Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Although this is the second volume of Burgess's autobiographical confessions (with an authorial nod to St. Augustine and Rousseau), it stands on its own. (The first volume was Little Wilson and Big God , LJ 2/15/87.) Covering the years from 1959 to 1982, Burgess has his say on life as a language-obsessed novelist and critic and also takes the opportunity to respond vociferously to his critics. He moves around the world at a blurring pace, writing and translating fiction, drama, and poetry while experiencing the machinations of an alcoholic marriage and the appearance of a former lover/future wife seemingly out of nowhere with his heretofore unknown son. Especially fascinating and lively are his accounts of the creation of the book and the film of A Clockwork Or ange and his translation of Cyrano de Ber gerac . Highly recommended.-- Janice Braun, Medical Historical Lib., Yale Univ. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Burgess returned home to England from Malaya in 1959 to a medical diagnosis that he had less than a year to live. He turned himself into a ``busy hack'' to earn royalties for his wife Lynne, whose suicide attempt and subsequent death from alcoholic cirrhosis left him with deep-seated guilt. His hectic writing life, ``an agony mitigated by drink,'' was uplifted in 1968 when he married his Italian mistress Liana Macellari, who had borne him a son five years earlier. With disarming candor and coruscating wit, the prolific novelist-critic discusses his distaste for the Beatles and the swinging '60s, the writing and filming of A Clockwork Orange , his peripatetic existence from Singapore to Manhattan, the ordeal of teaching and a roller-coaster career that often left him ``too much in the paws of producers and directors.'' While it lacks the soul-searching urgency of his first autobiographical installment Little Wilson and Big God , this self-portrait is nevertheless a joy to read. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Anthony Burgess's second memoir--the first was Little Wilson and Big God (CH, Sep'87) and one volume is still to appear--begins in 1959, when British physicians wrongly told him that a brain tumor gave him one year to live. This volume focuses on his frenetic, prolific literary output to provide financial security for his family, and it continues through 1982. His remarks about the writing and reception of A Clockwork Orange are particularly fascinating and his detailed descriptions of his troubled first wife's alcoholic death, his happy second marriage, and the birth of his son are touching. Though Burgess reflects on his unhappy stints writing Hollywood scripts and teaching at various American universities, he also sensitively ponders the causes of violence and doctrines that he as a self-described lapsed Roman Catholic cannot completely reject. He is especially good in detailing his alternate career as a talented composer and his dexterity in translating numerous languages. However, incessant financial woes, which require that, as a "busy hack," he write to order on almost any subject--he once used a pseudonym to review one of his own novels--cannot but sound depressing. Though this memoir focuses less on Burgess's erotic life than its predecessor, it is equally candid on more significant levels and offers a more settled picture of Burgess the man than the first volume. Highly recommended for its insights into the complex thinking of a major writer. -P. Schlueter, Warren County Community College

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Anthony Burgess was born in 1917 in Manchester, England. He studied language at Xaverian College and Manchester University. He had originally applied for a degree in music, but was unable to pass the entrance exams. Burgess considered himself a composer first, one who later turned to literature.

Burgess' first novel, A Vision of Battlements (1964), was based on his experiences serving in the British Army. He is perhaps best known for his novel A Clockwork Orange, which was later made into a movie by Stanley Kubrick. In addition to publishing several works of fiction, Burgess also published literary criticism and a linguistics primer. Some of his other titles include The Pianoplayers, This Man and Music, Enderby, The Kingdom of the Wicked, and Little Wilson and Big God.

Burgess was living in Monaco when he died in 1993.

(Bowker Author Biography)