Maybe: A story

by Lillian Hellman

A complex evocation of the elusive, beautiful Sarah Cameron whose intermittent appearances over forty years have provided Hellman with a tantalizing, inconsistent mosaic of fantasy, deliberate falsehoods, and touches of unalloyed evil.

Genres: Fiction, American, Womens, Literature

106 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Lillian Florence "Lilly" Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American dramatist and screenwriter famously blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) at the height of the anti-communist campaigns of 1947–52.

Hellman was praised for sacrificing her career by refusing to answer questions by HUAC; but her denial that she had ever belonged to the Communist Party was easily disproved, and her veracity was doubted by many, including war correspondent Martha Gellhorn and literary critic Mary McCarthy.

She adapted her semi-autobiographical play The Little Foxes into a screenplay which received an Academy Award nomination in 1942.

Hellman was romantically involved with fellow writer and political activist Dashiell Hammett for thirty years until his death.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

But maybe half a lie is worse than a real lie.
MAYBE: A STORY ~~ Lillian Hellman



In my early teens, I was a voracious reader of plays focusing on the works of major American dramatists, O'Neill, Williams, Miller & Albee. The only woman on that list was was Lillian Hellman . My 13 year old self couldn't figure out why Hellman wasn't held in as high esteem as the men. That 13 year old loved the cutting lines of her melodramas. My middle aged self realizes now that Hellman is not in the league of O'Neill, Williams, Miller & Albee.

Hellman has written two outstanding plays, The Little Foxes & the little known The Autumn Garden, but she was never able to elevate her melodramas in the way that Tennessee Williams was able to. I often suspected that her lover, the writer, Dashiell Hammett, served as editor, and often rewrote her plays. Upon Hammett's passing, Hellman abandoned playwriting for good, eight years later, she emerged as a memoirist with the publication of An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir. In the span of 11 years, Hellman published four memoirs, with MAYBE: A STORY being the last in 1980. The truthfulness of all four has been called into question. This is not surprising since Hellman herself was not known for her honesty.

In the three memoir books I wrote, I tried very hard for the truth
. . . but here I don't know much of what really happened and never tried to find out. And thus begins MAYBE: A STORY.



MAYBE: A STORY is presented as a story as if to fend off the accusations of lying that had dogged Hellman the past 11 years.

The theme here is how hard it is to know about people and remember them, but in all honesty, it’s another one of these indirect portraits of Hellman through the appearances of Sarah Cameron ~~ whose intermittent appearances over forty years have provided Hellman with a tantalizing, inconsistent mosaic of fantasy, deliberate falsehoods, and touches of unalloyed evil. The give-away that the unnamed narrator is Hellman is all the details of her family and the sudden appearance of Hammett with these brilliant, offkey, perfect dialogues.

MAYBE: A STORY is more about sex than Hellman's other remembrances, and her fear ~~ set off perhaps by the malice of a friend and male partners ~~ that she smells. Perhaps this is Hellman's most honest writing after all ...



MAYBE: A STORY has some of Hellman's most beautiful prose. She is justifying her autobiographical art, answering critics indirectly. Hellman speaks of how each of us have our own reasons for denying, affirming, pretending and sometimes have really forgotten ~~ I believe she is talking about how others responded to her memoirs in these sections ~~ and how people are hurt by forgetfulness of others.

In the end, Hellman reminds us of what matters most and makes you alter your life lost deep in the summer grass.

[Paula Mota · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muito curiosa esta pequena novela, parte ficcionada e parte biográfica, em que uma narradora altamente duvidosa fala de uma mulher misteriosa com quem se cruzou em vários momentos da sua vida. Esta autora, que ficou mais conhecida como dramaturga, foi criticada por Mary McCarthy por ficcionar as suas autobiografias, dizendo que para ela todas as palavras eram uma mentira, incluindo o "e" e o "o". Parece-me ter sido uma figura fascinante e foi também companheira do escritor Dashiell Hashmmet e perseguida na era McCarthy por supostas atividades anti-americanas.

