What I've been reading

[sarahmichigan]

"The Shameful Life of Salvador Dali" by Ian Gibson. Well-researched, and this very long book has wonderful color plates in the middle and black and white illustrations and photos throughout. It was definitely worth the time investment to get this snapshot of a time and place that I didn't know much about before.

and

"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver. Despite the rather scathing and lengthy critique of this book's faults in a previous post, I DID like the book. I especially liked that, as a book on CD, it was read by the authors: Kingsolver, her husband and her teenage daughter. Overall, I'd recommend it, but I'd also recommend staying skeptical and doing your own research and thinking in addition.

My full comments on both books here.

Comments

[seifaiden.livejournal.com]

The important question: WAS Salvador Dali's life shameful? I know the guy had some serious hang-ups about sex but not so many details.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Gibson makes a compelling case that the feeling of shame dogged Dali his entire life, even while extremely rich and famous, and that it informed much (if not most) of his paintings. Look at a gallery of Dali paintings and note how many involve someone covering his face in shame...