DIARY OF A SIMPLE MAN

by Peter Cohen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 28, 1962

A young, post-collegiate nomad of the ""mauled"", not quite ""beat"", contingent narrates the course of his ineffectual existence as he drifts from San Francisco to New York to London to Paris in search of the ""simple life"". But simplicity here means religious evasion of all responsibility--vocational, moral, and personal. In his efforts to ""keep it light, keep it gay"" in several quarters at once, he drives away the one girl who might possibly have accepted his erratic version of love. Robert's dilemma is a real one facing many ""abnormally sensitive"" (in his own modest appraisal) young people; and wading through parties, women, and liquor is a feckless, but not uncommon, solution. The suitably fragmented narrative, with its apt recordings of city colloquies overheard at bars and baseball games, makes for an ingenuous streaming waterfall of consciousness. Some pointed writing for sympathetic compatriots of the ""free agent"" school.

Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1962

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1962

Categories: FICTION