Anatole Broyard
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
| Revision as of 16:46, 1 November 2009 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | '''''Pictures of Fidelman''''' is a short story collection by [[Bernard Malamud]], which gathers six stories dealing with Arthur Fidelman, an art student from the [[Bronx]] who travels to Italy, initially to research [[Giotto di Bondone|Giotto]], but also with the hopes of becoming a painter. The collection, published in 1969, includes stories from Malamud's earlier collections ''[[The Magic Barrel]]'' (1958) and ''Idiots First'' (1963), plus three previously unpublished stories. | + | '''Anatole Broyard''' ([[July 16]], [[1920]] – [[October 11]], [[1990]]) was an American literary critic for ''[[The New York Times]]''. In addition to his reviews and columns, he published several books during his lifetime. His autobiographical works ''[[Intoxicated by My Illness]]'' and ''[[Kafka Was the Rage, A Greenwich Village Memoir]]'' were published after his death. |
| + | |||
| + | Since his death, Broyard's Louisiana Creole ethnicity has become a subject of much discussion. Anatole was the second of three children; he and his sister Lorraine, two years older, were fair-skinned, while Shirley, two years younger, was not so fair-skinned. They grew up in an extended Creole community in [[New Orleans]]. His family moved from New Orleans to New York, where they lived in a working-class and mixed-race community in [[Brooklyn]]. | ||
| - | ==The Stories== | + | Coming to professional life after World War II, Broyard was reluctant to discuss his history publicly. Because of this, he was sometimes "accused" of being a black man "[[Passing (racial identity)|passing]]" as white by some who criticized that he did not openly support [[African-American]] causes during the Civil Rights Movement or publicly identify himself as black. He had grown up in a Creole culture, however, that had different characteristics than identifying as black in New York. Broyard did discuss his [[African-American]] ancestry with a variety of friends, who were well aware of it. That he was part-black was well-known in the literary community of New York from the early 1950s, but it was an environment in which people from a variety of backgrounds remade themselves as members of an artistic milieu. |
| - | Aside from Arthur Fidelman, the only character that appears in more than one story is Bessie, his sister, a mother of five living in Levittown, who occasionally sends him money. | + | In 1961, Broyard married Alexandra (Sandy) Nelson, a white woman of Norwegian ancestry, who knew of his background. They had two children, Todd, born in 1964, and [[Bliss Broyard]], born in 1966. (Broyard had previously been married to Aida Sanchez, a [[black history in Puerto Rico|black Puerto Rican]] with whom he had had a daughter Gala, but the couple divorced after Broyard returned from military service in [[World War II]].) The Broyards raised their family in Connecticut. |
| - | ==="The Last Mohican"=== | + | In 1997, the scholar [[Henry Louis Gates]] discussed his view of how Broyard had concealed his [[African-American]] ancestry in an essay in his book ''[[Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man]]'', developed from an article in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' entitled "The Passing of Anatole Broyard." In 2007, Broyard's daughter Bliss published a memoir, ''[[One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life -- A Story of Race and Family Secrets]]'', in which she described her journey of learning about family mysteries. |
| - | First published in ''The Magic Barrel''; Fidelman arrives in Italy and is repeatedly accosted by Shimon Susskind, "a Jewish refugee from Israel." | + | |
| - | ==="Still Life"=== | + | Broyard and the way he dealt with his ethnic background were said to have been the inspiration for the character and situation of Coleman Silk in [[Philip Roth]]'s acclaimed novel ''[[The Human Stain]]''. Roth however states there is no connection as he only learned about Broyard having African-American ancestry from a ''New Yorker'' article published months after he started writing the novel. |
| - | First published in ''Idiots First''; Fidelman moves into a studio with Annamaria Oliovino, whom he is attracted to though she repeatedly mistreats him. | + | |
| - | ==="Naked Nude"=== | + | Broyard's cause of death was prostate cancer, diagnosed in 1989. |
| - | First published in ''Idiots First''; Fidelman finds himself working as a toilet-scrubber in a whorehouse, at the mercy Scarpio and Angelo, who convince him to forge [[Titian]]'s [[Venus of Urbino]] in exchange for his freedom. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==="A Pimp's Revenge"=== | + | |
