The View from Mill Basin

by Richard Grayson

ROLLING STONE called Grayson’s first short story collection, WITH HITLER IN NEW YORK, published in 1979, “where avant-garde fiction goes when it becomes stand-up comedy,” and NEWSDAY said, “The reader is dazzled by the swift, witty goings-on.” Grayson’s other short story collections have also received acclaim. LIBRARY JOURNAL called LINCOLN’S DOCTOR’S DOG (1982) “excellent” and said of I BRAKE FOR DELMORE SCHWARTZ (1983) that “Grayson is a born storyteller and standup talker.” THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW said Grayson’s I SURVIVED CARACAS TRAFFIC (1996) was “entertaining and bizarre” and “consistently, even ingeniously funny.” PUBLISHERS WEEKLY called Grayson’s THE SILICON VALLEY DIET (2000) “compulsively talky and engagingly disjunctive”; THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, reviewing AND TO THINK THAT HE KISSED HIM ON LORIMER STREET (2006), said, “Grayson has a fresh, funny voice.” Grayson has kept a diary since 1969. This volume covers the first half of 1977.

354 pages, Paperback

Published February 18, 2014

About the author

aka Richard Grindal

Scotland and France have always had a close affinity, so it was only natural that Richard Grayson, a Scot by birth, should have taken a special interest when reading history at Cambridge in that most colourful period of French history, La Belle Epoque. All his Inspector Gautier novels are set in that period. He now lives in London.

Reviews

[Gia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some guy from Mill Basin compulsively kept a diary of his young adult life in the 70s. Reading this almost feels like looking at my reflection in a funhouse mirror, but specifically one in Fairyland (by Burger King) or Nellie Bly. Having also grown up in Mill Basin, I know all about Kings Plaza, The Floridian, Silver Gull, and Prospect Park South. He describes the trials and tribulations of trying to make it as a writer while still living with his parents, being bisexual yet still lonely, and having anxiety- things I also know all about. His journal entries are funny and sad, an honest record of what life was like for him living in Brooklyn in 1977. Since I see so many similarities between myself and him, and because he was such a prolific diary-keeper, I can't help analyzing him as a case study. What worked for him? What didn't? I have many questions.