The Memory of All That: The Life of George Gershwin

This was a fascinating overview of the life and career of a wonderful composer/performer who left us much too early. It has many details of his life from his youth on through his burgeoning career and successes to his very sad and seemingly unnecessary early demise. We can get some idea of the internal forces that drove him to his astounding output. His music, an unbelievably beautiful and defining collection for one so young, has inspired and influenced many over the years and lives on through many movies and records/Cd's. It's a worthy book for those of us who are lifelong fans to learn more about him, his wonderful talent and (as they say) 'the rest of the story'.

Joan Peyser presents a revealing new account of the intriguing life of American composer George Gershwin. Startling, and always well-documented, Peyser describes the life of this American musical icon of the 1930's, whose compositions include "Rhapsody In Blue", "An American In Paris" and the unforgettable "Porgy and Bess". Peyser, a frequent New York Times contributor and past editor of the distinguished journal "The Musical Quarterly", is well known for her acclaimed biographies of musicians Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez. A great read - fascinating and very worthwhile.

Though I enjoyed this book tremendously, it was a guilty pleasure. Gershwin's musical life has been thoroughly documented in other books, and comparatively Joan Peyser doesn't fall too short in keeping us sufficiently well-informed of Gershwin's musical development in this book. However, her strong suit is Gershwin's personal life, and she raises some interesting theories in that area, some which seem very well-researched and others which seem to be little more than hearsay, though I give her credit for doggedly digging up such obscure hearsay. However, nothing revealed by this hearsay seems out of character for Gershwin based on what we know from earlier more scholarly biographies, so it comes across as quite believable, and answers some of the juicier questions many of us have had about Gershwin's private life. In that sense, its a real page turner. The principles of scholarly nonfictional writing dictate that an author doesn't print information that didn't come from one or several reliable sources. Peyser has flouted that principle throughout this book. She frequently presents tantalizing bits of insider information that she obtained from a lone source, or worse yet from a person quoting another person, and in at least one memorable instance, a person quoting another person quoting another person (whew)! Having said that, essentially there are only two new theories that she pushes in this book. One, is that Gershwin had a subconscious masochistic streak in him that caused him to gravitate towards people of a cruel, insensitive, selfish, even sadistic nature (mainly because his mother was such a person), and the other, that it is a FACT, not rumor that Gershwin fathered an illegitimate son. The theory about Gershwin's masochistic streak is interesting, but it really matters not whether the reader buys it or not; it's merely an interesting thing to point out. But the theory about Gershwin's illegitimate son carries more weight, and deserves a closer look. Other biographies, notably Charles Schwartz' 1973 biography have mentioned the alleged son and his claim to be Gershwin's progeny, immediately making the disclaimer that there is no evidence to prove or disprove his claim. Peyser, on the hand, dives head first into this controversy, throws out every bit of information on the matter that she can dig up, from solid proof to secondhand hearsay and let's the reader decide whether or not it is true. Is this responsible journalism? Probably not. Does it mean that the story is nothing more than an outlandish fabrication? No, it does not. From what we do know as fact about Gershwin, the story is quite plausible. We do know from numerous reliable sources that Gershwin was a sexual tyrannosaurus, going through scores of women in his short life. We also know that in the 1920s and 30s the use of contraception in casual sexual encounters, when it was used at all, was pretty much limited to the condom, which most men detested, and few carried around with