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Vermeer in Bosnia: Selected Writings
There are writers who specialize in the strange and others whose genius is to find the strangeness in the familiar, the unexpected meanings in stories we thought we knew. Of that second category, Lawrence Weschler is the master. Witness the pieces in this splendidly disorienting collection, spanning twenty years of his career and the full range of his concerns–which is to say, practically everything.
Only Lawrence Weschler could reveal the connections between the twentieth century’s Yugoslav wars and the equally violent Holland in which Vermeer created his luminously serene paintings. In his profile of Roman Polanski, Weschler traces the filmmaker’s symbolic negotiations with his nightmarish childhood during the Holocaust . Here, too, are meditations on artists Ed Kienholz and David Hockney, on the author’s grandfather and daughter, and on the light and earthquakes of his native Los Angeles. Haunting, elegant, and intoxicating, Vermeer in Bosnia awakens awe and wonder at the world around us.
Only Lawrence Weschler could reveal the connections between the twentieth century’s Yugoslav wars and the equally violent Holland in which Vermeer created his luminously serene paintings. In his profile of Roman Polanski, Weschler traces the filmmaker’s symbolic negotiations with his nightmarish childhood during the Holocaust . Here, too, are meditations on artists Ed Kienholz and David Hockney, on the author’s grandfather and daughter, and on the light and earthquakes of his native Los Angeles. Haunting, elegant, and intoxicating, Vermeer in Bosnia awakens awe and wonder at the world around us.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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About the author
Lawrence Weschler
82 books123 followersLawrence Weschler, a graduate of Cowell College of the University of California at Santa Cruz (1974), was for over twenty years (1981-2002) a staff writer at The New Yorker, where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies. He is a two-time winner of the George Polk Award (for Cultural Reporting in 1988 and Magazine Reporting in 1992) and was also a recipient of Lannan Literary Award (1998).
His books of political reportage include The Passion of Poland (1984); A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers (1990); and Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas (1998).
His “Passions and Wonders” series currently comprises Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982); David Hockney’s Cameraworks (1984); Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (1995); A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces (1998) Boggs: A Comedy of Values (1999); Robert Irwin: Getty Garden (2002); Vermeer in Bosnia (2004); and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences (February 2006). Mr. Wilson was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Everything that Rises received the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
Recent books include a considerably expanded edition of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, comprising thirty years of conversations with Robert Irwin; a companion volume, True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney; Liza Lou (a monograph out of Rizzoli); Tara Donovan, the catalog for the artist’s recent exhibition at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and Deborah Butterfield, the catalog for a survey of the artist’s work at the LA Louver Gallery. His latest addition to “Passions and Wonders,” the collection Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative, came out from Counterpoint in October 2011.
Weschler has taught, variously, at Princeton, Columbia, UCSC, Bard, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, and NYU, where he is now distinguished writer in residence at the Carter Journalism Institute.
He recently graduated to director emeritus of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, where he has been a fellow since 1991 and was director from 2001-2013, and from which base he had tried to start his own semiannual journal of writing and visual culture, Omnivore. He is also the artistic director emeritus, still actively engaged, with the Chicago Humanities Festival, and curator for New York Live Ideas, an annual body-based humanities collaboration with Bill T. Jones and his NY Live Arts. He is a contributing editor to McSweeney’s, the Threepeeny Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review; curator at large of the DVD quarterly Wholphin; (recently retired) chair of the Sundance (formerly Soros) Documentary Film Fund; and director of the Ernst Toch Society, dedicated to the promulgation of the music of his grandfather, the noted Weimar emigre composer. He recently launched “Pillow of Air,” a monthly “Amble through the worlds of the visual” column in The Believer.
(from www.lawrenceweschler.com)
His books of political reportage include The Passion of Poland (1984); A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers (1990); and Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas (1998).
