
Natural Selection: Gary Giddins on Comedy, Film, Music, and Books by Gary Giddins
By Gary GiddinsNatural Selection: Gary Giddins on Comedy, Film, Music, and Books by Gary Giddins
Long recognized as America's most brilliant jazz writer, the winner of many major awards--including the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award--and author of a highly popular biography of Bing Crosby, Gary Giddins has also produced a wide range of stimulating and original cultural criticism in other fields. With Natural Selection, he brings together the best of these previously uncollected essays, including a few written expressly for this volume.
The range of topics is spellbinding. Writing with insight, humor, and a famously deft touch, he offers sharp-edged perspectives on such diverse subjects as Federico Fellini and Jean Renoir, Norman Mailer and Ralph Ellison, Marlon Brando and Groucho Marx, Duke Ellington and Bob Dylan, horror and noir, the cartoon version of Animal Farm and the comic book series Classics Illustrated. Giddins brings to criticism an uncommon ability, long demonstrated in his music writing, to address in very few words an entire career, so that we get an in-depth portrait of the artist beyond the film, book, or recording under review. For instance, Giddins offers a stunning reappraisal of Doris Day, who he terms "the coolest and sexiest female singer of slow ballads in film history." He argues eloquently for a reconsideration of the forgotten German-language novelist Soma Morgenstern. In a section on comedy, he offers fresh perspectives on the three great silent film stars--Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd--while resurrecting the legendary Jack Benny and reevaluating the controversial Jerry Lewis. There's also a memorable look at Bing Crosby's film career (he calls Crosby's blockbuster Going My Way "a neglected masterpiece") and a close examination of Marcel Carne's beloved Children of Paradise. Of course, Giddins also supplies excellent commentary on jazz: major and underrated figures, and especially the uses of jazz in film.
A wonderful gathering of little-known treasures, Natural Selection will broaden the perception of Gary Giddins as one of our most important cultural critics.
Book details
- Hardcover
- 432 pages
- English
- 019517951X
- 9780195179514
About Gary Giddins
gary giddins was Read More about Gary Giddins
More Books By Gary Giddins
People who bought this also bought
The Ten Types of Human: Who We Are and Who We Can Be book by Dexter Dias
New Book
People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent book by Joseph E. Stiglitz
New Book
The Asian Aspiration: Why and How Africa Should Emulate Asia and What It Should Avoid book by Greg Mills
New Book
SynchroDestiny: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence to Create Miracles book by Deepak Chopra
Used Book
The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham by Esther Hicks
New Book
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 book by Steve Coll
New Book
A Photographic Guide to Snakes, Other Reptiles and Amphibians of East Africa book by William R. Branch
New Book
Topical Memory System: Life Issues, Hide God's Word in Your Heart
Used Book
Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires book by Esther Hicks , Jerry Hicks
New Book
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War book by Drew Gilpin Faust
Used Book
Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease and How to Fight It book by Benjamin Bikman
New Book
The Heart of a Family: Searching America for New Traditions That Fulfill Us book by Meg Cox
Used Book
Talking to Strangers : What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell
New Book
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
New Book
Staffing Europe: An Indispensable Guide to Hiring and Being Hired in the New Europe
Used Book
An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence book by Zeinab Badawi
New Book
The Defining Decade : Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now
New Book