Lee Israel's Can You Ever Forgive Me?
In the short time that I've been reading biographical nonfiction for enjoyment, I've come up with an way of categorizing different types of memoirs. To my mind (for now, this may change as time passes as I read more), there are at least three different kinds of memoirs.
First, there are what I'd call "Overview Memoirs". I, Asimov is a prime example of this. This sort of memoir had the writer taking the reader through the whole story of their life up to the present time (the point at which they're writing).
Second, there are "Focal Point Memoirs". These sorts of memoirs cover a slender, brief experience of the author's life. In this case, the author only gives you the details of that experience, the events leading up to it, and the aftermath of it. Most memoirs by former presidents who publish books about their terms write this sort of book.
Finally, there are "Period Memoirs," which is sort of a hybrid of the former two. In this case, the author usually covers a stretch of their life, but only a stretch. In this case, think of the series of autobiographies that Maya Angelou wrote, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
In the case of Lee Israel's Can You Ever Forgive Me?, I think I can safely say this is a "Focal Point Memoir".
Like most of you, before I heard about the film adaptation of Can You Ever Forgive Me? starring Melissa McCarthy in the role of Israel, I had never heard of Lee Israel or her memoir. But unlike some of you (you know who you are), the moment I found out that this film was actually based on a book, I went out and bought the book to read. Having gotten addicted to reading autobiography, biography, and memoir (thanks to Isaac Asimov), I saw this as a way of feeding my new, harmless addiction.
I had very little in the way of expectations for this book. All I knew--from what I'd gleamed from the above film trailer--that this book was about Israel's time as a forger of letters of notable people. She was going to recount this particular time in her life, what lead to it, and what the aftermath of it was.
What I ended up getting was a wonderfully witty and hilarious tale of desperate perseverance in the face of life's hardships.
For those who haven't read the book or seen the film, let me give you just a brief synopsis of the yarn Israel spins for us.
Lee Israel was (key verb there), at one time a highly successful author of nonfiction. She regularly freelanced for several magazines in New York City, and she even wrote several highly success biographies about famous ladies of show business, including one about the actress Tallulah Bankhead and noted panelist of What's My Line? Dorothy Kilgallen. These books, plus her work as a journalist herself, set her up in New York apartment.
However, her life as a respectable scribe-for-hire ended with the publication of her biography of noted cosmetics tycoon (that's a fancy word for huckster), Estee Lauder. What killed the book's success was the release of Lauder's own autobiography, which her publisher timed to come out exactly at the same time as Israel's book. (So it could be said Estee Lauder made Lee Israel into a letter forger). Israel even called the book a "mistake" in her memoir. It was a hack-job, churned out in months, for money, and it was a hack-job that killed her writing career--her legit writing career that is.
After trying and failing to make a living as a wage laborer (something no one should do unless they've got no other skills), Israel turned her typing fingers to writing letters made to look like noted authors and personalities like Edna Ferber, Dorothy Parker, Louise Brooks, and Noel Coward, had written them. And, that's where the fun of this book really begins.
I enjoyed every page of this book. Sentence by sentence, it was clear just how easy (or rather seemingly easy--writing, even for a seasons pro, is never easy), it was for Israel to impersonate her list of celebrity epistolarians. Her style is sharp, witty, and, caustically funny:
"The AA crowd calls it "drinking and dialing." A plethora of people had ceased to return my calls--important people in publishing and media. Loaded up, usually on gin, and adoring my own larkiness, I'd telephone somebody who was once my buddy but was now in "meetings" all the time. I'd make a second call, with just a slight change in attitude and voice, identifying myself often as Nora Ephron. The erstwhile conferee would come on in a trice, and usually with a warm "Hiya, Nora," whereupon I should "Star fucker! is that one word or two?" and hung up."
The fact that she could impersonate wits, like Coward (the King of British Theatre in the 1920s & 30s) and Parker (the Queen of the Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s), is no surprise once you look at her words. Writing like this also displays just how good Israel was, making her story all the more tragic in its own way. She had talent, and the fell clutch of circumstance deprived her of a life that would enable her to use it well. As Vonnegut wrote, "So it goes."
Her writing, as is the case for all writers (and artists in general), was what mattered most to her. Given she had precious little in life, besides her cat, this is extra understandable. And, it's something she clearly wishes for any readers of this book to understand. She wouldn't have gone through the painstaking details of describing how she bought numerous antique typewriters--to imitate the correct typefaces of her senders--and special paper to make her letters seem authentic. Also, who would describe how they learned to forge signatures if they didn't take a little pride in it?
It's clear from the writing though that Israel was not an easy person. The tone she maintains throughout the book, particularly when she talks about people, most of whom (aside from Jack Hock, her fellow outsider down-and-out), go unnamed, makes it clear she was not a social butterfly. I'm certain that people who knew her probably regularly used the phrase "pain in the ass" to describe her.
It's also clear that she was a very private person. Biographer and Popular Historian David McCullough noted that what people don't mention is often as important and telling as what they do mention. Israel reveals precious little about her life before this focal point in her life. Additionally, besides mentioning that she managed to get work as a copyeditor for Scholastics after the events of her narrative, she reveals nothing about her life afterwards.
Yet, despite that enclosed and prickly personality, there is an undeniable likeability to her as well. That indifferent attitude toward her fellow human, coupled with her obvious confidence and sense of self-worth, makes the voice she projects in this book undeniably enjoyable. I'm sure the few people she was close to who called her a "pain in the ass" also thought she was hoot, especially after a few drinks. I certainly ended up liking her a great deal...in the same way I like Al Capone. Sure, he was a criminal, but at least he had style. And so did Lee Israel
First, there are what I'd call "Overview Memoirs". I, Asimov is a prime example of this. This sort of memoir had the writer taking the reader through the whole story of their life up to the present time (the point at which they're writing).
Second, there are "Focal Point Memoirs". These sorts of memoirs cover a slender, brief experience of the author's life. In this case, the author only gives you the details of that experience, the events leading up to it, and the aftermath of it. Most memoirs by former presidents who publish books about their terms write this sort of book.Finally, there are "Period Memoirs," which is sort of a hybrid of the former two. In this case, the author usually covers a stretch of their life, but only a stretch. In this case, think of the series of autobiographies that Maya Angelou wrote, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
In the case of Lee Israel's Can You Ever Forgive Me?, I think I can safely say this is a "Focal Point Memoir".
Like most of you, before I heard about the film adaptation of Can You Ever Forgive Me? starring Melissa McCarthy in the role of Israel, I had never heard of Lee Israel or her memoir. But unlike some of you (you know who you are), the moment I found out that this film was actually based on a book, I went out and bought the book to read. Having gotten addicted to reading autobiography, biography, and memoir (thanks to Isaac Asimov), I saw this as a way of feeding my new, harmless addiction.
I had very little in the way of expectations for this book. All I knew--from what I'd gleamed from the above film trailer--that this book was about Israel's time as a forger of letters of notable people. She was going to recount this particular time in her life, what lead to it, and what the aftermath of it was.
What I ended up getting was a wonderfully witty and hilarious tale of desperate perseverance in the face of life's hardships.
For those who haven't read the book or seen the film, let me give you just a brief synopsis of the yarn Israel spins for us.
Lee Israel was (key verb there), at one time a highly successful author of nonfiction. She regularly freelanced for several magazines in New York City, and she even wrote several highly success biographies about famous ladies of show business, including one about the actress Tallulah Bankhead and noted panelist of What's My Line? Dorothy Kilgallen. These books, plus her work as a journalist herself, set her up in New York apartment.
However, her life as a respectable scribe-for-hire ended with the publication of her biography of noted cosmetics tycoon (that's a fancy word for huckster), Estee Lauder. What killed the book's success was the release of Lauder's own autobiography, which her publisher timed to come out exactly at the same time as Israel's book. (So it could be said Estee Lauder made Lee Israel into a letter forger). Israel even called the book a "mistake" in her memoir. It was a hack-job, churned out in months, for money, and it was a hack-job that killed her writing career--her legit writing career that is.
After trying and failing to make a living as a wage laborer (something no one should do unless they've got no other skills), Israel turned her typing fingers to writing letters made to look like noted authors and personalities like Edna Ferber, Dorothy Parker, Louise Brooks, and Noel Coward, had written them. And, that's where the fun of this book really begins.
I enjoyed every page of this book. Sentence by sentence, it was clear just how easy (or rather seemingly easy--writing, even for a seasons pro, is never easy), it was for Israel to impersonate her list of celebrity epistolarians. Her style is sharp, witty, and, caustically funny:
"The AA crowd calls it "drinking and dialing." A plethora of people had ceased to return my calls--important people in publishing and media. Loaded up, usually on gin, and adoring my own larkiness, I'd telephone somebody who was once my buddy but was now in "meetings" all the time. I'd make a second call, with just a slight change in attitude and voice, identifying myself often as Nora Ephron. The erstwhile conferee would come on in a trice, and usually with a warm "Hiya, Nora," whereupon I should "Star fucker! is that one word or two?" and hung up."
The fact that she could impersonate wits, like Coward (the King of British Theatre in the 1920s & 30s) and Parker (the Queen of the Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s), is no surprise once you look at her words. Writing like this also displays just how good Israel was, making her story all the more tragic in its own way. She had talent, and the fell clutch of circumstance deprived her of a life that would enable her to use it well. As Vonnegut wrote, "So it goes."
Her writing, as is the case for all writers (and artists in general), was what mattered most to her. Given she had precious little in life, besides her cat, this is extra understandable. And, it's something she clearly wishes for any readers of this book to understand. She wouldn't have gone through the painstaking details of describing how she bought numerous antique typewriters--to imitate the correct typefaces of her senders--and special paper to make her letters seem authentic. Also, who would describe how they learned to forge signatures if they didn't take a little pride in it?
It's clear from the writing though that Israel was not an easy person. The tone she maintains throughout the book, particularly when she talks about people, most of whom (aside from Jack Hock, her fellow outsider down-and-out), go unnamed, makes it clear she was not a social butterfly. I'm certain that people who knew her probably regularly used the phrase "pain in the ass" to describe her.
It's also clear that she was a very private person. Biographer and Popular Historian David McCullough noted that what people don't mention is often as important and telling as what they do mention. Israel reveals precious little about her life before this focal point in her life. Additionally, besides mentioning that she managed to get work as a copyeditor for Scholastics after the events of her narrative, she reveals nothing about her life afterwards.
Yet, despite that enclosed and prickly personality, there is an undeniable likeability to her as well. That indifferent attitude toward her fellow human, coupled with her obvious confidence and sense of self-worth, makes the voice she projects in this book undeniably enjoyable. I'm sure the few people she was close to who called her a "pain in the ass" also thought she was hoot, especially after a few drinks. I certainly ended up liking her a great deal...in the same way I like Al Capone. Sure, he was a criminal, but at least he had style. And so did Lee Israel
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