His “Passions and Wonders” series currently comprises Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982); David Hockney’s Cameraworks (1984); Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (1995); A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces (1998) Boggs: A Comedy of Values (1999); Robert Irwin: Getty Garden (2002); Vermeer in Bosnia (2004); and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences (February 2006). Mr. Wilson was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Everything that Rises received the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
Recent books include a considerably expanded edition of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, comprising thirty years of conversations with Robert Irwin; a companion volume, True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney; Liza Lou (a monograph out of Rizzoli); Tara Donovan, the catalog for the artist’s recent exhibition at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and Deborah Butterfield, the catalog for a survey of the artist’s work at the LA Louver Gallery. His latest addition to “Passions and Wonders,” the collection Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative, came out from Counterpoint in October 2011.
Weschler has taught, variously, at Princeton, Columbia, UCSC, Bard, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, and NYU, where he is now distinguished writer in residence at the Carter Journalism Institute.
He recently graduated to director emeritus of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, where he has been a fellow since 1991 and was director from 2001-2013, and from which base he had tried to start his own semiannual journal of writing and visual culture, Omnivore. He is also the artistic director emeritus, still actively engaged, with the Chicago Humanities Festival, and curator for New York Live Ideas, an annual body-based humanities collaboration with Bill T. Jones and his NY Live Arts. He is a contributing editor to McSweeney’s, the Threepeeny Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review; curator at large of the DVD quarterly Wholphin; (recently retired) chair of the Sundance (formerly Soros) Documentary Film Fund; and director of the Ernst Toch Society, dedicated to the promulgation of the music of his grandfather, the noted Weimar emigre composer. He recently launched “Pillow of Air,” a monthly “Amble through the worlds of the visual” column in The Believer.
(from www.lawrenceweschler.com)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
May 24, 2023
i was introduced to laurence weschler as a senior in college. i was taking an authors class on jamaica kincaid taught by the venerable dr. julia lee, and towards the end of the semester, we were all getting a little overwhelmed by the great character and author that is jamaica kincaid. dr. lee suggested we veer off course for our last book and read weschler’s “Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder,” a fitting switch not only because of weschler’s connection to kincaid through the new yorker, but because of our proximity to the book’s subject, the museum of jurassic technology. it also helped that weshler would be coming to the english department to read from his newest book, “And How Are You, Dr. Sacks?”. i still haven’t read that book, but i loved cabinet of wonders and was taken with how weschler described his writing process (playing with blocks and self hatred both feature heavily), so when i saw this book at argosy bookstore in midtown manhattan, i knew it needed to come home with me. it’s such a nice hardcover that i refused to carry it around with me, thus how long it’s taken me to read it, but i like how long i’ve been able to sit with it. i feel like luxuriating in the essays allowed them to seep into my life and thoughts in ways that books i read more quickly don’t always manage to embed themselves.
anyways, love this guys writing and if you have ever lived in los angeles you should read the light of la (i think originally titled LA Glows? (in the new yorker i believe))
anyways, love this guys writing and if you have ever lived in los angeles you should read the light of la (i think originally titled LA Glows? (in the new yorker i believe))
April 27, 2012
This collection of long and shorter articles by Weschler are exquisite examples of pattern recognition. Connecting Vermeer's Lacemaker with the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal, talking about the light in Los Angeles (and he's spot on with that one), detailing Roman Polanski's background, each essay in prose that makes one's heart sing, is a beautiful offering. On to read more Weschler, even though I keep trying to move that "s" in his last name. To top it off, I now know how Spock got his hand greeting..."Vulcan as a sort of cosmically Wandering Jew" p. 263
p.66: "And indeed, Serbian culture is pickled in the brine of the epic, the heroic, the mythomanic..the endless cycle of mindless atrocity and atrocious retribution."
p.70: "indicted war criminals...whether in Serbia, the Republika Srpska, or Croatia, have been almost entirely successful in convincing their countrymen that the Tribunal's animus is directed toward all the people as a whole rather than any specific individuals, so that vigilant defiance becomes almost a patriotic imperative."
p.94: "Years later, in her review of Macbeth, Pauline Kael noted how it is not the amount of violence in Polanski's films that so unsettles the viewer as much as the way that violence 'always [occurs] a shade faster than you expect, so that you're not prepared.'"
p.153: Jerzy Urban--"gutter con brio"
p.164: "This is what the Holocaust produced, what it honed--a generation of individuals who regularly attempted to lash out at the walls while at the same time holding up the ceiling."
