She struggled to fund research and travel, balance her obligations as a wife and mother, and write. With humiliating candor, she admitted to a complete ignorance of how to write a biography when she approached Beckett in 1971 and obtained his promise to “neither help nor hinder you.” Interviewing those in his social circle, Bair discovered that by “compartmentalizing people,” Beckett pitted them against each other, each currying favor and reporting back to him on her research. If you enjoy reading about things literary consider this book.By turns scholarly and salacious, biographer Bair ( Samuel Beckett) has loosened decades of polite tongue-biting to write the backstory in what she calls a “bio-memoir” of two influential writers. She is honest about her personal life and candid about her relationships with Beckett and de Beauvoir. Her life was busy, complicated, and at times downright frustrating.īair’s writing style is engaging and the book at times reads like a novel. Throughout all this Bair describes managing the projects in the midst of her personal life: getting a PhD, finding an academic position, the politics of getting tenure, and giving proper attention to her husband and children. While Bair’s relationship with Beckett remained strictly professional her work with de Beauvoir was complicated by Bair’s admiration for de Beauvoir’s feminist philosophy. Beauvoir was fully cooperative but could be difficult to work with at times. What they had in common was that both individuals lived in Paris, and she made frequent trips there to work on both books.īeckett was interesting because he told Bair that he would “neither help nor hinder” her efforts, yet he seemed to track her every move as she interviewed friends, relatives, and associates. Kindle edition $14.99, Amazon hardcover $21.99ĭeirdre Bair has written several biographies, but two of her best known and most highly regarded works were her studies of Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir. Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me: A Memoir Parisian Lives Posted: | Author: Mike Christie | Filed under: Books | Leave a comment
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