[Daphne]

I thoroughly enjoyed this odd novella (if that's what one might call it) in which Lillian Hellman tries to make sense of a mysterious acquaintance of hers named Sarah, with whom she had an episodic "friendship" before ultimately growing closer to Sarah's ex-husband, whom we find in the end to be equally mysterious. Is it fact or fiction? Hellman makes a point of not calling it a true story and explaining how little she knows of what ACTUALLY happened--but the book has the wonderful immediacy of her 3 memoirs, that same straightforward voice and straight-faced sense of humor. I was as moved by certain disclosures she makes about herself and her life with Dashiell Hammett as I was entertained by the various hi-jinx of Sarah et al. If you like reading about writers and their friends getting drunk in various international locations, you'll enjoy this book already--but read it for Hellman's great narrative voice.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This return to Hellman was, for me, like slipping back into something super familiar but also new and unexpected. An ideal mix, if a wee bit contradictory. Hellman, as she so masterfully does, blurs the line between memoir and fiction, but here she uses a separate person--Sarah--as the vehicle for her story. Recommended for Hellman fans.

[Yoana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Странна смесица от полумемоар, полуизмислица. През цялото време имах усещането, че важни неща са загубени в превода, но не успях да я намеря на английски. Необичайно произведение в смисъл, че не открих нищо обединяващо е него - тема, сюжет, фабула, мотиви - нищо. Може би освен проблематизирането на паметта - нейната ненадеждност и невъзможността да се разграничи от въображението и измислицата, ако е минало достатъчно време. Но и това проблематизиране е някак в насипна форма. Въпреки това ми беше приятно с книгата.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A year after Mary McCarthy slammed her for writing fictional memoirs, Lillian Hellman released this fascinatingly slippery tale peppered with autobiographical bits like her relationship to Dashiell Hammett, her New Orleans childhood and her screenwriting days in Hollywood. A hilariously blunt and painfully raw novella, "Maybe: A Story" invites a scrutiny it has no intention of satisfying -- a brilliant F.U. to Hellman's defamatory critics.

[Cynthia Bemis Abrams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is just like trying to understand Lillian Hellman better. Her writing is dazzling. Her memory is admittedly fuzzy. But whether it's her imagination or something that really happened, her storytelling is classic.

[Rachel Whelan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quiet observance of Marguerite Duras's The Lover meets the creeping insecurity of Philip Roth's American Pastoral. A short exploration of the dangerous imperfection of memory. Absolutely fascinating, leaves you itching for more.

[Amy Ledbetter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really pointless -- can't believe Andrew Sean Greer noted this book

[Dan Sifri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lillian Hellman was a successful playwright
Some of her plays became also
Movies, some of them are very good. But she also wrote prose literature. What's interesting in most of her books, and also in this book: She describes for us a kind of memoirs and various episodes which are slowly joining together to a description of "Sarah", an elusive woman she met. From the very beginning the details of "Sarah" are not entirely clear. She keeps appearing from time to time in the same social circles of Lillian Hellman. Hellman is the storyteller She tells us about her encounters in different times and places in the U.S. France and Italy., Even if some episodes appear initially with no relation to this "Sarah", suddenly while reading the book it turns out that parts of the puzzle are getting together and the picture is becoming clearer. But even at the end, we are left with some unanswered questions that remain a mystery... Generally speaking I like this book It is written in the same talkative style that I love of " Unfinished woman"and" Pentimento "of her Which I read before.

[Freder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that Ms. Hellman knew, when they set the book down, that the reader would have questions. And I think that the title of the book is meant to be her answer to those questions.

But I could be wrong.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe: A Story (Hardcover)
by Lillian Hellman

Is it fiction? is it memoir? see wikipedia

[Martin Petrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

„И на мен, както и на всеки друг предполагам, се е случвало в живота ми да влизат и излизат хора, които си мислят, че означават за мен нещо повече от онова, което действително означават.“

[Ann Bogle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book that delineates the genre crossing between memoir and fiction.

[Bill Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

 Maybe: A Story is an explanation of sorts for Hellman's previous memoirs and the factual mistakes in them. In the eighties, Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy were in a legal dispute over comments McCarthy made during an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show on PBS. I remember seeing the show when it aired and searched for a source of conflict between the two and found that there was nothing substantial. They just didn't like each other.

 But there are memories I have of her that I know to be accurate, although, as I have said before, I do not always know what she was saying or if what she said was sometimes based on her fantasies or the fantasies of others. I am certain, for example, what she said about Alex and the baby in the restaurant and so on.
 And once, when we were both about twenty-five, I guess, we met in Small's in Harlem. I don't know who I was with but I know that she came in and sat at the next table with two men. She was in a beautiful loose dress with narrow shoulder straps that were too loose. She was moving to the music when the straps slipped and the top of her dress fell down. It was a fine sight: the beautiful breasts and the high loose piled fair hair. One of the men with her said, "You arrange things well."

