Everyone's falling in love with MEXICO -- not ME!!!
I just published a WHOLE NEW BOOK, CONSUMING GROUND GLASS: A mEMOiR OF THE LATER DAYS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, bloggishly -- http://
As you can clearly see by the domain extension -- I have done this in MEXICO, NOT the good ol' US of A!!!
In many ways, it's reminiscent of WALKING ON GLASS: A MEMOIR OF THE LATER DAYS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, and these reviews MAY WELL APPLY!!!:
When Tennessee Williams found his household in an uproar after a visiting ex-lover ran his housekeeper off with a gun, he turned to Scott Kenan for help. Recently laid off from a restaurant management job and standing an inch short of seven feet tall, Kenan was available and appeared capable of handling any situation. He agreed to move into Williams' house to manage it, run errands, and accompany the playwright nearly everywhere.
WALKING ON GLASS: A MEMOIR OF THE LATER DAYS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS takes the reader on a journey through the world of Tennessee Williams – a world where teetering on the razor's edge of their never-quite-defined relationship, Kenan mollified the playwright's volatile moods while through a revolving door, a cast of characters Williams might have created came and went, competing for his favor.
Employing rich detail of time and place, Scott Kenan re-creates a lost world in which the Reagan Revolution was just beginning, disco still reigned in dance clubs, and AIDS had felled a few in distant cities, but had not yet crashed the sexual revolution–or even found its proper name.
Never before has anyone chronicled the experience of living and working continuously at the playwright's side. With compassion and humor, WALKING ON GLASS unflinchingly portrays life and relationships within Tennessee Williams' world – the rich realm from which his inspiration sprang. Many iconic people, including Meryl Streep, Jackie Onassis, Truman Capote, Audrey Hepburn, and Ronald Reagan, crossed their path – sometimes in shocking ways – as Kenan accompanied Williams to The White House, the Kennedy Center Honors, and, finally, to the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, for the staging of A HOUSE NOT MEANT TO STAND, Williams' last new play produced during his lifetime.
The story climaxes with the emotional roller coaster of the play's production, after which the two part company when the playwright chooses to travel with his newfound love, Tony Narducci -- a poetry-spouting youth.
Kenan's chronicle concludes with a twist that casts the entire book in a new light when an executor of Williams' estate reveals what was found on the playwright's desk.
>>> REVIEWS:
John Lahr, The New Yorker:
"I wasn't intending to read every word of your memoir; but it says something about how well you wrote it, that I did . . . you've found a very crisp and compelling style. And you come through vividly in it."
Thomas Keith, Editor of Tennessee Williams books for New Directions Publishing:
"Scott has done a beautiful job with his memoir. What makes it stand out from previous memoirs about Williams is its integrity, and the depth to which Scott reveals his own situation, mental health problems, fears, and hopes. Because of that integrity, the day-to-day descriptions of life with Williams and Scott's take on the tangle of problems Williams faced near the end of his life are that much more insightful.
"I also happen to like Scott's ability to describe a person or set a scene--even his thread of commentary on weather, light, and seasons informs us about the sensitivities of the man telling this story."
Dr. Kenneth Holditch, Williams scholar and Professor Emeritus at the University of New Orleans:
"Having finished your manuscript, I am confirmed in my initial judgment that this is a very fine work indeed. Tennessee really comes alive in your narrative, as do other personages, a few of whom I knew.
"Let me be truthful and say that I put off reading your work because I have read so many–both published and in manuscript–that were handed to me and been much too often disappointed in what I read. That was not the case with your book. I found it spell-binding and raced on through it at the expense of my chores."
Dr. Larry Myers: Playwright/Associate Professor, St John's University/Williams Friend & Scholar:
"Your book much seems channeled from some astral plane or higher consciousness. When I read it, HE IS HERE!"
>>> AN EMAIL EXCHANGE, THIS MORNING:
#1
Yes, things have been "popping" -- I had "spiritual communion" last night with Ronald Reagan, and Nancy (half alive, now), was half there as well -- HA!!!
As you can clearly see by the domain extension -- I have done this in MEXICO, NOT the good ol' US of A!!!
In many ways, it's reminiscent of WALKING ON GLASS: A MEMOIR OF THE LATER DAYS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, and these reviews MAY WELL APPLY!!!:
When Tennessee Williams found his household in an uproar after a visiting ex-lover ran his housekeeper off with a gun, he turned to Scott Kenan for help. Recently laid off from a restaurant management job and standing an inch short of seven feet tall, Kenan was available and appeared capable of handling any situation. He agreed to move into Williams' house to manage it, run errands, and accompany the playwright nearly everywhere.
WALKING ON GLASS: A MEMOIR OF THE LATER DAYS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS takes the reader on a journey through the world of Tennessee Williams – a world where teetering on the razor's edge of their never-quite-defined relationship, Kenan mollified the playwright's volatile moods while through a revolving door, a cast of characters Williams might have created came and went, competing for his favor.
Employing rich detail of time and place, Scott Kenan re-creates a lost world in which the Reagan Revolution was just beginning, disco still reigned in dance clubs, and AIDS had felled a few in distant cities, but had not yet crashed the sexual revolution–or even found its proper name.
