American Rhapsody

April 25, 2016
Pierpont’s (Roth Unbound) colorful portraits of writers, actors, and musicians including Edith Wharton, James Baldwin, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Nina Simone, and George Gershwin, among others, offer a kaleidoscopic mural of America’s cultural coming-of-age in the early to mid-20th century. In spite of the book’s disjointed nature, though, Pierpont’s shining prose provides some bright and memorable moments. Hepburn, she declares, overcomes many obstacles to present us with an image of strength: “We held her close not because she could act but because of the insistent life that hummed through every taut and peremptory inch of her.” Dashiell Hammett turns “inarticulateness into a style” and seeks, even more than Gertrude Stein, to strip writing down radically to its essence. Gershwin’s music endures because of his vision of the ways that music brings people together: as he wrote, “music always repeats the thoughts and aspirations of the people and the time.” Both Bert Williams and Stepin Fetchit use their comic genius to turn the ugliness of racism into a painfully hilarious commentary on American life in the early 20th century. Though each of these characters is interesting in her or his own right, Pierpont doesn’t tie them together in any convincing manner, nor do her profiles offer us much in the way of new readings of their lives and work.

March 15, 2016
The New Yorker staff writer delivers a selective history of the difficult, chaotic, transcendent genius of arts in America. In this cultural survey, Pierpont (Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books, 2013, etc.) takes her title from George Gershwin's original appellation for what would ultimately be known as "Rhapsody in Blue," an epochal musical composition that embodies the wild, daring, original qualities of its nation of origin, the uniquely transformative properties that are the messy, exciting result of the American experiment. The author explores this "American-ness" (expressed at one point as "seeking a personal language to express a unique point of view") as it applies to the arts through a series of in-depth portraits of such quintessentially American creators as Edith Wharton, Orson Welles, and Katharine Hepburn. Each chapter of this literary "rhapsody"--an informally structured sequence of distinct elements--begins in medias res with an instantly engaging significant anecdote regarding that section's subject, deepening into a superbly researched and elegantly presented full artistic biography that unpacks the various social, political, and economic contexts of the work in question. Pierpont's approach is neither dryly academic nor ideologically hidebound. She places the emphasis on the history and the work, not identity politics, and her witty but sober and evenhanded voice is a consistent pleasure, her prose is limpid and evocative, and her insights consistently dazzle. Deftly untangling the cultural threads that produce (and inextricably link) such geniuses as Gershwin, Nina Simone, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marlon Brando, Bert Williams, and Peggy Guggenheim (the audaciously spired Chrysler Building also receives a fascinating chapter) with grace and style, Pierpont has composed a refreshingly cleareyed piece of cultural history and an inspiring paean to the American artistic spirit. As vital and entertaining as the creators and work it celebrates, American Rhapsody is an uncommonly satisfying celebration of the cultural kaleidoscope known as the United States.

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Starred review from April 15, 2016
A longtime New Yorker staff writer on the arts beat and a virtuoso of the profile form, Pierpont (Roth Unbound, 2013) has substantially reworked a dozen magazine pieces to create this scintillating portrait gallery under a title borrowed from one of her subjects, George Gershwin. Rhapsody in Blue was originally American Rhapsody, a phrase expressing Gershwin's vision of the promise of American equality, freedom, and success; Pierpont uses this idea as a polestar in her keenly distilled considerations of embattled but profoundly influential artists. On the literary front, she discerns the creative repercussions of Edith Wharton's struggle with loneliness and sexism, takes an exceptionally crisp and penetrating look at Dashiell Hammett's ups and downs, and offers a deeply moving response to James Baldwin's genius and courage. Exquisitely precise in perception and language, Pierpont captures Katharine Hepburn's mixture of comedy and pathos and, in one of her most extensive inquiries, explores the cruel paradoxes faced by the groundbreaking black actor Bert Williams. Incisive portraits of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Peggy Guggenheim, Orson Welles, Marlon Brando, and Nina Simone also surround the intriguing story behind New York's boldly designed and incandescent Chrysler Building, an obelisk marking the glittering terrain Pierpont so insightfully maps as she reinvigorates our appreciation for artists instrumental in shaping our culture and propelling our ongoing struggle to realize our ideals.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2016

New Yorker staff writer Pierpont (Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books; Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World) presents a loosely connected collection of essays (11 about people, one on the Chrysler Building) that alternately celebrate and skewer the American spirit. In "The Player Kings," about Orson Welles, the author finds it necessary to bring in a Brit--in this case, Sir Laurence Olivier--to compare and contrast the men's performing and directing styles. A general feeling of thwarted potential pervades, with such figures as Edith Wharton, James Baldwin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Bert Williams, and George Gershwin experiencing personal or societal setbacks, sometimes both. Though all the persons profiled made their mark on the world, Pierpont's essays ponder the possibilities of how much more each could have accomplished, if only.... Particularly dispiriting is the chapter featuring Dashiell Hammett, whose writing "dry spell" lasted so much longer than his fleeting years of success and fame. Although there is no bibliography, the author cites plenty of biographies and back matter for readers who want to know more. VERDICT This sharp-eyed look at some American originals will stimulate further interest in its subjects. [See Prepub Alert, 11/9/15.]--Liz French, Library Journal

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2015

A staff writer for The New Yorker whose Passionate Minds was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, Pierpont here chronicles key individuals who defined 20th-century American culture. You'll meet Edith Wharton and Nina Simone, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dashiell Hammett, Katharine Hepburn, George Gershwin, and the soaring Chrysler Building, with Jazz Age genius paralleling bitter racial struggle.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.