Description

Book Synopsis
In this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, Robert Christgau shows readers a different side to his esteemed career with reviews of books ranging from musical autobiographies, criticism, and histories to novels, literary memoirs, and cultural theory.

Trade Review
"[A] substantial collection of nearly 100 eclectic, thought-provoking, and idea-laden book reviews. . . . [Christgau's] range of topics is impressive, and his references are prolific. These sprightly, highly opinionated 'adventures of an autodidact' reveal Christgau to be a highly literate, astute, and discerning book critic." * Kirkus Reviews *
"Christgau mostly writes on books by or about notable musicians, though he hits other cultural touchstones too, such as George Orwell’s 1984. It’s in these nonmusic pieces that Christgau is most successful, shifting focus from his encyclopedic music-industry knowledge to the nuances of language. His essay on books about the 2008 financial crisis is a highlight." * Publishers Weekly *
"There are few critics working today with the life-long commitment, focus, and curiosity of Robert Christgau. Book Reports doesn't scan the over half-century of the man's work, and that's what makes it all the more impressive. He's still searching, still pulling volumes from the shelves, looking at new or old ideas, cracking open the spines of preconceived notions all in the service of taking just one more look before walking away with the promise of yet another return." -- Christopher John Stephens * Popmatters *
"For Christgau fans and anyone seeking thought-provoking musings on books and music." -- Melissa Engleman * Library Journal *
"One reads Christgau for Christgau as much as for the subject of his work." -- Jeff Tamarkin * Mojo *
"Though Christgau partisans have the most to gain from this collection, it’s also good for anyone looking for an accessible way into his extensive oeuvre." -- Chad Comello * Booklist *
"Christgau is . . . one of America’s sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly one of its most influential—not to mention one of the better stylists in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why." -- David Cantwell * The New Yorker *
"Though not everyone will agree with Christgau’s views (this reader certainly did not), all readers will likely appreciate his style and approach and the depth of his knowledge about a broad range of popular music. Those curious about popular music may find Christgau's style aggressive at times, but that is exactly the point; Christgau pushes the reader to think. Seasoned readers will discover that Christgau questions authors in a way that encourages one to evaluate a book at a deeper level. In short, this is a great read for fans, critics, and scholars alike." -- T. R. Harrison * Choice *

