Ex-Friends: Falling Out with Allen Ginsberg, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt and Norman Mailer

Norman Podhoretz is one of the most important American intellectuals of the Post- War period. His shift away from the Left toward a Conservative position helped mark a new period in American intellectual life. In this memoir he writes about the ' friends' of a former time, each of whom is a distinguished 'name' by themselves. Allen Ginsberg, Hannah Arendt, the Trillings, Lionel and Diana, Lillian Hellman and Norman Mailer. Podhoretz blends the personal anecodote with the ideological quarrel in explaining his estrangement from these friends. At one point he talks about how their radical indulgence in their own appetites led to a kind of moral chaos which he understood as destructive and damaging. There is a question raised by many readers of the morality of turning on old friends in this way, and writing as if one were the only righteous man among a bunch of misguided moral morons. Other readers point out the possible envy motive given the fact that all the people he writes about are probably considered by most to be more important ' creative figures ' than him. Certainly Arendt, and Mailer fit this category. Podhoretz however should not be underestimated and he as a critic , and as a moral and literary guide is a person of considerable weight and stature. I would not say that everything here suits my taste, but there is a great deal of interesting writing about the intellectual life of the American fifties, and of some of its major characters.

Norman Podheretz, editor of COMMENTARY for 30 years, presents us with a must-read book of war stories about problematic celebrity friends of his. Poderhetz's crystal clear writing is a pleasure to read, and so especially are the explanations he provides about the writings and thinking of the subjects he describes in EX-FRIENDS: Falling Out With Allen Ginsberg, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt, and Norman Mailer. The author's writing is welcome because these folks are not always easy to understand. For instance, Poderetz explains that Norman Mailer thought that the social revolution of the 1960's would succeed because its advocates gained incredible strength by giving into ALL of their impulses as much as possible. The inhibited opponents of that revolution, Mailer opines, couldn't and didn't compete in the "giving into their impulses" dept. and so didn't do as well. Mailer cites Richard Nixon as an example of too much inhibition. That will shut people who thought Nixon was "too emotional." I always wondered what Norman Mailer was talking about when I used to see him on talk shows like THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW, but it took Podheretz to explain it to me! I always wondered when Allen Ginsburg stated he "saw the best minds of his generation destroyed by madness," exactly which minds he was referring to. Poderhetz doesn't get into that, but his Allen Ginsberg section is also worth reading. It's hard to be an editor. H.L. Mencken was editor of the AMERICAN MERCURY in the 1920's and early 1930's, he, too, ran into a lot grief from prima donna writers of great talent but short fuses. Hooray for Norman Podheretz. A writer and a good man.

This book reads like one of those "steamy novels." There is everything here. Sex, drugs, poetry, homosexuality. You name it, you got it. The book basically is Norman Podhoretz and he basically devotes each chapter to a person or people in a group known as "The Family." The list of characters includes Hannah Arendt, Allen Ginsberg, Lionel Trilling and Diane Trilling, Lillian Hellman, and some other ones. Podhoretz basically tells us their personalities and how come he finally realized that liberalism is "wrong." The book is his personal "memoir" on how to became disenchanted with the left. One of the good parts of the book is the fact that it shows such admired figures such as Lillian Hellman and Norman Mailer in a light that hasn't been bestowed on them. The majority of the works on these people almost always paint them as geniuses. But Podhoretz shows us much more in the process. This book will be good 100 years from now to establish fact from fiction on characters. People such as Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg who are considered geniuses who fight for what they believe in are portrayed in a different light. The book shows more of their "dark sides" than other books. Podhoretz writes in a very good way. His voice seems to come of the book and you can actually hear him talking to you. I do wish it could have been longer and in some parts he could have been more sensitive but all in all it was good. This book tells a lot about the generation that made up the intellectual sixties and fifties.

Norman Podhoretz's Ex-Friends is a fascinating look into the Culture Wars that have rumbled across our intellectual landscape for the past 50 or 60 years. Podhoretz has been in the trenches throughout, though his alliances changed radically as he came to see, with more and more acuity, the destructiveness of leftist thought. He reveals a great deal about the characters he called friends--and then ex-friends--as he made his own journey from the left to the right. "Rigid ideologue" he may be, but only someone reading this book with the "left side" of his brain would claim that the subjects of his study are enlightened and tolerant. How else to explain the vitriolic attacks on Podhoretz for having honest questions about the motives and tactics of the liberal establishment? Is Norman Podhoretz a "paranoid little bigot" as one (no doubt open minded) reviewer claims? Only if love of country and the desire to see true democracy flourish are malignant ideas. As it stands, Ex-Friends is a brilliant expose of the lunacy of the left, an often thinly veiled totalitarianism passing itself off as progressivism. (The chapters on Ginsberg and Mailer are sufficient to illustrate this point.) Podhoretz's contribution to this discussion is invaluable, and only a recalcitrant liberal would call it "amusing garbage." I only hope, Mr. Podhoretz, that there is more where this came from.

I recently have become familiar with Norman Podhoretz through his essays in Commentary Magazine and was thrilled to find out that this new book was on the stands. Having just finished it, I am happy to say that the fulfillment is as great as the anticipation.Mr. Podhoretz views on the recent intellectual and political history of the US (and broader) is brought forth through enlightening essays on these "Liberal Minds." His ability to enlighten me about the lives and the views of his subjects, as well as his own views, through his wonderfully clear and readable prose, is a blessing.His views have made me think and rethink my own views and I look forward to hours of conversation with my own friends about the book itself. Only one thing, while I understand Mr. Podhoretz' view that strong belief in contrary systems can lead to the breakup of friendships, I sincerely hope his book provides fertile ground for the cementing of new ones, rather than the breakup of old.