Review
Placidly whimsical observations by the ever-charming Crisp (Manners from Heaven, 1985, etc.) on his occasion-filled life as "a free-loader, a dilettante, a butterfly on the wheel." Crisp writes reviews and essays, attends openings and parties, and entertains anyone who wishes to hear his opinions, from curious strangers to lecture-hall audiences. Here he tells us briefly about the books he read, plays and movies he attended, and other things he was invited to do from 1990 to 1994. These diaries, far from being especially intimate, are culled from a regular column he wrote for the New York Native. The 86-year-old author, an expatriate Briton, would have it that his urbane facade is all there is, that no unknown quirks of personality lurk beneath his flamboyantly gay, superhumanly gracious, and baroquely eloquent public persona. When a stranger calls him at his Manhattan rooming house to request a meeting, says Crisp, "Whenever possible, I comply with his or her request on the principle that we should never say no to anything except an appeal for money." (He's listed in the phone book, so this happens rather often.) He acted as an extra in the film Philadelphia and played Queen Elizabeth I in Orlando, an experience he describes entirely as a war of endurance against his unwieldy costume. He made numerous trips around the country in order to give lectures and to promote a documentary about himself, Resident Alien; the author's pronouncements on the virtues of his adopted compatriots suggest that he is among the most generous-minded people alive. His wit is often mordant, which saves him from utter preciosity: "I have always liked death, especially other people's death, but have recently been contemplating my own with a certain amount of relish." Admirers of the trademark Crisp style will be delighted, but it's difficult to fathom how he endures the relentless superficiality of much of his existence. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
The magnificently witty diaries of ‘one of the great stately homos of England’, covering his recent years in New York City – a transatlantic Alan Bennett.
The diaries of Quentin Crisp, a well-known homosexual, giving his views on politics, prejudice and human nature.
From the Back Cover
"Wit gleams from most of the entries, in which observations about English and American manners, varieties of gayness, and the pretensions of culture, accompany merry anecdotes about films, television, society functions, and the unfailingly bizarre strangers whom Crisp attracts"
HAL JENSEN, 'Times Literary Supplement'
"As charming and witty as you would expect. A delight"
TIM HAIGH, 'Independent on Sunday'
"We need more 'sissies' like Quentin Crisp, people who describe the absurdities of modern life with lovely words and a dearth of sharp edges. There's never a dull moment in these diaries"
TOM HIBBERT, 'Mail on Sunday'
"His sentences enshrine a personality. They are as short, as apparently casual and as deftly applied as the stroke of an eyebrow pencil… A wonderful and infuriating and entertaining book"
NEIL BARTLETT, 'Observer'
"Quentin Crisp can lay claim to be one of the wittiest men alive … an endless source of diverting, penetrating and hilarious views on life and these delightful diaries … are the perfect anecdote to a fit of the blues. Read them and marvel"
WILLIAM RUSSELL, 'Glasgow Herald'
"A man born to sculpt aphorisms, Crisp trots them out as easily as most of us blink. They glitter through his writing, oases of charm"
ROSEMARY GORING, 'Scotland on Sunday'
"Quentin Crisp is an extraordinary figure, living his life fully according to his lights and making people happier than they might otherwise have been"
CLEMENT CRISP, 'Financial Times'
"A truly unique insight into American life. Marvellous stuff"
ESQUIRE
