Patrick White, winner of the Nobel Prize and author of more than a dozen novels and plays – including Voss, The Vivisector and The Twyborn Affair – lived an extraordinary life. David Marr’s brilliant biography draws not only on a wide range of original research but also on the single most difficult and important source of all: the man himself. In the weeks before his death, White read the final manuscript, which for richness of detail, authority and balance is stunning.
Throughout his exciting narrative, Marr explores the roots of White’s writing and unearths the raw material of his remarkable art. He makes plain the central fact of White’s life as an artist: the homosexuality that formed his view of himself as an outcast and stranger able to penetrate the hearts of both men and women. Gracefully written and exhaustively researched, Patrick White is a biography of classic excellence – sympathetic, objective, penetrating and as blunt, when necessary, as White himself.
Reviews:
God, I loved this book.
I’ve only read two or three of Patrick White’s novels, but even ‘The Tree of Man’ alone would have been enough to draw me to the life of the genius who created it. I rarely read non-fiction, and even more rarely biography (obviously). It could be that this is only the second literary biography I’ve read – the other that I can recall being Edmund White’s ‘Genet’. The commonality between the two is that they are about great writers written by great writers. Both books are impeccably written, and exhaustive. the difference being that ‘Genet’ was exhausting, whereas ‘Patrick White: A Life’ is simply riveting. That’s as much to do with me and my interests as it is to do with the quality of either of the books.
I’ve only read two or three of Patrick White’s novels, but even ‘The Tree of Man’ alone would have been enough to draw me to the life of the genius who created it. I rarely read non-fiction, and even more rarely biography (obviously). It could be that this is only the second literary biography I’ve read – the other that I can recall being Edmund White’s ‘Genet’. The commonality between the two is that they are about great writers written by great writers. Both books are impeccably written, and exhaustive. the difference being that ‘Genet’ was exhausting, whereas ‘Patrick White: A Life’ is simply riveting. That’s as much to do with me and my interests as it is to do with the quality of either of the books.
It’s not surprising that Patrick White is such a genuinely complex man, but it is very satisfying to come across a character who is as fascinating as any that leaped from his pen. The thing that excited me the most was his evolution as a man, both politically and spiritually. The idea of someone so clearly blessed with brilliance learning and adapting and changing over a lifetime is exceedingly exciting. That the art, but not the artist, can be fully formed at any given time. I found the great questions of my life reflected in Patrick White’s, and this is not to say that I am comparing myself to him in any way other than that greatness does not endow one with all the answers, and that life remains a beautiful mystery to us all, and in that we are equal. – Scott (Goodreads)
Hardcover
Condition: good used condition. Some scuffing on dust jacket. Inscription inside to someone.
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