The Taos Truth Game

by Earl Ganz

When Myron Brinig arrived in Taos in 1933, he thought he was just passing through on his way to a screenwriting job in Hollywood. But Brinig fell in love--with the landscape, the burgeoning art colony that centered around Mabel Dodge Luhan, and especially with Cady Wells, a talented young painter who had left his wealthy family in the East to settle in Taos. Brinig remained in the West off and on for the next twenty years. Earl Ganz centers this entertaining novel on Brinig's conflicted relationships with Taos and its denizens. Myron Brinig, a completely forgotten writer, is brought back to center stage, along with many of the people who made Taos the epicenter of the utopian avant garde in America between the world wars. Among the cast of characters are Frieda Lawrence, Robinson and Una Jeffers, and Frank Waters, with cameo appearances by Gertrude Stein and Henry Roth.
" The Taos Truth Game reminds us that Americans have historically romped through the surprisingly wide open recreational reserves of marriage, sexuality, and friendship. Mr. Ganz exposes the daily drama of life in Mabel Dodge Luhan's orbit, and offers a rare look at our queer heritage in the American West that goes beyond the usual footnote or erasure. By weaving this pastiche from a forgotten novelist's memoirs, Mr. Ganz delightfully resurrects the truth game and invites us to play a hand."--Karl Olson, PRIDE Inc., Montana's LGBT advocacy organization
"Earl Ganz pulls off the impossible trick. He raises the famous dead and restores them not just to animated life, but to the full psychological and spiritual life of the living. The Taos Truth Game is a major literary achievement. How Ganz manages to do this is one of fiction writing's enduring and humbling mysteries. This book will have a wide and enthusiastic audience, starting with me."--Rick DeMarinis, author of Apocalypse

332 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

Reviews

[Erastes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book with a little trepidation, I have to admit, because I’d never heard of Myron Brinig–and worse than that, I’d never heard of most of the people mentioned in the book, with the exceptions of D H Lawrence, Nero Wolfe and a couple of others. So I was rather unsettled–was I reading biography? Or fiction? Was I poking my nose into private lives or an imagining of what those lives were like?

Well, it seems it’s a little of both. Earl Ganz discovered Myron Brinig when researching, and found that not only was he a Jewish writer writing at an exciting time–and was labelled with other luminaires as being an up and coming star–but he was a homosexual and that several of his books had that theme. Ganz (as he explains in a lengthly and interesting afterword) became a little obsessed with finding out how this man could have dropped out of the public eye so very completely, after having written books that won awards and in one notable case wase made into Hollywood motion picture – one of them starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn (The Sisters – 1938). He tracked Brining down, now in his 80′s, to New York and went to see him. Brinig gave him a copy of his unpublished memoire, and it is from this memoire that Ganz spun Taos Truth Game.

Once I got past this feeling of voyeurism I settled in and found a book full of lavish prose and wonderful (although none of them really loveable) drawn characters. In essence, the book is hinged on the friendship (if one can even call it that) between Brinig and the frankly unstable Mabel Dodge Luhan, (someone again this ignorant Brit hadn’t heard of) an uneasy feud of a friendship that embraces and lashes out, soothes and damages all in its immediate circle.

Added to this there are Brinig’s relationships with others, his friendships with millionaires and literary luminairies, and his sweet love affair with his “Martian” – the artist Cady Wells which is at times so touching that it made me cry.

The book mainly concentrates from the time that Brinig moves to Taos after an unhappy break-up, to the time when he leaves the area a decade later, although it dips forward and back in time giving a well-rounded picture of the man itself, and nothing really happens of major import, it’s very much centered on personal relationships, literary discussion and the highs and lows of artistic endeavour. The Truth Game itself, although only played once in the book, becomes a central theme and when Brinig and Mabel finally unravel their own truths about themselves, you’ll find yourself calmed and complete as I did.

I won’t say this is an easy read. It’s a book about hugely clever people and about a time of indolence and “private incomes” that is far beyond my ken–but it’s worth every sentence. The writing is incredible, at times as stark as the landscape, at other times witty and erudite and at others cutting, self-destructive and full of vitriol. But to me, this is my best read of 2008 and I’ll be forever wondering how this book was overlooked. If anything deserved a pile of awards, it’s The Taos Truth Game.

I can’t think of any reason not to recommend it. Astounding.

[Tom Ratliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. It actually held my attention and only took me 2 months to read, which says a lot! It is a fictionalized account of Myron Brinig, a gay writer of fiction from the '20's and his love/hate relationship with Mabel something or other, his fag hag. The Taos setting made it sort of exciting (reminiscing our trips there in the past and my wonderful moments in the hot tub with my old man lover)...

[Ddoddmccue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wild ride in the rarified art world of Taos 1920s forward, propelled by the unconventional Mable Dodge Luhan and her pose.

Central to the telling is now forgotten Myron/ Mike Brinig, a talented gay, Jewish novelist noted for his accounts of the immigrant experience in Butte, Montana. 21 novels. One the basis for a hit Bette Davis flick. Ring a bell? Likely not, but this fictionalized tale is based on the facts.

Other collaborators appearing here include the well known ( D H Lawrence, Gertrude Stein, Thomas Wolfe just a few) as well as the several forgotten.

As if this account not sufficiently spellbounding, author Earl Ganz ‘s Afterword shares how he stumbled into Brinig, who he rightly describes as a Forrest Gump of the American literary world. And based this novel based on the memoir provided by the aged Brinig shortly before his death.

While not always a smooth read, the end result is better understanding the influences impacting the arts and the often forgotten who played a significant role.

[Mattilda]

I decided to read this book because of how it’s framed around a “forgotten” gay novelist of the 1930s who was part of the Mabel Dodge Lujan Taos Art colony scene, but oh my the drama -- every famous writer of the period converging on Taos, who knew? I mean I didn’t -- it’s a historical novel, of course, but I do feel like I learned a fair amount about history -- and drama, certainly drama…

[Barbarawiley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like to read about New Mexico and this was set in Mabel Dodge Luhan's heyday. The writing was not particularly captivating and the main thing I remember about it is that Mabel had syphillis.

[Joyce Hertzoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting historical fiction about the art crowd in Taos in the 1930's.

Read for our book club.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay.