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Portrait of My Body
by Phillip Lopate
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Anchor (1997-09-15)
ISBN: 0385483775
EAN: 9780385483773
Binding/Media: Paperback - 336 pages
Release Date: 1997-09-15
SKU: 06011
Condition: Collectible: Good
Comments: SIGNED and inscribed by author. Crease on spine, some edge wear.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Phillip Lopate's richest and most ambitious book yet--the final volume of a trilogy that began with Bachelorhood and Against Joie de Vivre--Portrait of My Body is a powerful memoir in the form of interconnected personal essays. One of America's foremost essayists, who helped focus attention on the form in his acclaimed anthology The Art of the Personal Essay, Lopate demonstrates here just how far a writer can go in the direction of honesty and risk taking.
In thirteen essays, Lopate explores the resources and limits of the self, its many disguises, excuses, and unmaskings, with his characteristic wry humor and insight. From the title essay, a hilarious physical self-exam, to the haunting portrait of his ex-colleague Donald Barthelme, to the bittersweet account of his long-delayed surrender to marriage, "On Leaving Bachelorhood," Lopate wrestles with finding the proper balance between detachment and empathy, doubt and conviction. In other essays, he celebrates his love of film and city life, and reflects on his religious identity as a Jew. A wrenchingly vivid, unforgettable portrait of the author's eccentric, solipsistic, aged father, a self-proclaimed failure, is the centerpiece of a suite of essays about father-figures and resisted mentors. The book ends with the author's own introduction to fatherhood, as witness to the birth of his daughter.
A book that will engage readers with its conversational eloquence, skeptical intelligence, candor, and mischief, Portrait of My Body is a captivating work of literary nonfiction.
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Amazon.com Review
"If one is at all refined, unique, idiosyncratic, then finding a companion to match one's temperament, interests, and amatory tastes is not an easy matter, whether one is man or woman, gay or straight," writes Philip Lopate in the essay "On Leaving Bachelorhood," as he attempts to explain why he remained single for 21 years before embarking on a second marriage. The same may be true for authors trying to find readers. In the introduction to Portrait of My Body he acknowledges that "In first-person writing, there is a thin line between the charming and the insufferable." In these 13 essays, Lopate definitely treads that thin line. Although he flirts shamelessly with insufferable, in the end he just manages to fall on the side of charming.
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