Where Did It All Go Right?

Poker player, novelist, critic, rock-climber, failed suicide--Al Alvarez is a man of many parts and they are all presented here with endearing candour. He records that "my first 30 years were purgatory"--but that in retrospect, the next 40 were so blissfully happy as to seem almost uneventful in comparison. So the greater part of this autobiography is occupied with those first 30, storm-tossed years. He was born in the1930s, into a family of wealthy Hampstead Jews who, though educated, were strangely ignorant of events in Germany. They had a nanny, a cook, two parlour-maids in mop caps, a chauffeur and an under-nurse--and they were always complaining that they didn't have enough money. They were assimilated Jews who ate bacon but Alvarez is very acute on the degree to which this assimilation really went. He states that he is a Londoner but not an Englishman. His early adult life is vividly chronicled as a struggling writer, unhappily married, stuck doing wretched theatre reviews of plays called things like The Amorous Prawn and teetering on the brink of self-destruction. Against this grim picture there are some delightful pen portraits of the famous people he has known: Iris Murdoch at Oxford, "with a bell of blonde hair, a broad face and a gruff, forthright manner, like one of Eisenstein's peasants"; Kingsley Amis, with "lips curling, eyes popping and rolling" at the very mention of the word "Modernism" and Alvarez's own tutor at Oxford, who habitually introduced himself to complete strangers at parties with the immortal words, "My name's Robson. I'm impotent." There is also a lengthy passage focusing on Alvarez's friendship with Sylvia Plath just before her suicide in 1963, which he originally wrote about in The Savage God. An acute, candid and often very funny self- portrait from a tough cookie of a writer. -- Christopher Hart

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Fascinating account of a life - Rated
Alvarez lived and worked around some very interesting famous people, and here he dishes the dirt, and some praise too. Very entertaining and unique book, especially on the Oxford/Cambridge cliques.

A personal view - Rated
Al Alvarez has been a poet, critic, novelist, anthologist and author of various non-fiction books on subjects including poker and climbing. He has also worked in television, radio and newspapers.

My reason for reading this was because he is a likeable acquaintance from poker rooms in London. He also went to the same school as me and I was interested in what he had to say about the experience. I am not going to pretend to be a critic myself and this review will simply give my personal reaction to the book.

He starts off by describing his family – wealthy on his mother’s side and educated but less wealthy on his father’s side. He goes on to describe his childhood, boarding school (Oundle), Oxford University, and then his career as a critic, writer and poet. Some parts of his life are covered very briefly as they refer to times that have been covered by his other books. He meets a lot of well-known poets, writers, artists and musicians along the way and some become good friends. Much of the book is spent describing these people, so much so that it stretches the definition of an autobiography. There is a ten-page index at the back, which is mostly made up of these people’s names.

I enjoyed the truly autobiographical writing but sometimes tired of the descriptions of other notable people and their work. I thought his prose was more vivid when describing personal experiences or members of his family. I am not very interested in poetry or criticism so was not very turned on when he got into lengthy criticism of poets’ work. I do believe that he is a capable writer but the book does have faults. It is not always in chronological order, which causes some confusion. I wonder whether he thought other, more famous, people were more interesting than himself? Either that or he is too private a person to write about himself. Perhaps the truth is what he says in the final chapter titled “Writing White”. It is based on a Montherlant quote “Happiness writes white. It does not show up on the page”. Although he writes that his first thirty years “were purgatory”, his last forty years are “written white”.

A wonderfully narrated tale of Al Alvarez's amazing career. - Rated
It starts in pre-war London, studying the different strands of the British Jewish community. His mother and father both came from very different families, and he writes about the trials of their troubled relationship. He then carries on the story to school, and his early love of poetry, rugger and boxing. Then he goes to Oxford, where he becomes disinterested in the petty arguements of academia.
Then comes an endless list of anecdotes about all of the key poets in the 1950s and 60s (whilst Al worked in America and as poetry editor of the Observer). Each person comes to life through Al's witty, insightful writing.
It is not always a happy book, dealing as it does with suicide, divorce and death. However it is a lively book, permeated throughout with Al's love of life.