207: "Here it's true," one assures the other, "I'm a dachshund. But in the old country I was a Saint Bernard."
p.252: "We are here...because without us here to study it, the amazing complexity of the world would be wasted."
p.341: "Hockney's collages, like Cubism, are a record of human looking. It's exactly the point that an automatic machine could not have generated them."
p.66: "And indeed, Serbian culture is pickled in the brine of the epic, the heroic, the mythomanic..the endless cycle of mindless atrocity and atrocious retribution."
p.70: "indicted war criminals...whether in Serbia, the Republika Srpska, or Croatia, have been almost entirely successful in convincing their countrymen that the Tribunal's animus is directed toward all the people as a whole rather than any specific individuals, so that vigilant defiance becomes almost a patriotic imperative."
p.94: "Years later, in her review of Macbeth, Pauline Kael noted how it is not the amount of violence in Polanski's films that so unsettles the viewer as much as the way that violence 'always [occurs] a shade faster than you expect, so that you're not prepared.'"
p.153: Jerzy Urban--"gutter con brio"
p.164: "This is what the Holocaust produced, what it honed--a generation of individuals who regularly attempted to lash out at the walls while at the same time holding up the ceiling."
207: "Here it's true," one assures the other, "I'm a dachshund. But in the old country I was a Saint Bernard."
p.252: "We are here...because without us here to study it, the amazing complexity of the world would be wasted."
p.341: "Hockney's collages, like Cubism, are a record of human looking. It's exactly the point that an automatic machine could not have generated them."
January 5, 2019
Weschler's temporally and topically wide-ranging collection has fed my love of creative nonfiction, and specifically of writing that "worries out the threads" between art, history, biography and politics. I picked up this book, almost at random, at a used bookstore, initially fascinated by its title but then pulled in by the first piece, "In Lieu of a Preface: Why I Can't Write Fiction" ("I wouldn't be able to invent a fictional New York housewife, because the city as it is is already overcrowded-there are no apartments available, there is no more room in the phone book.") Thankfully, Weschler's inability to write fiction means he has devoted himself to creatively engaging with all kinds of non-fictional things. His "Balkan Triptych" finds the relevance of Vermeer, Shakespeare, and Aristotle during and in the aftermath of the Bosnian War, while "Three Polish Survivor Stories" provides complex portraits of Roman Polanski, Jerzy Urban, and Art Spiegelman. Grandfathers and daughters, L.A., and a series of artist profiles round out the two-decade body of work presented here. I finished it inspired, and looking forward to more.
September 2, 2012
Weschler never ceases to amaze me in his ability to make such a wide array of topics accessible without dumbing anything down. He tackles such heavy topics- from war crimes tribunals to the redemptive power of art, and yet his writing is consistently lucid, heartfelt, and witty. He clearly has a scholar's knowledge of each of his subjects, and yet he feels like someone who you'd just want to go out for a beer with, just for the great conversations you know you'd have.
He's the rare non-fiction writer that I will read any essay by, regardless of subject, because I know that by the end of it, I'll be better informed, entertained, and maybe even a little wiser.
He's the rare non-fiction writer that I will read any essay by, regardless of subject, because I know that by the end of it, I'll be better informed, entertained, and maybe even a little wiser.
June 21, 2015
Some lovely writing here - basically a collection of luxuriously lengthy dispatches (ah, pre-Internet journalism!) Weschler wrote for various magazines, mainly the New Yorker and Rolling Stone, from Poland and the Balkans, as well as pieces on artists, some family history, and a section on his native Los Angeles. Occasionally a little overwrought. The title essay refers to a musing on the connection between Vermeer's Delft and the religious, sectarian upheaval of Kosovo in the '90s. Weschler finds strands from great thinkers (Shakespeare, Aristotle) in the conflicts he covers. Nihil sub sole novum.
August 2, 2020
This was my Trader Joe’s book— read ten pages every time I walked there— it was almost consistently interesting and wonderful, even if Weschler can dip into tweeness and cares a little too much (for my taste) about post-Soviet Poland. Will be reading more of him.