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
I. Collectibles
The Informer: John Leonard's When the Kissing Had to Stop 11
Advertisements for Everybody Else: Jonathan Lethem's The Ecstasy of Influence 14
Democratic Vistas: Dave Hickey's Air Guitar 17
II. From Blackface Minstrelsy to Track-and-Hook
In Search of Jim Crow: Why Postmodern Minstrelsy Studies Matter 23
The Old Ethiopians at Home: Ken Emerson's Doo-Dah! 40
Before the Blues: David Wondrich's Stomp and Swerve 43
Rhythms of the Universe: Ned Sublette's Cuba and Its Music 46
Black Melting Pot: David B. Coplan's In Township Tonight! 49
Bwana-Acolyte in the Favor Bank: Banning Eyre's In Griot Time 56
In the Crucible of the Party: Charles and Angelilki Keil's Bright Balkan Morning 59
Defining the Folk: Benjamin Filene's Romancing the Folk 64
Folking Around: David Hajdu's Positively 4th Street 67
Punk Lives: Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's Please Kill Me 70
Biography of a Corporation: Nelson George's Where Did Our Love Go? 72
Hip-Hop Faces the World: Steven Hager's Hip Hop; David Toop's The Rap Attack; and Nelson George, Sally Banes, Susan Flinker, and Patty Romanowski's Fresh 75
Making Out Like Gangsters: Preston Lauterbach's The Chitlin' Circuit, Dan Charnas's The Big Payback, Ice-T's Ice, and Tommy James's Me, the Mob, and Music 80
Money Isn't Everything: Fred Goodman's The Mansion on the Hill 86
Mapping the Earworm's Genome: John Seabrook's The Song Machine 89
III. Critical Practice
Beyond the Symphonic Quest: Susan McClary's Feminine Endings 97
All the Tune Family: Peter van der Merwe's Origins of the Popular Style 100
Bel Cantos: Henry Pleasant's The Great American Popular Singers 102
The Country and the City: Charlie Gillett's The Sound of the City 109
Reflections of an Aging Rock Critic: Jon Landau's It's Too Late to Stop Now 115
Pioneer Days: Kevin Avery's Everything Is an Afterthought and Nona Willis Aronowitz's (ed.) Out of the Vinyl Deeps 117
Impolite Discourse: Jim Derogatis's Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer's A Whore Jus Like the Rest, and Nick Tosches's The Nick Torches Reader 123
Journalism and/or Criticism and/or Musicology and/or Sociology (and/or Writing): Simon Firth 129
Serious Music: Robert Walser's Running With the Devil 137
Fifteen Minutes of . . . : William York's Who's Who in Rock Music 139
The Fanzine Worldview, Alphabetized: Ira A. Robbins's (ed.) Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records 140
Awesome: Simon Reynolds's Blissed Out 143
Ingenuousness Lost: James Miller's Flowers in the Dustbin 147
Rock Criticism Lives: Jessica Hopper's The Fist Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic 151
Emo Meets Trayvon Martin: Hanif Abdurraquib's They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us 156
IV. Lives in Music Inside and Out
Great Book of Fire: Nick Tosches's Hellfire and Robert Palmer's Jerry Lee Lewis Rocks! 163
That Bad Man, Tough Old Huddie Ledbetter: Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell's The Life and Legend of Leadbelly 169
The Impenetrable Heroism of Sam Cooke: Peter Guralnick's Dream Boogie 171
Bobby and Dave: Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One and Dave Van Ronk's The Mayor of MacDougal Street 178
Tell All: Ed Sanders's Fug You and Samuel R. Delany's The Motion of Light in Water 180
King of the Thrillseekers: Richard Hell's I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp 185
Lives Saved, Lives Lost: Carrie Brownstein's Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl and Patti Smith's M Train 189
The Cynic and the Bloke: Rod Stewart's Rod: The Autobiography and Donald Fagen's Eminent Hipsters 194
His Own Shaman: RJ Smith's The One 199
Spotlight on the Queen: David Ritz's Respect 201
The Realist Thing You've Ever Seen: Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run 205
V. Fictions
Writing for the People: George Orwell's 1984 213
A Classic Illustrated: R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis 217
The Hippie Grows Older: Richard Brautigan's Sombrero Fallout 222
Comic Gurdjieffianism You Can Masturbate To: Marco Vassis' Mind Blower 224
Porn Yesterday: Walter Kendrick's The Secret Museum 225
What Pretentious White Men Are Good For: Robert Coover's Gerald's Party 230
Impoverished How, Exactly? Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors 236
Sustainable Romance: Norman Rush's Mortals 237
Derrnig-Do Scrapping By: Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue 240
Futures by the Dozen: Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire 245
YA Poet of the Massa Woods: Sandra Newman's The Country of Ice Cream Star 248
A Darker Shade of Noir: The Indefatigable Walter Mosley 252
VI. Bohemia Meets Hegemony
Épatant le Bourgeoisie: Jerrold Seigel's Bohemian Paris and T. J. Clark's The Painting of Modern Life 263
The Village People: Christine Stansell's American Moderns 278
A Slender Hope for Salvation: Charles Reich's The Greening of America 280
The Lumpenhippie Guru: Ed Sanders's The Family 285
Strait Are the Gates: Morris Dickstein's Gates of Eden 289
The Little Counterculture That Could: Carol Brightman's Sweet Chaos 293
The Pop-Boho Connection, Narrativized: Bernard F. Gendron's Between Montmarte and the Mudd Club 297
Cursed and Sainted Seekers of the Sexual Century: John Heidenry's What Wild Ecstasy 301
Bohemias Lost and Found: Ross Wetzsteon's Republic of Dreams, Richard Kostelanetz's SoHo, and Richard Lloyd's Neo-Bohemia 304
Autobiography of a Pain in the Neck: Meredith Maran's What It's Like to Live Now 309
VII. Culture Meets Capital
Twentieth Century Limited: Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts into Air 315
Dialectical Cricket: C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary 320
Radical Pluralist: Andrew Ross's No Respect 323
Inside the Prosex Wars: Nadine Strossen's Defending Pornography, Joanna Frueh's Eroctic Faculties, and Lara Kipnis's Bound and Gagged 327
Growing Up Kept Down: William Finnegan's Cold New World 331
Jesus Plus the Capitalist Order: Jeff Sharlet's The Family 334
Dark Night of the Quants: Ten Books About the Financial Crisis 338
They Bet Your Life: Four Books About Hedge Funds 345
Living in a Material World: Raymond Williams's Long Revolution 350
With a God on His Side: Terry Eagleton's Culture and the Death of God, Culture, and Materialism 369
My Friend Marshall: Marshall Berman's Modernism in the Streets 374
Index 381

Book Reports

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A Hardback by Robert Christgau

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    View other formats and editions of Book Reports by Robert Christgau

    Publisher: Duke University Press
    Publication Date: 03/05/2019
    ISBN13: 9781478000112, 978-1478000112
    ISBN10: 1478000112
    Also in:
    Literary companions, book reviews and guides Music reviews and criticism

    Description

    Book Synopsis
    In this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, Robert Christgau shows readers a different side to his esteemed career with reviews of books ranging from musical autobiographies, criticism, and histories to novels, literary memoirs, and cultural theory.