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why, but this book was downright bizarre to me. I went in not really knowing anything about Lillian Hellman. I had heard the name, but I didn't even know that she was a playwright.

This was published in 1980, but the language made me think of speakeasies and gangster molls (I know, probably my problem), so it felt temporally jumbled and, overall, discombobulating.

That did seem like the goal of the book, however: make the reader uncomfortable, and emphasize how little we know about the majority of the people in our lives.

[Jane Mettee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading some of the older authors. This is a book I found in one of our neighborhood “tiny libraries”. It is a short novel, 100 pages, based on some of the authors experiences and friends. She admits if she can’t remember something clearly she invents it, so it is not considered a memoir. Hellman is a good writer. I just wasn’t very interested in the subject. She was one of the most well known authors of the 20th century. She and her longtime lover Dashielle Hammett, also a well known author, were communists or at least communist sympathizers.

[Lupurk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Letto in mezza giornata, ho faticato a tenere il filo della storia, ammesso che una storia ci sia. Autobiografico, parla di una donna che compare e scompare nella vita della protagonista, lasciando dietro di sé mistero e situazioni inspiegabili, minando la sicurezza e la salute mentale della stessa. Decisamente confusionario e inconcludente, secondo me.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I thought this book was fiction, then Hellman identifies herself as the narrator - Dashiell Hammett also appears in the tale. It is not clear whether this is a work of fiction or not. It may be partly based on truth (hence the title?).

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acquaintance obsession, observed. Mysterious.

[Rachel Sulik]

I picked this up because Sean Greer talked about it and it was exactly how he made it sound! Kind of peculiar and hard to follow but funny and good.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I haven't read Hellman since college, but I remember thinking she was a marvelous writer. Not this book, however. It's confusing and rambling.

[Agnes · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won't be the first to describe this as "pointless".

Sad because Hellman was a great writer.

This is going straight in the garbage; I won't even donate it.

[Janet Hildebrandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read her earlier memoirs as soon as they came out. This is later and it carries her distinctive voice.

[Richard Jespers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a story, indeed. In this brief (102 pages) autobiographical piece, Hellman tells the tale of a woman named Sarah Cameron. Does Lillian or does she not see Sarah in various locales? Does Sarah have a husband named Carter Cameron, and they, a son who remains unnamed? Yes, yes, and yes. But even so, Hellman shifts the story to New Orleans to portray two single aunts whom she admires and wishes to emulate for their independent natures. She shifts to New York. She shifts to Italy. But always, the story is about this elusive woman, Sarah. Hellman is gifted in tying all these seemingly disparate loose ends together into a satisfying read that nevertheless leaves the author, and us, wondering, Is Sarah Cameron real?

[Vel Veeter]

Maybe is a short novella, and possibly the only in Hellman’s career. It’s hard to know exactly what the book is because it’s written as a mini-biography circulating around a specific interaction. Normally I wouldn’t think too much about this distinction but Hellman wrote three quite famous and quite popular memoirs later in her career, so this little book coming out about 10 years later and just two years before she died raises a few small questions.

The book itself begins when our initially unnamed narrator possibly sees an old acquaintance going into a hotel. She begins to think about how to possibly track this person down that she hasn’t seen in more than 40 years and whose name she doesn’t know for sure. She knew her maiden name, and then her married name, but she’s convinced that that will be enough information to go on or that those names are this person’s name anymore. So while she tries to work through how she might contact her and, the biggest question, whether she wants to contact her, she remembers. The memories involve being roommates with this woman when they were both starting out, Lillian Hellman as a writer. This relationship involves going out together, meeting men, taking men home, drinking (lots of drinking), and the relationships they ended up forming and sticking with when they fell apart. Ultimately the novella, looking back on a lifetime of interactions, but now alone late in life ponders the question about what women readily sacrifice to be with men, in regards the women in their life.

I want to say it reminds me of The Seven Lives of Evelyn Hugo, but I don’t want to confuse the point if you’ve read that one (especially since that in part that novel is based on Hellman’s books or the books that were inspired by her books), but only in terms of the form of a celebrity life looked back upon with as many questions as revelations. And of course as Americans, we eat that up.

[Seyi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Understated writing style shows a strange, sometimes compelling way of life.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top 5 1980

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has stayed with me for decades. A haunting novella, vague yet lovely.

[Jmolentin]

A fun read, that really captures the post war period for the rich and famous.