What do you think?
Rate this book
The Eye You See With: Selected Nonfiction
The definitive collection of nonfiction—from war reporting to literary criticism to the sharpest political writing—from the “legend of American letters” (Vanity Fair)
- GenresNonfiction
384 pages, Hardcover
First published March 3, 2020
15 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Robert Stone
30 books250 followersROBERT STONE was the author of seven novels: A Hall of Mirrors, Dog Soldiers (winner of the National Book Award), A Flag for Sunrise, Children of Light, Outerbridge Reach, Damascus Gate, and Bay of Souls. His story collection, Bear and His Daughter, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and his memoir, Prime Green, was published in 2006.
His work was typically characterized by psychological complexity, political concerns, and dark humor.
A lifelong adventurer who in his 20s befriended Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, and what he called ‘‘all those crazies’’ of the counterculture, Mr. Stone had a fateful affinity for outsiders, especially those who brought hard times on themselves. Starting with the 1966 novel ‘‘A Hall of Mirrors,’’ Mr. Stone set his stories everywhere from the American South to the Far East. He was a master of making art out of his character’s follies, whether the adulterous teacher in ‘‘Death of the Black-Haired Girl,’’ the fraudulent seafarer in ‘‘Outerbridge Reach,’’ or the besieged journalist in ‘‘Dog Soldiers,’’ winner of the National Book Award in 1975.
His work was typically characterized by psychological complexity, political concerns, and dark humor.
A lifelong adventurer who in his 20s befriended Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, and what he called ‘‘all those crazies’’ of the counterculture, Mr. Stone had a fateful affinity for outsiders, especially those who brought hard times on themselves. Starting with the 1966 novel ‘‘A Hall of Mirrors,’’ Mr. Stone set his stories everywhere from the American South to the Far East. He was a master of making art out of his character’s follies, whether the adulterous teacher in ‘‘Death of the Black-Haired Girl,’’ the fraudulent seafarer in ‘‘Outerbridge Reach,’’ or the besieged journalist in ‘‘Dog Soldiers,’’ winner of the National Book Award in 1975.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 19, 2020
This collection on nonfiction essays by the great American novelist Robert Stone is an exceptional work.Stone wrote some of the best novels in the last 50 years. These essays written over
many years and on multiple subjects,
Stone is a tough minded observer of the human condition. His essays on Vietnam,Cuba and Jerusalem are superb. His essay on cocaine and New York,with brilliant references to Moby Dick needs to be read to be appreciated.stone writes well about writing and writers.
Read Dog Soldiers a perfect novel and then work your way through his other novels but take time to read these essays they spoke to me across the years until the madness of American life in 2020
many years and on multiple subjects,
Stone is a tough minded observer of the human condition. His essays on Vietnam,Cuba and Jerusalem are superb. His essay on cocaine and New York,with brilliant references to Moby Dick needs to be read to be appreciated.stone writes well about writing and writers.
Read Dog Soldiers a perfect novel and then work your way through his other novels but take time to read these essays they spoke to me across the years until the madness of American life in 2020
April 14, 2021
Wide ranging and highly satisfying collection.
“Yeah! That’s how it is!”
. . . Stone’s paraphrase of how a listener to a Jazz improvisation and by extension, of how any reader or appreciator of any work of art should respond. And that’s my response to this anthology of Robert Stone’s Non-Fiction articles. But non-fiction is not considered art like a cello suite, painting, or work of fiction: arising as whole cloth from the mind of its creator, right?!
No, wrong! When a writer has brought a life of vast experience, of voyages, wars, drunken binges and failed loves to bear on any natural or man-made event, and devotes a few hundred well-chosen words and phrases to share with his/her readers, it can be considered a work of art. And many of these articles are.
His tales of Vietnam, Political Conventions, Israel, and more delve into the human stories, motivations, emotions and flaws of the characters and situations just as well as any novel or collection of short stories. His prose is often perfect and his subjects are fascinating.
So read this book, particularly if you are a fan on Stone’s Novels, as I am. I do have to admit that I do not agree with all of the editor, Madison Bell’s, opinions of Stone’s work, but I’m glad he put this book together. The Narration on Audible was excellent. Four Stars.
“Yeah! That’s how it is!”
. . . Stone’s paraphrase of how a listener to a Jazz improvisation and by extension, of how any reader or appreciator of any work of art should respond. And that’s my response to this anthology of Robert Stone’s Non-Fiction articles. But non-fiction is not considered art like a cello suite, painting, or work of fiction: arising as whole cloth from the mind of its creator, right?!
No, wrong! When a writer has brought a life of vast experience, of voyages, wars, drunken binges and failed loves to bear on any natural or man-made event, and devotes a few hundred well-chosen words and phrases to share with his/her readers, it can be considered a work of art. And many of these articles are.
His tales of Vietnam, Political Conventions, Israel, and more delve into the human stories, motivations, emotions and flaws of the characters and situations just as well as any novel or collection of short stories. His prose is often perfect and his subjects are fascinating.