    Trade Review
    "[A] substantial collection of nearly 100 eclectic, thought-provoking, and idea-laden book reviews. . . . [Christgau's] range of topics is impressive, and his references are prolific. These sprightly, highly opinionated 'adventures of an autodidact' reveal Christgau to be a highly literate, astute, and discerning book critic." * Kirkus Reviews *
    "Christgau mostly writes on books by or about notable musicians, though he hits other cultural touchstones too, such as George Orwell’s 1984. It’s in these nonmusic pieces that Christgau is most successful, shifting focus from his encyclopedic music-industry knowledge to the nuances of language. His essay on books about the 2008 financial crisis is a highlight." * Publishers Weekly *
    "There are few critics working today with the life-long commitment, focus, and curiosity of Robert Christgau. Book Reports doesn't scan the over half-century of the man's work, and that's what makes it all the more impressive. He's still searching, still pulling volumes from the shelves, looking at new or old ideas, cracking open the spines of preconceived notions all in the service of taking just one more look before walking away with the promise of yet another return." -- Christopher John Stephens * Popmatters *
    "For Christgau fans and anyone seeking thought-provoking musings on books and music." -- Melissa Engleman * Library Journal *
    "One reads Christgau for Christgau as much as for the subject of his work." -- Jeff Tamarkin * Mojo *
    "Though Christgau partisans have the most to gain from this collection, it’s also good for anyone looking for an accessible way into his extensive oeuvre." -- Chad Comello * Booklist *
    "Christgau is . . . one of America’s sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly one of its most influential—not to mention one of the better stylists in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why." -- David Cantwell * The New Yorker *
    "Though not everyone will agree with Christgau’s views (this reader certainly did not), all readers will likely appreciate his style and approach and the depth of his knowledge about a broad range of popular music. Those curious about popular music may find Christgau's style aggressive at times, but that is exactly the point; Christgau pushes the reader to think. Seasoned readers will discover that Christgau questions authors in a way that encourages one to evaluate a book at a deeper level. In short, this is a great read for fans, critics, and scholars alike." -- T. R. Harrison * Choice *

