Famous People I Have Known

From Publishers Weekly

McClanahan, whose first novel, The Natural Man, was greeted with considerable praise, delivers an odd assortment of reminiscences of his youthful adventures in the late '50s and '60s as a graduate student and erstwhile visiting lecturer in creative writing at "the Harvard of the West" (Stanford), and other stops (primarily at bars), including several escapades in his home state, Kentucky. The famous people McClanahan has known in literary circles will not find themselves in this book. As the author quotes Marcus Aurelius: "All is ephemeralfame and the famous as well," and as mentor Ken Kesey blurts within: "Fame is a wart." Rather, McClanahan spins nostalgic tales of the golden days of California hippies, recounting memories such as the recovery of his stolen typewriter from the likes of a motley crew of Doonesburyesque characters: "Wheatgerm," "Yogurt" and "Beast"all of which adds up, disappointingly, to little more than a mildly amusing diversion. First serial to Esquire and Playboy. Foreign rights: Harold Matson. November
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Those who enjoyed McClanahan's novel, The Natural Man , will be scratching their heads over the meaning and purpose of this book. He has dusted off and repolished a number of thoroughly dingy articles that he wrote over the years for such magazines as Esquire and Playboy. They deal in a sort of autobiographical way mostly with people, famous and not so famous (Jimmy Sacca, Elvis Presley, Jean Genet, Ken Kesey) and phenomenons (revolutions, rock and roll, hippies) of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The result is a whirling sideshow of a book, a peculiar mixture of anecdote, dialogue, description, travelogue, and (here and there) serious evaluation. The pieces are essentially the stuff that magazines are made ofthey don't endure. A.J. Anderson, Graduate Sch. of Library & Information Science, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.