I suppose one of the quickest way to get an idea about someone is to look at their bookcase, or even better, to talk to them about books which have inspired them and guided them through life. Quite a few writers have been tempted to write about their life in books - I'm thinking about Francis Spufford (The Child that Books Built), John Sutherland (The Boy Who Loved Books) and Alberto Manguel (A Reading Diary) to name a few among many. I greatly enjoyed reading these and in any case, I collect "books about books", and when I saw Rick Gekoski's new books, Outside of a Dog, it had to be mine.
Rick is not the first person to write his life story in the context of the books he's read, but this one is as good as any and was a read both amusing and informative. I'll quote from the publisher's website to list some of the books covered:
Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg;
Magnus Hirschfeld Sexual Anomalies and Perversions;
Allen Ginsberg, Howl;
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye;
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land;
Descartes, Meditations;
David Hume, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding;
W.B. Yeats, The Collected Poems;
F.R. Leavis, The Common Pursuit;
Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy;
Tom Wolfe,The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test;
Ludwig Wittgenstein,Philosophical Investigations;
R.D. Laing, The Divided Self;
Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch;
D.H. Lawrence,Women in Love;
A.S. Neill, Summerhill;
Roald Dahl, Matilda;
Alice Miller, Pictures of a Childhood;
A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic;
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams;
Carl Hiaasen, Double Whammy;
Peter Wright,Spycatcher; and
Rick Gekoski, Staying Up.
And there was a good enough mix of the familiar and the new to keep my interest throughout. Rick is basically an academic (ex-lecturer in English at Warwick University) turned rare book dealer, and has many contacts in the world of literature. And oh yes, he's been a judge on the Man Booker Prize. So, as far as literature is concerned I guess he's qualified to write about books, which he does eruditely, knowledgeably and perhaps above all, humorously.
Rick's book is not just about books of course, but also about himself, and I have to say, his life has been interesting. He writes about his childhood in a way which explains his love of reading, and like so many avid readers, their literary imagaination seems to have come alive through gaining access to an adult library at an early age. I remember at age 14 being able to graduate from the junior public library to the adult library, and finding riches there beyond belief. My own interest seems to have been in humour (Patrick Campbell, Georges Mikes, Leo Rosten, Stephen Potter), whereas Rick Gekoski seems to have got his rocks off by exploring his parents extensive library of psycho-sexual literature, whether Psychopathia Sexualis by Krafft-Ebing, or Sexual Anomalies and Perversions by Magunus Hirschfield.
Thankfully this stage seems not to have lasted too long and in no time Rick was deep in Holden Caulfield's life in Catcher in The Rye (ah, EVERYONE I knew back then seemed to read Catcher, but how many young people know it today?).
And then Rick read T S Eliot, The Waste Land, and I just have to agree with his choice and the influence it had on him. I read it when I was about fifteen and remember spending whole evenings trying to decode is mysteries and to grasp hold of the word pictures it presented to me. It inspired me to write, and what greater commendation is there than that? Wonderful stuff: - and then to discover so much more in Four Quartets, which I soon found was recorded on LP records by Alex Guiness whose rich, actorial voice so enhanced my understanding of Little Gidding.
Isn't the pleasure of reading a book like Outside of a Dog so much to do with discovering shared experiences, that sense of inwardly saying, "Ah yes", when the writer enthuses about one's own literary loves?
Rick progresses through some fairly esoteric stuff on his journey to Silence of the Lambs (and yes, I agree, even Robert Harris deserves a place in the canon because of his creation of Hannibal Lecter, a character so real he must jump off any page that contains a mention of him). But to reach Lecter we progress through R D Laing, Germaine Greer (this is a very 60s list at this point), and even touches on Hume, Descartes and A J Eyer.
I was quite pleased to see Carl Hiassen in Rick's list, for we must all have some lighter reads to keep us going (I confess to reading every Lee Child book as it is released), but it was fascinating to read Rick's encounters with the Cambridge spies - Kim Philby etc, and Rick actually travelled to Moscow to meet Mrs Philby.
This really is a very interesting book which must keep any avid reader interested throughout its 300 pages. I reached the end and could have done with more, and what greater tribute to a book is there than that? Its a great book to dip into, and also one to read from cover to cover in a couple of days. I am sure it will remain on my shelves as a regular reference point and I'm pleased I bought it.
