Comments on: Sort of a book review.

By: tangognat

tangognat — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 18:28:54 +0000

Ah, I did what any librarian should have done in the first place, I looked it up, and it seems like they published an essay on the topic in the New Yorker around 1998.

By: walt

walt — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 15:30:35 +0000

Someone else may know; I don't read the New Yorker, and the book's back on the Crystal Harmony, so I can't check the credits.

By: tangognat

tangognat — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 15:27:02 +0000

Was part of this published in the New Yorker? The story sounds really familiar to me, but I haven’t read the book.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 15:20:44 +0000

I found the weirder part of this book to be how they discussed the windfall of money they had gotten through their parents’ death fueled them being crazy with it, and how their mourning for their brother [easily the more talented, definitely the most revered of the Barthelme brothers] sort of sent them over the edge. I found that they did a good job at explaining the craziness of gambling addiction but, like you, I found a lot of their justifications and complaints to be largely dismissable.