "Private Demons". I agree with the previous poster who said that this should be a National Book Award nominee/winner.
Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: This is truly a remarkable version (surely the best ever written) of Yates' life. The author seems to have had amazing access to family and colleagues of Yates. I am a Yates fan and have never seen such an indepth account of his struggles. A great read.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic read for Yates fans
Review: This is truly a remarkable version (surely the best ever written) of Yates' life. The author seems to have had amazing access to family and colleagues of Yates. I am a Yates fan and have never seen such an indepth account of his struggles. A great read.
Rating:
Summary: A great study of creativity, commitment, and tragedy
Review: To call Richard Yates's life a tragedy is an understatement: tuberculosis, emphysema, a 4-pack a day cigarette habit, severe alcoholism, and poorly regulated manic-depressive illness all were combined in a man who seemed hell bent on destroying his health and many of the intimate relationships he so desperately needed. Yet one comes away from this tale strangely uplifted. Yates was a man who kept writing, even as his health and sanity faded, and who preserved a relentless commitment to both his artistic vision and to his craft. Bailey's detailed description of the manuscript found in Yates's freezer after Yates had died should be required reading for anyone who ever said "I want to write a novel," or anyone who wonders what it really takes to be a great writer.
It's tempting to come away from this book focusing only on Yates's obvious and huge psychological disturbances. I had tears in my eyes while reading the final pages, especially the last words, which the author gives to Andre Dubus, Yates's beloved former student and buddy. But this is not just another tale of a mood-disordered, alcoholic writer: Bailey is far too good a writer to leave the reader with mere desolation, though there is plenty of desolation in this story. Bailey writes with compassion, affection, and even humor. Yates's quirkiness and madness are offset by a sense of his fundamental goodness, even though he was insufferable in the demands he placed upon others, particularly the women in his life. Nowhere is this goodness revealed more than in Baileys' description of Yates's deeply touching and affecting relationships with his three daughters.
Perhaps few fields demand as much of their practitioners, with so little prospect of reward, as does writing. Frank Conroy, the head of the Iowa Writer's Workshop has said that writing is a test of character. If so, then Yates clearly passed this test, even at the expense of nearly all other areas of his life.
Rating:
Summary: Inspired and Inspiring Book.
Review: What makes Blake Bailey's account of Richard Yates's life inspiring is the dedication and integrity Yates had as an artist. That Yates not only managed to survive TB, alcoholism, schizophrenia, and the drudgery of working for hire in Hollywood is one thing, but that in the process he also managed to churn out fine semi-autobiographical novels and short stories is truly dazzling. Yates held true to his principles, never sacrificing the essence of solid storytelling and deftly drawn character for cheap or "unfelt" gimmicky fiction(dismissing the hip writers at Iowa, like Robert Coover, whom Yates reportedly loathed).Like Yates's own work, this book is candid and moving, without ever being sentimental. Fine stuff.
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