A DARING YOUNG MAN: A Biography of William Saroyan
John Leggett, . . Knopf, $30 (480pp) ISBN 978-0-375-41301-8
Famous for his literary portrayal of failures and angry men, playwright William Saroyan (1908–1981) might have appreciated Leggett's depiction of his life as a "tragedy of rage and rejection." Leggett has experience with tragic author figures (he wrote an acclaimed biography of Ross Lockridge Jr. and of Thomas Heggan), and he describes in painstaking detail the hubris and callousness—not to mention the gambling debts—that destroyed Saroyan's once-charmed career. Though he became an international celebrity and consorted with literary and Hollywood luminaries from Hemingway to Greta Garbo, his impetuousness also caused him to lose his money and become estranged from most of his friends. Leggett offers keen insights into the motivations that drove Saroyan's outrageous behaviors, arguing, for example, that Saroyan rejected the Pulitzer in 1940 (for his play
Reviewed on: 10/07/2002
Genre: Nonfiction