Barry Gray (1)

why do folks write memoirs, especially folks who knew a lot of famous characters, and neglect to include an index of places and people and events? and why do people write memoirs that rarely include time and date references so that their reader can stay in tune with the time line of the writer's life?

those pet peeves stated (and which are part of my response to this fascinating and focused memoir) ... this is a breezy and specific (in some details .. the type of chair that burned in a cafe fire, for example) and at the same time oblique work ..

think of a series of linked cocktail party stories that have been pretty well honed over time. "and then there was the time that X came in to the studio" .. that kind of thing.

this read for THIS detail obsessed memoir lover was a wash of journal-y syntheses, occasionally augmented (and in this case book ended, usefully, providing a dramatic structure) by specifics related to a long term professional and personal vendetta .. between Barry Gray and a number of prominent persons whose feathers were variously ruffled by Gray himself or guests on his various radio programs. A bit of a name dropping adventure, but fun all the same and a glimpse into a night life and live radio world of the 1950s, 1960s that no longer exists.… (més)