Tag Archives: alcoholism

Life Span by Molly Giles: A Review

Posted on June 20, 2024 by Gabriella West

Molly Giles is best known as a gifted short-story writer, but this late-in-life memoir produces a different kind of sparkle. It’s a more vulnerable tale than her polished fiction, and the flashes of rage and ambivalence that reoccur throughout the … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Reviews, San Francisco | Tagged abuse, alcoholism, California writers, Creative Writing, dysfunctional parents, Golden Gate Bridge, marriage, memoir, men, Molly Giles, San Francisco State University, short stories, teaching, Woodacre, writing, WTAW Press | Leave a comment

A Final Word on Blake Bailey

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Gabriella West

You can’t keep a bad man down. That’s what sprang to mind when I read on Twitter yesterday that Blake Bailey’s infamous biography of Philip Roth, unpublished by Norton, had been picked up by Skyhorse Publishing and will be rushed … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, News, Personal, Writing | Tagged academics, alcoholism, biography, bisexuality, Blake Bailey, decline and fall, double lives, Eve Crawford Peyton, fathers, Lusher, Philip Roth, publishing, Rape, Scandal, Skyhorse Publishing, sons, The Splendid Things We Planned, Valentina Rice, W.W. Norton | Leave a comment

End of Year Reading

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Gabriella West

As the new year approaches, I’m burying myself in a good biography, something I love to do. This one is Douglas Botting’s bio of Gerald Durrell, which is available on Kindle US for the bewilderingly cheap price of $1.99 (it’s … Continue reading →