Geoff Dyer shares the details of his life, which are too ordinary to be taken for granted
Geoff Dyer shares the details of his life, which are too ordinary to be taken for granted
Nobel laureate Annie Arnoux is the Grand Dame of auto fiction, writings that give a narrative form to the story of one’s life. Perhaps Geoff Dyer, a personal favorite, could be said to write auto non-fiction, a genre distinct from memoir or autobiography where the author uses personal experience to tell stories outside of himself. does.
no one reading dior’s brilliant out of angerOne must wonder why a book about not writing on D.H. Lawrence is his latest, Roger Federer’s Last Days Tennis is great but very little. Some writers linger with Dyer’s certainty, some trust the reader so much that they forgive their occasional redundancies, some sing their sentences with the same harmony.
Dyer could neither write a book on Lawrence nor turn away from him. “One reason, in fact, it was impossible to start on a Lawrence book or novel because of where I wanted to live. I could live anywhere, I only had to make a choice – but it was impossible to choose because I could live anywhere,” He wrote, “Election is terror.
the last days From Nietzsche and Turner, Beethoven and Kerouac to Dylan, all signposts are about the final days of creative geniuses in the lives of Dior. Our lives are in some way or the other part of the lives of even those who do not know that we exist.
Dyer shares the details of his life, which are taken for granted, even ordinary. He steals the shampoo from the hotel bathroom. And uses that weirdness to write itself off. “That’s the whole point – and the justification for it – to write about yourself,” he says, “sincerely, and with enough rigor, it never happens. right now About you.” Is the shocking depth of what a writer Zady Smith calls “a national treasure,” or a self-indulgent justification? Never mind. It’s funny.
The book sometimes read like notes for a series of other books, each of which Dyer is able to write with authority and charm. The pages are full of wit and information, and are picked up with unexpected connections and sharp insights into the general literature. It is fascinating and enigmatic.
The enthusiasm of many of these most interesting writers has seen them write books on jazz and photography while watching the film. where Eagles Dare and the work of John Berger, on modern art and travel, on war and remembrance and essays on even more subjects. And yes, there are novels too.
“After a stage in a man’s life it is imperative that he retain some remnants of how he sees the world at the age of 14,” writes 64-year-old Dyer. Maybe this is his secret.
Arnox once said, “The time ahead of me gets shorter. There will inevitably be one last book, for there is always one last lover, the last spring, but there is no sign by which to know.” . The message of the auto-fiction genius is breathed in by the auto non-fiction one.
(Suresh Menon is the Contributing Editor, The Hindu).