Faces in the Crowd: Musicians, Writers, Actors, and Filmmakers

This is one of the books I keep on the night table, because I find myself rereading my favorite sections over and over. When I was in school there were a couple of essay collections, like Robert Warshaw's The Immediate Experience and Dwight Macdonald's Against the American Grain, that were notable for their range and style, and Faces in the Crowd is a book I treasure for the same reason.Gary Giddins is a well known jazz critic but in this collection his interests are extremely far-ranging, from Clint Eastwood to Eudora Welty. What makes him a fine writer is his generosity and insight. He writes like a friend who wants to share something he loves with you, yet at the same time he is a terrible exacting critic. Perhaps his greatest attribute is his wit; sections of this book are very funny. His essay on Jack Benny is a classic. But he can be hilarious when you don't expect, for example is writing about literary biographers (Katherine Anne Porter), or on Elmore Leonard's stylistic overkill, and a discussion of the pedants who are rewriting Faulkner. Of course, he is always good on music and his section on divas--Billie Holiday (who can be seen on the cover), Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Kay Starr--is moving and beautiful. This is a wonderful book.