February 29, 2008
If I could write about art like Lawrence Weschler I could die a happy woman.
May 28, 2023
I bought this book by mistake. Great title and cover art. I was prepared to read anything about Vermeer. But this turned out to be more veneer than Vermeer. Rather than a novel this book is a collection of articles previously published by the author as journalist, foreign correspondent and cultural correspondent. The association with Vermeer comes from the first few articles. The basic premise is Vermeer is the go to time out for those associated with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. They sit through hours of description of horror and inhumanity and need the relief of the Vermeer's to take their minds to a more peaceful place. The author asserts that the little known fact is that Vermeer was concentrating of scenes of normal life as a way to avoid the horrors of inhumane acts that occupied life around where he was painting. Seems tenuous but makes some sense.
The metaphor begins to get stretched the further we get in to the book. The next section begins to see the association between art and war with lengthy insights into the life of people caught in the Holocaust of WWII such as Roman Polanski and the author's grandfather, Ernest Toch, a composer who fled the horrors of Germany to have a major career in films. Beyond that, Poland seems to be what ties this together. We gets side trips learning about the author's daughter, Sara, Ira Glass of This American Life, David Hockney, and Ed Kienholz. The major glue that holds these together is the author, Lawrence Weschler, staff writer for the New Yorker. Fortunately he's a talented writer and has some keen insights.
I don't think this will ever be turned in to a movie, possibly a few documentaries.
The metaphor begins to get stretched the further we get in to the book. The next section begins to see the association between art and war with lengthy insights into the life of people caught in the Holocaust of WWII such as Roman Polanski and the author's grandfather, Ernest Toch, a composer who fled the horrors of Germany to have a major career in films. Beyond that, Poland seems to be what ties this together. We gets side trips learning about the author's daughter, Sara, Ira Glass of This American Life, David Hockney, and Ed Kienholz. The major glue that holds these together is the author, Lawrence Weschler, staff writer for the New Yorker. Fortunately he's a talented writer and has some keen insights.
I don't think this will ever be turned in to a movie, possibly a few documentaries.
April 30, 2023
Lawrence Weschler, a staff writer for The New Yorker for more than 20 years until his retirement, was a two-time winner of the George Polk Award for journalism. His collection of essays, Vermeer in Bosnia: Selected Writings, is an eclectic mix loosely divided under six headings. Part 1, “A Balkan Triptych” is by far the strongest. Here, Weschler connects seemingly disparate events and objects in fascinating ways. He draws a connection between Vermeer’s art and the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague; Henry V at Agincourt in 1415 with the massacre of 8,000 male Muslim prisoners at Srebrenica; and a loud speaker reading of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics during a protest demonstration in Belgrade.
Weschler follows this section with three Polish survivor stories, including a profile of Roman Polanski; essays under the general heading of Grandfathers and Daughters; three pieces on Los Angeles; and portraits of three artists, including David Hockney.
The collection is wide-ranging; the connections are creative; the writing is lucid and accessible. But unless one is interested in his meditations on family members, or on the works of particular artists, or on the background of Polish survivors of the Holocaust, or the nature of light in Los Angeles, these essays don’t offer the fascinating insights of the opening set of essays.
My book reviews can also be found at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
Weschler follows this section with three Polish survivor stories, including a profile of Roman Polanski; essays under the general heading of Grandfathers and Daughters; three pieces on Los Angeles; and portraits of three artists, including David Hockney.
The collection is wide-ranging; the connections are creative; the writing is lucid and accessible. But unless one is interested in his meditations on family members, or on the works of particular artists, or on the background of Polish survivors of the Holocaust, or the nature of light in Los Angeles, these essays don’t offer the fascinating insights of the opening set of essays.
My book reviews can also be found at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
April 23, 2020
Because this book consists of a series of mostly unrelated essays, I would give the first half of the book 4 stars if I could. The titular essay and those in that series about the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia are fantastic. The portraits of Polish survivors are also quite good, and the one about Weschler's grandfather are also swell. The remaining half of the volume dragged on and became a bit of a slog for me, portraits of artists whose work I found uninteresting, writing about furniture, much ado about Callifornia. I'd recommend reading until the portraits of artists and LA pieces, then shut er down.
