CHRIS AND ME

White offers a memoir about friendship and creative culture in Southern California.

This work chronicles the author’s life after he moved his small family from Texas to California. Although he initially took a job running bakeries for a businessman who had recently fled Iran, White eventually settled into a position at the University of Southern California. Part of his job was to recruit writers for the faculty—he would bring on board authors such as James Leo Herlihy, author of the novel Midnight Cowboy (1965). When the author wrote his first novel, Birdsong (1977), he received words of praise from an older, established writer named Christopher Isherwood (who is best known for his novel Goodbye to Berlin [1939], which inspired the musical Cabaret). It was not long thereafter that White traveled to Santa Monica to meet Isherwood; the encounter sparked a friendship that lasted until the older man’s death. Throughout his California adventures, the author discussed many personal topics in regular conversations with Isherwood (the two “talked about things that interested us both” on the phone). After Isherwood’s death, the author was given access to his extensive collection of papers and correspondences. (He also had the odd privilege of reading about himself in Isherwood’s diary.) At 100 pages, this memoir makes for a fast, informative read. The narrative launches readers into a specific time in Southern California—with references to writers like Herlihy and the artist David Hockney, the pages evoke a bygone Los Angeles full of creative, sometimes forgotten, people. Readers may need to further investigate some of the individuals who appear, like Robert Pirosh and Gloria Stuart, to fully appreciate their stories. Though a casual mention of, say, Franco Zeffirelli may not have the widest appeal, the highly specific and personal nature of White’s memoir makes for a touching account.

A brief yet intimate and clear-eyed look at artists and camaraderie in a changing world.