So read this book, particularly if you are a fan on Stone’s Novels, as I am. I do have to admit that I do not agree with all of the editor, Madison Bell’s, opinions of Stone’s work, but I’m glad he put this book together. The Narration on Audible was excellent. Four Stars.
November 8, 2020
A posthumous nonfiction collection from one of the late twentieth century's most brilliant novelists. What's not to love? I was especially interested in the essays focused on the writing craft, and they did not disappoint. But many of the others were also great reads too—especially Stone's firsthand account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters in Mexico. Adding to my shelf of essays and interviews by the novelists who've influenced me the most. Highly recommended!
March 21, 2022
The Eye You See With - Robert Stone
I think that Stone was one of the great moral voices of the last 60 years, and his collection of essays demonstrates his clear vision of the United States, its strange culture, and absurd belief in it’s exceptionalism, along with the corruption of idealism. Much of these essays are segments from Stone’s life that are reported on in greater detail in Madison Smart Bell’s excellent Child of Light: A Biography of Robert Stone.
These are some of my favorite lines from the collection:
• Pre-Vietnam America had become a stranger to irony.
• We are not good at creating “understandings” because so many of us understand completely different things. No other country has anything like the polarization between progressive and conservative forces that exist in the United States. (1993)
• But death does not bear confrontation; it does the confronting; and with its ineffable, impenetrable mystery it stops us cold.
• In our radical interpretation of democracy, our rejection of elites, our well-nigh demagogic respect for the opinions of the unlearned, we are essentially alone.
• The power of narrative is shattering, overwhelming. We are the stories we believe; we are who we believe we are. All the reasoning of the world cannot set us free of our mythic systems. We live and die by them.
• Nations exist not only as geographic entities and political divisions but also as living stories. The national mythology is always there; its relationship to reality may be dubious, but no one can understand a country who does not understand its self-image, its story about itself.
• Ken (Kesey) had a little joke, a little jingle, on himself. He said, “Of offering more than what I can deliver, I have a bad habit, it is true. But I have to offer more than what I can deliver, to be able to deliver what I do.” Maybe that’s true of everybody.
• At that point Eva had something to ak me. What did I think, she wanted to know, about communism?…I replied that since we had spent virtually the entire twentieth century living out the gruesome side effects of nineteenth-century prescriptions, it was time we came up with some of our own.
• New York is too hip-how can you tell spontaneity from the routines?
• Ultimately, nothing is free, in the sense that you have to pay up somewhere along the line.
• But we live in a society based overwhelmingly on appetite and self-regard. We train our young to be consumers and to think most highly of their own pleasure. In this we face a contradiction that no act of Congress can resolve.
• “Vulgarity,” I explained…”is a word that has more to do with polemics than with the realities of human behavior.”
• For all our moralizing…we have never been the people or the nation we pretended to be. The shyster, the grifter, and the plug-ugly have always been the measure of power here, and they always will.
• Insight was my God when I felt deserted.
• The moral element in the work of William Burroughs is in its very humor…Laughter represents a rebellion against chaos, a rejection of evil, and an affirmation of balance and soundness.
• The earliest and most important lessons we learn concern how to make ourselves at home in a world whose most significant quality if the presence of other people.
• To succeed in its purpose, a painting, a photograph, a poem, or a piece of music must elicit from the observer a certain complicity.
I think that Stone was one of the great moral voices of the last 60 years, and his collection of essays demonstrates his clear vision of the United States, its strange culture, and absurd belief in it’s exceptionalism, along with the corruption of idealism. Much of these essays are segments from Stone’s life that are reported on in greater detail in Madison Smart Bell’s excellent Child of Light: A Biography of Robert Stone.
These are some of my favorite lines from the collection:
• Pre-Vietnam America had become a stranger to irony.
• We are not good at creating “understandings” because so many of us understand completely different things. No other country has anything like the polarization between progressive and conservative forces that exist in the United States. (1993)
• But death does not bear confrontation; it does the confronting; and with its ineffable, impenetrable mystery it stops us cold.
• In our radical interpretation of democracy, our rejection of elites, our well-nigh demagogic respect for the opinions of the unlearned, we are essentially alone.
• The power of narrative is shattering, overwhelming. We are the stories we believe; we are who we believe we are. All the reasoning of the world cannot set us free of our mythic systems. We live and die by them.
• Nations exist not only as geographic entities and political divisions but also as living stories. The national mythology is always there; its relationship to reality may be dubious, but no one can understand a country who does not understand its self-image, its story about itself.
• Ken (Kesey) had a little joke, a little jingle, on himself. He said, “Of offering more than what I can deliver, I have a bad habit, it is true. But I have to offer more than what I can deliver, to be able to deliver what I do.” Maybe that’s true of everybody.