Never before has anyone chronicled the experience of living and working continuously at the playwright's side. With compassion and humor, WALKING ON GLASS unflinchingly portrays life and relationships within Tennessee Williams' world – the rich realm from which his inspiration sprang. Many iconic people, including Meryl Streep, Jackie Onassis, Truman Capote, Audrey Hepburn, and Ronald Reagan, crossed their path – sometimes in shocking ways – as Kenan accompanied Williams to The White House, the Kennedy Center Honors, and, finally, to the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, for the staging of A HOUSE NOT MEANT TO STAND, Williams' last new play produced during his lifetime.
The story climaxes with the emotional roller coaster of the play's production, after which the two part company when the playwright chooses to travel with his newfound love, Tony Narducci -- a poetry-spouting youth.
Ten months later, Williams was dead.
Kenan's chronicle concludes with a twist that casts the entire book in a new light when an executor of Williams' estate reveals what was found on the playwright's desk.
>>> REVIEWS:
John Lahr, The New Yorker:
"I wasn't intending to read every word of your memoir; but it says something about how well you wrote it, that I did . . . you've found a very crisp and compelling style. And you come through vividly in it."
Thomas Elliot Keith
Thomas Keith, Editor of Tennessee Williams books for New Directions Publishing:
"Scott has done a beautiful job with his memoir. What makes it stand out from previous memoirs about Williams is its integrity, and the depth to which Scott reveals his own situation, mental health problems, fears, and hopes. Because of that integrity, the day-to-day descriptions of life with Williams and Scott's take on the tangle of problems Williams faced near the end of his life are that much more insightful.
"I also happen to like Scott's ability to describe a person or set a scene--even his thread of commentary on weather, light, and seasons informs us about the sensitivities of the man telling this story."
Kenneth Holditch
Dr. Kenneth Holditch, Williams scholar and Professor Emeritus at the University of New Orleans:
"Having finished your manuscript, I am confirmed in my initial judgment that this is a very fine work indeed. Tennessee really comes alive in your narrative, as do other personages, a few of whom I knew.
"Let me be truthful and say that I put off reading your work because I have read so many–both published and in manuscript–that were handed to me and been much too often disappointed in what I read. That was not the case with your book. I found it spell-binding and raced on through it at the expense of my chores."
L. Lawrence Myers (or similar)
Dr. Larry Myers: Playwright/Associate Professor, St John's University/Williams Friend & Scholar:
"Your book much seems channeled from some astral plane or higher consciousness. When I read it, HE IS HERE!"
* * *
>>> AN EMAIL EXCHANGE, THIS MORNING:
#1
Yes, things have been "popping" -- I had "spiritual communion" last night with Ronald Reagan, and Nancy (half alive, now), was half there as well -- HA!!!
I am not aware of that Dakin book. I have here "An Intimate Biography by His Brother" with Shepherd Mead -- did they just re-title it???
Scott
On Sun, Sep 15, 2013 at 12:57 PM, A WILLIAMS NUT wrote:
Yesterday evening a tall bookcase beside my bed vomited a whole overloaded shelf of books and discs onto my $1300 snowhite mattress. Fortunately I was propped up on the far side of the mattress and--to allay your fear that I was crushed or scarred--I was barely grazed.
I just LEFT that cultural shit on one side of the bed and passed the night as usual.
As I put the stuff into boxes late this morn, what should turn up but Dakin's biography subtitled "The Life and Murder of Tennessee Williams" which I read in 1983/84 ! Now I just read its conclusion, "The Final Curtain" by journalist Michael Ritchie, which re-emphasizes to me the things you write about Uecker, Eastman, and Lady St Just.
Spot On!
I think Tenn's crystal glass soul was just demanding a little attention from me, knowing I'd pass the little story on to Y'ALL.
(unsigned --PATHETIC, no???)
* * *
Then #2 came in (answer first) :
Me (Scott): HEY!!! What you doin' with Dakin's unpublished ms???
On Sun, Sep 15, 2013 at 1:53 PM, That SAME WILLIAMS NUT wrote:
"My Brother's Keeper" was Dakin's unpublished ms.
"Tennessee Williams: An Intimate Biography" is the original published version, comprising some of Dakin's ms plus Shepherd Meade's ghost writing and research.
"His Brother's Keeper: The Life and Murder of Tennessee Williams" is expanded by Key West journalist Michael Ritchie's afterword.
* * *
THEN there was even a #3!!!:
You DAMNED GOD-HATING, DRUG-ADDICTED, REPUBLICAN!!!
You CAN'T answer a super-simple question!!!
THANKS for proving it!!!
Scott
PS: (LOL!!!)
On Sun, Sep 15, 2013 at 2:27 PM, Mr. NUTBALL wrote:
I don't have "MY Brother's"
I have "HIS Brother's"
* * *
>>> ADDED NOTE: This crazy-assed nutball has occasionally corresponded with me for TWO YEARS NOW -- and the ONLY thing anyone needs to know is that his FIRST TWO emails were IDENTICAL in style and punctuation to those of John Uecker.
I ought to know -- John Uecker and I were FAST FRIENDS through most of 2009.
And then the emails CHANGED in style and punctuation.
This person is NOT John Uecker.
He's Maria St. Just.
Scott
.
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