    Table of Contents
    Acknowledgments xiii
    Introduction 1
    I. Collectibles
    The Informer: John Leonard's When the Kissing Had to Stop 11
    Advertisements for Everybody Else: Jonathan Lethem's The Ecstasy of Influence 14
    Democratic Vistas: Dave Hickey's Air Guitar 17
    II. From Blackface Minstrelsy to Track-and-Hook
    In Search of Jim Crow: Why Postmodern Minstrelsy Studies Matter 23
    The Old Ethiopians at Home: Ken Emerson's Doo-Dah! 40
    Before the Blues: David Wondrich's Stomp and Swerve 43
    Rhythms of the Universe: Ned Sublette's Cuba and Its Music 46
    Black Melting Pot: David B. Coplan's In Township Tonight! 49
    Bwana-Acolyte in the Favor Bank: Banning Eyre's In Griot Time 56
    In the Crucible of the Party: Charles and Angelilki Keil's Bright Balkan Morning 59
    Defining the Folk: Benjamin Filene's Romancing the Folk 64
    Folking Around: David Hajdu's Positively 4th Street 67
    Punk Lives: Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's Please Kill Me 70
    Biography of a Corporation: Nelson George's Where Did Our Love Go? 72
    Hip-Hop Faces the World: Steven Hager's Hip Hop; David Toop's The Rap Attack; and Nelson George, Sally Banes, Susan Flinker, and Patty Romanowski's Fresh 75
    Making Out Like Gangsters: Preston Lauterbach's The Chitlin' Circuit, Dan Charnas's The Big Payback, Ice-T's Ice, and Tommy James's Me, the Mob, and Music 80
    Money Isn't Everything: Fred Goodman's The Mansion on the Hill 86
    Mapping the Earworm's Genome: John Seabrook's The Song Machine 89
    III. Critical Practice
    Beyond the Symphonic Quest: Susan McClary's Feminine Endings 97
    All the Tune Family: Peter van der Merwe's Origins of the Popular Style 100
    Bel Cantos: Henry Pleasant's The Great American Popular Singers 102
    The Country and the City: Charlie Gillett's The Sound of the City 109
    Reflections of an Aging Rock Critic: Jon Landau's It's Too Late to Stop Now 115
    Pioneer Days: Kevin Avery's Everything Is an Afterthought and Nona Willis Aronowitz's (ed.) Out of the Vinyl Deeps 117
    Impolite Discourse: Jim Derogatis's Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer's A Whore Jus Like the Rest, and Nick Tosches's The Nick Torches Reader 123
    Journalism and/or Criticism and/or Musicology and/or Sociology (and/or Writing): Simon Firth 129
    Serious Music: Robert Walser's Running With the Devil 137
    Fifteen Minutes of . . . : William York's Who's Who in Rock Music 139
    The Fanzine Worldview, Alphabetized: Ira A. Robbins's (ed.) Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records 140
    Awesome: Simon Reynolds's Blissed Out 143
    Ingenuousness Lost: James Miller's Flowers in the Dustbin 147
    Rock Criticism Lives: Jessica Hopper's The Fist Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic 151
    Emo Meets Trayvon Martin: Hanif Abdurraquib's They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us 156
    IV. Lives in Music Inside and Out
    Great Book of Fire: Nick Tosches's Hellfire and Robert Palmer's Jerry Lee Lewis Rocks! 163
    That Bad Man, Tough Old Huddie Ledbetter: Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell's The Life and Legend of Leadbelly 169
    The Impenetrable Heroism of Sam Cooke: Peter Guralnick's Dream Boogie 171
    Bobby and Dave: Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One and Dave Van Ronk's The Mayor of MacDougal Street 178
    Tell All: Ed Sanders's Fug You and Samuel R. Delany's The Motion of Light in Water 180
    King of the Thrillseekers: Richard Hell's I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp 185
    Lives Saved, Lives Lost: Carrie Brownstein's Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl and Patti Smith's M Train 189
    The Cynic and the Bloke: Rod Stewart's Rod: The Autobiography and Donald Fagen's Eminent Hipsters 194
    His Own Shaman: RJ Smith's The One 199
    Spotlight on the Queen: David Ritz's Respect 201
    The Realist Thing You've Ever Seen: Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run 205
    V. Fictions
    Writing for the People: George Orwell's 1984 213
    A Classic Illustrated: R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis 217
    The Hippie Grows Older: Richard Brautigan's Sombrero Fallout 222
    Comic Gurdjieffianism You Can Masturbate To: Marco Vassis' Mind Blower 224
    Porn Yesterday: Walter Kendrick's The Secret Museum 225
    What Pretentious White Men Are Good For: Robert Coover's Gerald's Party 230
    Impoverished How, Exactly? Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors 236
    Sustainable Romance: Norman Rush's Mortals 237
    Derrnig-Do Scrapping By: Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue 240
    Futures by the Dozen: Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire 245
    YA Poet of the Massa Woods: Sandra Newman's The Country of Ice Cream Star 248
    A Darker Shade of Noir: The Indefatigable Walter Mosley 252
    VI. Bohemia Meets Hegemony
    Épatant le Bourgeoisie: Jerrold Seigel's Bohemian Paris and T. J. Clark's The Painting of Modern Life 263
    The Village People: Christine Stansell's American Moderns 278
    A Slender Hope for Salvation: Charles Reich's The Greening of America 280
    The Lumpenhippie Guru: Ed Sanders's The Family 285
    Strait Are the Gates: Morris Dickstein's Gates of Eden 289
    The Little Counterculture That Could: Carol Brightman's Sweet Chaos 293
    The Pop-Boho Connection, Narrativized: Bernard F. Gendron's Between Montmarte and the Mudd Club 297
    Cursed and Sainted Seekers of the Sexual Century: John Heidenry's What Wild Ecstasy 301
    Bohemias Lost and Found: Ross Wetzsteon's Republic of Dreams, Richard Kostelanetz's SoHo, and Richard Lloyd's Neo-Bohemia 304
    Autobiography of a Pain in the Neck: Meredith Maran's What It's Like to Live Now 309
    VII. Culture Meets Capital
    Twentieth Century Limited: Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts into Air 315
    Dialectical Cricket: C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary 320
    Radical Pluralist: Andrew Ross's No Respect 323
    Inside the Prosex Wars: Nadine Strossen's Defending Pornography, Joanna Frueh's Eroctic Faculties, and Lara Kipnis's Bound and Gagged 327
    Growing Up Kept Down: William Finnegan's Cold New World 331
    Jesus Plus the Capitalist Order: Jeff Sharlet's The Family 334
    Dark Night of the Quants: Ten Books About the Financial Crisis 338
    They Bet Your Life: Four Books About Hedge Funds 345
    Living in a Material World: Raymond Williams's Long Revolution 350
    With a God on His Side: Terry Eagleton's Culture and the Death of God, Culture, and Materialism 369
    My Friend Marshall: Marshall Berman's Modernism in the Streets 374
    Index 381

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