Daniel’s Reviews > Baldwin: A Love Story > Status Update

2 problems with this book:
a.) length, both overall and the way it's structured
b.) it's not Nolan's Ross Macdonald bio, which I've been dying to read since I reread The Underground Man. Not going to start a second big bio while I've got this one in progress though. (Tho honestly this would go on hold if I did.)

The stuff in this section is largely unfamiliar, so yay. But very wtf about Elia Kazan still hanging around The Actor's Studio with everybody after he traitor'd up Strasberg's wife Paula a few years earlier in the HUAC/McCarthy bullshit era.

why are the chapters in this book sooooooo long? it's exhausting. i just have to keep stopping at random spots.

there's no way i could have read this in 2 weeks as a library loan

I'm not sure this structure is doing the book any favors, and so far my most memorable takeaway is Sol Stein was a CIA propagandist, a tidbit which I don't remember coming across before.

Gotta say, learning about lost novels you'll never get to read is a bit of a downside to literary biographies.

i wish this was a little more precise about when certain things happened, but it is engaging enough for me so far.

back to the Baldwin bio

Enjoying this more than the novel I'm reading, so far.

And we're off to Paris.