Word: shaw
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When he was old and rich, Shaw wrote poorly, at least according to critical consensus. The only horizon his mighty best seller Rich Man, Poor Man expanded was that of the television mini-series. And the rest of his late work inspired little beyond envy of the author's expensive expatriate life, which the work subsidized...
...possible that if Shaw had imagined his life instead of living it, he might have turned it into another best seller. As Michael Shnayerson's admirably researched and readable biography demonstrates, the story has all the elements of a good airplane read: an energetic and engaging protagonist who transcends humble Brooklyn Jewish origins to become a symbol of his generation's promise before he is 30; war years in which he serves as a member of a dashing documentary-film unit, enabling him to meet all the right people from Cairo to London and to see just enough action...
...IRWIN SHAW: A BIOGRAPHY...
When he was young and poor, Irwin Shaw wrote well. His first play, Bury the Dead, was an emblematic work of social- protest theater in the 1930s. His lyrically realistic New Yorker short stories in the same era expanded the form's horizons, and, because he made it look easy -- almost fun -- to be so good, they became inspiring, formative experiences for several generations of writers...
Shnayerson, one of those rare, lucky biographers who are able to maintain affection for their subjects throughout, mounts a spirited but finally too conventional defense of Shaw's late work and life. The prose was always better than that of Judith Krantz and her ilk, Shnayerson notes, even in the most improbable tales. Moreover, he argues, the glittering "sweep" of these 71 years in themselves represents an artful construction, worthy of the sometimes numbing detail with which he recites old guest lists...