| - | Fidelman tries to complete a painting that has tormented him for years, of himself and his mother, and though he finally manages to create a masterpiece, it does not convey what he had hoped it would. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==="Pictures of the Artist"=== | + | |
| - | Fidelman's [[stream-of-consciousness]], heavy with quotations, revealing his thoughts about life, art, and truth. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==="Glass Blower of Venice"=== | + | |
| - | Fidelman learns about love and glass blowing, and finally returns to America. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==Reception== | + | |
| - | When the book came out [[Anatole Broyard]] of [[The New York Times]] compared it unfavorably to Malamud's previous book, ''[[The Assistant (novel)|The Assistant]]'': | + | |
| - | <blockquote> | + | |
| - | What [Malamud] has done in ''Pictures of Fidelman'' is to reverse the principle of his most successful book, ''The Assistant''. There he thrust an Italian, Frank Alpine, into the thick texture of Jewish life, where he functioned as a kind of perspective by incongruity, a green pepper in the chicken fat. Now Fidelman, a "Classical" Jew from the Bronx, is put down in Italy presumably for the same purpose.<br>But where Alpine learned the nobility of suffering from the Jew, Fidelman learns, as far as one can discover, nothing but pimping, glass blowing and sodomy from the Italians. And perhaps it is this poor return for his years of expatriation the robs ''Pictures of Fidelman'' of the moral breadth, the grand lugubriousness, that distinguishes Malamud's best stories. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | </blockquote> | + | |
| - | Broyard concludes that "Malamud is too talented a writer not to make this book a joy in many of its details. But there are too many unanswered questions, too many glib capitulations to the modern canon, which absolves the author of all responsibility for his stories." | + | |
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Current revision
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Anatole Broyard (July 16, 1920 – October 11, 1990) was an American literary critic for The New York Times. In addition to his reviews and columns, he published several books during his lifetime. His autobiographical works Intoxicated by My Illness and Kafka Was the Rage, A Greenwich Village Memoir were published after his death.
Since his death, Broyard's Louisiana Creole ethnicity has become a subject of much discussion. Anatole was the second of three children; he and his sister Lorraine, two years older, were fair-skinned, while Shirley, two years younger, was not so fair-skinned. They grew up in an extended Creole community in New Orleans. His family moved from New Orleans to New York, where they lived in a working-class and mixed-race community in Brooklyn.
Coming to professional life after World War II, Broyard was reluctant to discuss his history publicly. Because of this, he was sometimes "accused" of being a black man "passing" as white by some who criticized that he did not openly support African-American causes during the Civil Rights Movement or publicly identify himself as black. He had grown up in a Creole culture, however, that had different characteristics than identifying as black in New York. Broyard did discuss his African-American ancestry with a variety of friends, who were well aware of it. That he was part-black was well-known in the literary community of New York from the early 1950s, but it was an environment in which people from a variety of backgrounds remade themselves as members of an artistic milieu.
In 1961, Broyard married Alexandra (Sandy) Nelson, a white woman of Norwegian ancestry, who knew of his background. They had two children, Todd, born in 1964, and Bliss Broyard, born in 1966. (Broyard had previously been married to Aida Sanchez, a black Puerto Rican with whom he had had a daughter Gala, but the couple divorced after Broyard returned from military service in World War II.) The Broyards raised their family in Connecticut.
In 1997, the scholar Henry Louis Gates discussed his view of how Broyard had concealed his African-American ancestry in an essay in his book Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man, developed from an article in The New Yorker entitled "The Passing of Anatole Broyard." In 2007, Broyard's daughter Bliss published a memoir, One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life -- A Story of Race and Family Secrets, in which she described her journey of learning about family mysteries.
Broyard and the way he dealt with his ethnic background were said to have been the inspiration for the character and situation of Coleman Silk in Philip Roth's acclaimed novel The Human Stain. Roth however states there is no connection as he only learned about Broyard having African-American ancestry from a New Yorker article published months after he started writing the novel.
Broyard's cause of death was prostate cancer, diagnosed in 1989.
