markm reviewed But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer
Review of 'But Beautiful' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Sort of an imagined biography of several great jazz musicians of the 40s and 50s. The author uses the quality of each artist's music to model the imagery with which he describes them. The stories are similar with racism, mental illness and drug addiction playing important roles in almost every case.
There is a danger of romanticizing all of this with the usual comments that boil down to great artists must suffer.
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I think it is helpful to recall that before the discovery of Koch's bacillus (and for some time afterwards!), Tuberculosis was linked in literature and common thought with the artistic, the hyper sexual, and so forth. It does seem that depression, suicide and drug addiction are more common in creative people, but once a clear genetic linkage is found (if it is), the more artistic comments may seem silly - i.e. it may not be that great …
Sort of an imagined biography of several great jazz musicians of the 40s and 50s. The author uses the quality of each artist's music to model the imagery with which he describes them. The stories are similar with racism, mental illness and drug addiction playing important roles in almost every case.
There is a danger of romanticizing all of this with the usual comments that boil down to great artists must suffer.
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I think it is helpful to recall that before the discovery of Koch's bacillus (and for some time afterwards!), Tuberculosis was linked in literature and common thought with the artistic, the hyper sexual, and so forth. It does seem that depression, suicide and drug addiction are more common in creative people, but once a clear genetic linkage is found (if it is), the more artistic comments may seem silly - i.e. it may not be that great artists must suffer, just that they do.