November 4, 2023
The first two groups of essays in this collection were interesting, but the later group had a waning effect. Weschler is good at making connections and thoughtful about political violence and its effects, but he is also self-regarding and sometimes seems to overvalue the objects of his attention, as in his strange essay on Polanski, which often reads like straight hero worship and fails to capture the complexity of Polanski's dark vision.
March 2, 2023
The essays in this collection are from the 1980s and 1990s. For the most part, they stand the test of time, and are fascinating in how they braid in several topics and are so layered and thoughtful.
The first essay, the author's thoughts on Vermeer juxtaposed against the atrocities in Bosnia and the War Crimes Tribunal, is particularly brilliant.
The first essay, the author's thoughts on Vermeer juxtaposed against the atrocities in Bosnia and the War Crimes Tribunal, is particularly brilliant.
August 17, 2023
Undoubtedly, one of the finest reads I’ve ever had. The beauty of his relations between topics which hurt the heart and topics which inspire the soul are unrelenting. A must read for anyone trying to understand the human experience from a non-human perspective.
April 2, 2019
This book is actually a collection of long-form journalism articles. I'll read articles/books by this author again.
October 17, 2023
Review to follow
August 31, 2008
This is a rich collection of essays by a writer well-known to readers of the New Yorker. They mix issues of politics and the arts, opening ways of thinking about the value of the humanities. The opening essays are the strongest--probing the stillness of works of 17th-century Dutch painter Vermeer, whose work Weschler explores while covering the Bosnian genocide trials in the Hague; or examining Shakepeare's Henry V, and what is had to say about the treatment of prisoners of war, from the vantage point of the Geneva Conventions.
If one lifts away the assumption that great art speaks of some vague transcendental values(beauty, truth) and instead places works in their historical contexts - the rise of Holland as a colonial power in a age of incessant warfare; the changing codes of warfare that may have haunted Shakespeare's Henry V--can one return to those earlier assumptions about art's power, finding that these works have even an greater capacity to speak to universal beliefs of the value of human life, always under siege, whether in the sixteenth century or today, and to convey the complexity of individual experience and artistic expression?
A terrific set of opening essays to use for teaching literature or art, accessible to strong upper level high school students; a revelation to university students; a wonderful volume as a gift to treasured friends who appreciate elegant writing that takes one unanticipated places.
The essays in the rest of the volume are more mixed, but the opening ones earn this volume its 5 stars.
If one lifts away the assumption that great art speaks of some vague transcendental values(beauty, truth) and instead places works in their historical contexts - the rise of Holland as a colonial power in a age of incessant warfare; the changing codes of warfare that may have haunted Shakespeare's Henry V--can one return to those earlier assumptions about art's power, finding that these works have even an greater capacity to speak to universal beliefs of the value of human life, always under siege, whether in the sixteenth century or today, and to convey the complexity of individual experience and artistic expression?
A terrific set of opening essays to use for teaching literature or art, accessible to strong upper level high school students; a revelation to university students; a wonderful volume as a gift to treasured friends who appreciate elegant writing that takes one unanticipated places.
The essays in the rest of the volume are more mixed, but the opening ones earn this volume its 5 stars.
April 30, 2008
this is a great book. weschler is at his best in this sort of presentation: essays of variable length on pet topics that also somehow explore other pet topics (see also his phenomenal "everything that rises"). if you happen to be entranced by all things balkan (like myself), this book has the added bonus of dwelling often on post-yugoslavia issues and history. if you happen to be an artist or interested in the arts (like myself), this book has the added bonus of several extraordinarily compelling looks at the work of some artists from a decidedly atypical type of biographical angle. also included are some other biographies and a whole range of random short essays that behave on the whole like those in "everything that rises" -- truly random tiny glimpses at enough subjects and topics to give the reader a palpable sense of actively learning something about our world and the people in it. i love weschler's work; this is one of his best.