• At that point Eva had something to ak me. What did I think, she wanted to know, about communism?…I replied that since we had spent virtually the entire twentieth century living out the gruesome side effects of nineteenth-century prescriptions, it was time we came up with some of our own.
• New York is too hip-how can you tell spontaneity from the routines?
• Ultimately, nothing is free, in the sense that you have to pay up somewhere along the line.
• But we live in a society based overwhelmingly on appetite and self-regard. We train our young to be consumers and to think most highly of their own pleasure. In this we face a contradiction that no act of Congress can resolve.
• “Vulgarity,” I explained…”is a word that has more to do with polemics than with the realities of human behavior.”
• For all our moralizing…we have never been the people or the nation we pretended to be. The shyster, the grifter, and the plug-ugly have always been the measure of power here, and they always will.
• Insight was my God when I felt deserted.
• The moral element in the work of William Burroughs is in its very humor…Laughter represents a rebellion against chaos, a rejection of evil, and an affirmation of balance and soundness.
• The earliest and most important lessons we learn concern how to make ourselves at home in a world whose most significant quality if the presence of other people.
• To succeed in its purpose, a painting, a photograph, a poem, or a piece of music must elicit from the observer a certain complicity.
October 11, 2020
I hate to feel so bleh about this book, especially when "Dog Soldiers" is one of the best novels I've ever read, but I don't think nonfiction was Stone's forte. I also read "Prime Green" and was under-impressed. Stone seems to be strongest when he's writing about particular events. There are some strong pieces here about war, especially the war in Vietnam and Stone's early experiences in the Navy, and he can also be good (if wordy) when covering politics. There are a couple pieces here about political conventions that are worthwhile. Stone's writing about his own biography is hit or miss. The biggest difference here between a great essay and a merely competent one may be tone. In one particular piece called "The Way the World Is," Stone begins with an almost conversational tone when discussing his childhood upbringing, and the effect is riveting. Stone is at his worst when he turns didactic. He can be numbingly vague, going on for pages about, say, Catholicism versus secular ethicism. Stone came of age in that era where fiction writers were also public intellectuals, and I think he's eager to show off his acumen in these essays. I think it goes beyond that, though. Stone lived a difficult childhood. His parents separated when he was young in a time when that was uncommon. He was raised by his mother, a schoolteacher, who spent time in a mental asylum. He suffered through periods of homelessness. As the author explains, he received his first recognition in school for being a storyteller. It seemed that Stone went through life trying to prove his intellectualism. He had a chip on his shoulder. It clearly grated on him that he didn't earn a high school degree or attend college. He also name drops a lot of figures who were maybe well-known in the time the essay was written but have since fallen from favor or, more likely, obscure figures meant to show the depth of Stone's reading. Between his childhood, his travels, and his time with the Merry Pranksters, Stone led such a full life, yet this collection lacks that vitality. It's a book put together to show that Stone was a "Great Writer," but I'm not even sure he meant some of these essays for publication. Together, they show an author attuned to the weightiest of preoccupations: war, politics, religion, morality. The editor divides "The Eye You See With" into these themes, with a first section on war, a second on politics, and a third on writing and the role of the writer. While the writing is uniformly good, taken as a whole it can be a bit much for everyone but Stone completists.
February 25, 2025
A collection of nonfiction from the great novelist Robert Stone in which he freely offers his very insightful analysis on, among other things, America, art, Moby Dick, Vietnam, Stephen Crane, Cuba, Graham Greene, the Republican Party (from the 80s, but it looks familiar ), the counterculture (Stone has a membership card, having hung out and tuned out with Ken Kesey), Israel and God. I am a little late to the Robert Stone party. I’m in my sixties, but did not really do a deep dive into his work until about five years ago. I will read whatever he writes wherever I can find it. He is simply brilliant. Like many Americans, I am deeply troubled by the current state of this country. Stone’s nonfiction brought some comfort. Not that Stone offers a path out of this mess. Stone offers the wisdom that it was ever thus. Stone wasn’t alive for the current president’s entry into and destruction of American politics, but I think it is safe to say he knows the type, and has long recognized the contradictions and darkness inherent in the American character. In the human heart. It is getting hard to read the news, but it’s a gift to be able to read Robert Stone.
July 1, 2021
I seem to be on a roll of handing out five stars but this collection of essays from one of my favorite writers is so clear and compelling and funny and sad and serious, not to mention an accurate description of America in the 20th century. I’ve read all his novels, and this reminds me what a pure, clear, moral (in the good way) writer he was.
April 15, 2025
Stone is without peer both in his fiction and essays. This book contains the BEST essays on GOP Conventions, New Orleans, Cocaine, Havana, Graham Greene, Ken Kesey—you name it. There's nobody who writers like Robert Stone.
April 15, 2020
A true self-educated genius. Read everything he's written, he's unique. I met him briefly and he gave me an insight into my own work that I'd never considered. A head slapper. Not always easy to read, but always rewarding.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews