emartin reviewed Joe Gould's Secret by Joseph Mitchell
Portrait of an Eccentric
1 star
The story has themes reminiscent of The Dispossessed and of folk stories of the "fool". A character in 1920/30s New York that goes against society by being a life long bohemian. He does not want to own things for fear they will own him, feels more at peace with no money than with, and he goes out of his way to disrupt the norm. However, where stories of the fool tend to have a lesson in morals, Joe Gould's antics seem random. And where the philosophy of The Dispossessed in based on community, his lifestyle is self serving and in the end alienating. It is ultimately a portrait of selfishness.