October 5, 2007
A lot of these essays I could sort of take or leave, thus the three stars, which I guess is a rough average. There is some unbelievable five star quality stuff in here, though: the first section -- A Balkan Triptych -- is incredible, and there're some other very memorable things that I took to, like an essay about the specific quality of light in Los Angeles. The one on Jerzy Urban's good, too.
This is one of those books that reminds you of the world's hugeness and complexity, then softens the blow of how little and ignorant your cruddy life is by giving you glimpses of all you've been missing. Weschler's the guy who wrote that Cabinet of Wonder book, which makes a lot of sense, considering.
I think Mike Mah gave me this book. Why isn't Mike Mah on Bookster??? Without recommendations over the years from him and Sam, the average of my Bookster ratings would be at least one and a half stars lower today.
This is one of those books that reminds you of the world's hugeness and complexity, then softens the blow of how little and ignorant your cruddy life is by giving you glimpses of all you've been missing. Weschler's the guy who wrote that Cabinet of Wonder book, which makes a lot of sense, considering.
I think Mike Mah gave me this book. Why isn't Mike Mah on Bookster??? Without recommendations over the years from him and Sam, the average of my Bookster ratings would be at least one and a half stars lower today.
June 28, 2007
This book is a series of essays on different subjects. There is one on Roman Polanski that is very interesting, compelling and well-written. The human aspect of these essays give them their poignancy. The essay about the author and his daughter involved in a situation where he plays into her fantasy (she is about seven at the time) is very touching. The essay about the light in Los Angeles is enjoyable. The essay about the LA earthquake, Northridge in 1994 is intriguing especially concerning the electrical power since my father was so involved in getting that straightened out in his job. Weschler is a wonderful, compassionate, deep-thinking writer.
October 25, 2009
I really only checked this book out of the library to read the essay on Los Angeles light, which I enjoyed very much. I've long said there is a special light in coastal Southern California, and no time is it more evident than in the fall, when in the long raking light of late afternoon turns everything to gold. I didn't read all the other essays in the book, but I did read the title essay which I enjoyed, and several of the others. If it hadn't been a library book it would have been one I left lying around to pick up now and then and read another one.
November 17, 2008
Interesting collection of essays that are thematically related. If you've never read this author before, this likely wouldn't be the choice for a first book. Wish I would have found a copy of Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders to start with. However, if you like the kind of journalism that is regularly featured in Harpers, you will get something out of this book. Subjects covered include war, family and California artists.
September 9, 2007
I'm becoming a big Weschler fan -- I loved Everything that Rises. There are some excellent essays in this book, and I plan to read more Weschler soon. It also introduced me to the work of David Hockney -- fascinating stuff. And who doesn't love a transcript of a This American Life episode about the Borrowers?
June 21, 2016
Weschler is a fine writer, and his knowledge of visual arts and music is impressive, but I just wasn't drawn into most of the subjects he explored. He did help me to see Roman Polanski in a new light (although I still find him to be a despicable person). I thought he was at his best when he was writing about his grandfather and his daughter.
May 15, 2009
Just shy of perfect, this book of essays is strongest at the beginning as it sets art in contrast to war crimes, and very gracefully describes how the creative act really does change the world, even if by the simple negation of a destructive act.
March 8, 2010
Bought this years ago because Vermeer and Bosnia were in the title. It's actually a collection of new yorker and mcsweenys stories. The ones I liked least were about the Balkans (which is really surprising). I most enjoyed his portraits of artists: Hockney and Polanski among others.
July 20, 2010
Extremely interesting batch of essays, many from The New Yorker, others not. Vermeer, Shakespeare's Henry V, the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, a long, informative and sympathetic view of Roman Polanski, and lots more. I'm glad I read it.
Currently reading
June 3, 2008I am a little less than half-way through this and I am completely fascinated....will update once finished
January 5, 2008
The author is a journalist, and this book is four different stories ranging from his experiences covering the trial of Slobodan Milosovicz to a retrospective of Roman Polanski. Great Read.
January 25, 2008
i would recommend reading weschler in small doses, reading this straight through gets old fast.
April 7, 2009
This book is certainly fascinating, but it helps if you already have a pretty solid knowledge of art and film (which I do not). That said, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews