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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Archives for January 24, 2004

TT: Blogged out

January 24, 2004 by Terry Teachout

I’ve written too much this week, here and elsewhere, and I’m not done yet, alas: I’ll be going to New York City Ballet this afternoon to see Double Feature, Susan Stroman’s new full-evening pop-music ballet, after which I intend to finish another chapter of my Balanchine book, or cry trying. So no more posts until Sunday, if then.


Later.

TT: Off duty

January 24, 2004 by Terry Teachout

A reader writes:

You have indicated that you delight in the works of Patrick O’Brian. Are you also a fan of P.G. Wodehouse? E.F. Benson? Saki? R. F.
Delderfield?


When the world is getting you down, and you want total comfort reading, who or what do you turn to?


I asked this question at a gathering of friends this weekend and half the people there said “Winnie The Pooh”. For me, it’s either Arthur Ransome (of “Swallows & Amazons” fame – a must read, must must read! “Grab a chance and you won’t be sorry for a might have been!”) or children’s books I remember fondly.

This is a wonderful question, one nobody has ever asked me, so I’m answering it fresh, straight off the top of my head. I like Saki well enough but have never been able to connect with Benson, and I’ve never read anything by Delderfield. When I feel the need for “total comfort reading” (a nice phrase), I typically turn to


(1) O’Brian, whose Aubrey/Maturin novels I just finished rereading in their entirety


(2) Wodehouse, usually the Jeeves novels (I don’t like the short stories nearly as much)


(3) Anthony Trollope


(4) Raymond Chandler


(5) Rex Stout


(6) Donald E. Westlake’s Dortmunder and Parker crime novels (the latter are written under the pseudonym “Richard Stark”)


(7) William Haggard’s Colonel Russell political thrillers–virtually unknown in this country, alas, but I own them all


(8) Barbara Pym


(9) Jon Hassler


(10) Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time

In addition, I find it relaxing to revisit familiar books about music–preferably biographies. I’ve no idea why.


This is not to say, by the way, that I necessarily view these writers as somehow unserious. Stout and Westlake, yes–they’re pure entertainers, albeit of a high class–but Haggard’s cold-eyed view of the world is anything but frivolous, while the others (including Chandler and Wodehouse) can certainly stand up to close critical scrutiny.


What about you, OGIC? Which books reset your overheated brain to a nice mild simmer?

TT: Almanac

January 24, 2004 by Terry Teachout

“Never have men had so many reasons to cease killing one another. Never have they had so many reasons to feel they are joined together in one great enterprise. I do not conclude that the age of universal history will be peaceful. We know that man is a reasonable being. But men?”


Raymond Aron, “The Dawn of Universal History”

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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