In the Shadow of King Saul
Essays on Silence and Song
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A lyrical autobiography in essays from a celebrated author, honoring outlier artists and other heroes and villains who inspired him
In the New York Review of Books, Joyce Carol Oates expressed her admiration for an equally prolific contemporary: “Among Charyn’s writerly gifts is a dazzling energy. . . . [He is] an exuberant chronicler of the mythos of American life”; the Los Angeles Times described him as “absolutely unique among American writers.” In these ten essays, Charyn shares personal stories about places steeped in history and myth, including his beloved New York, and larger-than-life personalities from the Bible and from the worlds of film, literature, politics, sports, and the author’s own family. Together, writes Charyn, these essays create “my own lyrical autobiography. Several of the selections are about other writers, some celebrated, some forgotten. . . . All of [whom] scalped me in some way, left their mark.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Charyn (A Loaded Gun) presents a deeply personal look at the city, authors, and experiences that have shaped him and his writing. Readers will delight in encountering Charyn's New York City, where "everything is possible because its past is only the future turned upside down," beginning with the Dutch colonists who named it "New Amsterdam" to pretend they had never left home. From his ruminations on seeing classic studio-era films during his South Bronx childhood in the 1940s and '50s to an account of a day spent with Mayor Ed Koch in the mid-'80s, Charyn's prose enchants as he explores the modern individual as a sort of King Saul figure, out of favor with God. He draws a parallel between the biblical ruler, who "did not have the gift of song," and his own father, a Polish immigrant ill at ease with English and America. Charyn views his own writing as "a mute's revenge on a talkative world," crediting Saul Bellow with inspiring not only him but many other Jewish writers to feel that they could join the American literary conversation. Longtime fans and those new to Charyn's work alike will enjoy this distinctive glimpse into one author's influences.
