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Title: One talent wasted besmirching another
Review: May we all live to see the day when the present fad of mixing up biography with criticism ends! Once again a critic (i.e., wannabe artist) does her best to soil the work of a truly creative artist by trying to impose her own notions of his life on his work. Or is it the other way around--imposing notions of the work onto the life? It hardly matters--the result is the same. Nothing of substance is said about either, and in the process of saying nothing, she drags in all kinds of ugliness. Of course all the while, the author is claiming to be a great admirer of Johns, even as she purveys her gossip and hearsay. Finally, as is usually the case with such psychographers, she's just revealing her own unsavory motives and hungering ego. The only reason I give the book two stars is that she's not a bad writer. Too bad she had to waste her talent on such a project.
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