Irwin Shaw

by Michael Shnayerson

This study of the life of Irwin Shaw is the result of hundreds of interviews with people who knew Shaw, who was celebrated both for his talent as a writer and his colorful personality

Genres: Biography

447 pages, Hardcover

First published August 11, 1989

Reviews

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough, and written in workmanlike prose, with almost no long quotations from Shaw's books and stories. Shnayerson details Shaw's less admirable qualities (those you'd find in, say, a neighbour or family member, or oneself) that are highlighted by the amount of money he made from many of his books (and from adaptations of them for the big and small screens). High in craft and possessed by (or of) one major idea (life is all accident), Shaw lives up to the billing as a minor writer of historical interest (The Young Lions) and, at times, as a hack commercial fiction writer.

Shaw is yet another male writer who, in old age, is known for being able to tell stories for hours. No biography I've read so far has ever said of a tired "old lion" (a disservice to lions) that he was able to listen for hours. (There's no virtue in being a monologist to people sitting around you in social settings unless you're being paid as a storyteller or comedian.) The historical and social contexts of Shaw's life in paris, switzerland, the hamptons, and new york are well done.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked "Rich Man, Poor Man" and a couple of short stories by Irwin Shaw. So, I read this biography of Shaw by Schnayerson, unsure as to whether Shaw belonged in the pantheon of great American writers. Schnayerson made me much more aware of the range of Shaw, who hobnobbed with the glitterati of the time and went head to head with the tough writers of that era like Hemingway, who admitted to Irwin's superior skill at boxing. for example. You can tell that Shaw worked hard at his craft and having been a newspaper reporter, like his sparring partner, he could work in tight spaces. In a way, he reminds me of another contemporary of his--Sloan Wilson, who wrote what he knew, slogged on, and gave us fine entertainment. I might re-read this biography; but I will definitely go into my library and pull out a novel or short stories by Irwin Shaw.