THEY BOTH WERE NAKED

by Philip Wylie ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 1965

The third person doesn't exist for me, as a writer. Just the first."" That. way Phil Wylie manages to write novels which sound like autobiography and seem to him more ""me-seen."" And that's why readers get the feeling they're really kibitzing. It's the Generation of Vipers technique he innovated--a freeform novel in a kind of ranch style prose but this time he's only talking about booze a little, and pops rather than moms, and sex almost all the time, alias ""the schizophrenic facts of nowadays."" Phil takes a plane to address a scientific Symposium in San Francisco and en route he meets his old friend Ludie, now worth a hundred million. Before very long he plays ""Kildare,"" ""Ann Landers,"" and Freud, unofficially, while officially he is hired to write Ludie's life story. Some of the situations which don't go into the book involve Sam, Ludie's son; and Xenia, the girl with the ""singsong"" eyes and ultra-desirable body he picks out for Sam, and himself; and Xenia's problem with her father who has another problem--the hard stuff; and finally the last scene in which Ludie ""makes a piker of Oedipus."" ...""Damn it, Phil! How do you get the courage to expose yourself in books the way you've done?"" Well, Phil knows the answer. ""Aren't all writers--all creative people--exhibitionists?"" Some are, some are not, but his is not a shy talent. He talks. Sometimes critics talk back. But people read him.

Pub Date: Oct. 8, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1965

Categories: FICTION