Welcome to Litsy!

End of vacation week and finally couldn‘t ignore my TBR and the Bookbub sale. Lucky I was able to hold to 10 (very lucky).

This was a very thought-provoking book which, while I finished it nearly a week ago, I'm still digesting. Lepore tracks her own investigation into Joe Gould as well as providing a somewhat fuller/broader biography of him than what Mitchell wrote. It self-consiously engages with the nature of biography and the larger historical concern of who is remembered/deemed important, as well as Gould's very complicated relationship with this concern.

February #BookHaul ! I picked up The Hazel Wood as soon as it arrived, though I set it down around the 80 pg mark over a week ago and haven't picked it up since - I'm planning to give it another go tonight before I decide on setting it aside or not. However, Joe Gould's Teeth is what I'm most looking forward to next - it's going straight to the nightstand! 🤓

A fascinating nonfiction book about an eccentric man who believed he was writing the oral history of the world. The best part was not the details about Joe, but instead the details about a woman named Augusta Savage. She was an African-American artist during the Harlem Renaissance. Gould was obsessed with her and constantly harassed her, but her life and work rises above his insanity.

So, the beginning is a bit uneven, it's not about teeth at all, and the author's entry into the book at various points is disruptive, but Joe Gould himself is so fascinating this is worthwhile. I would love a deeper exploration of him (if possible) and a guess at his DSM diagnosis. Quick read.

Like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, the more Lepore uncovered, the less I felt I knew. Is it possible that words, letters, books, archives can obscure, even erase a person? I felt like I learned more about his obsession Augusta Savage, who destroyed everything she could and died in anonymity.

I think every nonfiction writer should read Joe Gould's Secret and then follow up with this new investigation by Lepore. Makes you think about how subject and writer effect each other's stories, sometimes in a lifelong way.

Jill Lepore's latest book sounds fascinating. I'm finally going to read 'The Secret History of Wonder Woman' next month.