Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. For more than fifty years, his friends made a circle whose circumference was vast and whose center was a fashionable tenement on New York’s East Seventy-second street. Taxi drivers, hearing his address, would ask, “Isn’t that George Plimpton’s place?” George was always giving parties for his friends. It was one of the ways this generous man gave back.
This book is the party that was George’s life–and it’s a big one–attended by scores of people, including Peter Matthiessen, Robert Silvers, Jean Stein, William Styron, Maggie Paley, Gay Talese, Calvin Trillin, and Gore Vidal, as well as lesser-known intimates and acquaintances, each with candid and compelling stories to tell about George Plimpton and childhood rebellion, adult indiscretions, literary tastes, ego trips, loyalties and jealousies, riches and drugs, and embracing life no matter the consequences.
In George, Being George people feel free to say what guests say at parties when the subject of the conversation isn’t around anymore. Some even prove the adage that no best-loved man goes unpunished. Together, they provide a complete portrait of George Plimpton. They talk about his life: its privileged beginnings, its wild and triumphant middle, its brave, sad end. They say that George was a man of many parts: “the last gentleman”; founder and first editor of one of our best literary magazines, The Paris Review; the graceful writer who brought the New Journalism to sports in bestsellers such as Paper Lion, Bogey Man , and Out of My League ; and Everyman’s proxy boxer, trapeze artist, stand-up comic, Western movie villain, and Playboy centerfold photographer. And one of the brave men who wrestled Sirhan Sirhan, the armed assassin of his friend Bobby Kennedy, to the ground.
A Plimpton party was full of intelligent, funny, articulate people. So is this one. Many try hard to understand George, and some (not always the ones you would expect) are brilliant at it. Here is social life as it’s actually lived by New York’s elites. The only important difference between a party at George’s and this book is that no one here is drunk. They just talk about being drunk.
George’s last years were awesome, truly so. His greatest gift was to be a blessing to others–not all, sadly–and that gift ended only with his death. But his parties, if this is one, need never end at all.
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老实说,这本书的节奏感把握得相当老道,不像有些自传或人物志那样,在某个阶段会让人感到拖沓或乏味。作者似乎深谙“张弛有度”的艺术。在描绘乔治从默默无闻到声名鹊起的那段商业奋斗史时,那种步步为营的策略分析,简直可以作为商学院的案例来研究。他没有堆砌那些空洞的成功学口号,而是将每一次关键决策背后的犹豫、风险评估,以及那些常常被忽略的“小概率事件”的发生,都进行了近乎冷酷的拆解。我特别喜欢其中关于“市场心理学”的那几个章节,作者旁征博引,将乔治在面对行业颠覆时的那种临危不乱,归因于他对人性弱点的深刻洞察。然而,有趣的是,当叙事转向乔治的晚年生活,特别是他投身慈善事业后,笔调又变得极其舒缓和内省。那几段文字里,充满了对时间流逝的哲思,以及对“真正财富”的重新定义。从商战的硝烟到暮年的宁静,作者在两种截然不同的氛围中自如切换,让读者在紧张与放松之间找到了完美的平衡点,全程几乎没有让人想打瞌睡的空隙。
评分这本书的封面设计真是让人眼前一亮,那种带着微微泛黄的纸张质感,仿佛能透过封面闻到旧书店里特有的那种混合了灰尘和墨水的香气。我原本以为这会是一本沉闷的传记,毕竟“乔治”这个名字听起来就带着一股老派的庄重感,但翻开第一页后,我的感觉彻底被颠覆了。作者的叙事手法极其高明,他没有采用那种流水账式的编年史写法,而是像一位资深导游,带着你穿梭于乔治人生的各个关键节点。尤其是在描述他早年那段在乡间农场的经历时,那种细腻的笔触,将清晨薄雾中泥土的腥甜、牛棚里牲畜的呼吸声,描绘得栩栩如生。我甚至能想象出那个年轻的乔治,是如何在日出时分,用他那双略显粗糙的手,进行着日复一日的劳作。最让我印象深刻的是,作者在处理乔治与他那位严厉的父亲之间的矛盾时,没有简单地贴上“冲突”的标签,而是深入挖掘了父辈的时代局限性与个体情感之间的张力,那种无声的对抗和最终的和解,读起来让人心里五味杂陈,非常真实。这本书的阅读体验,就像是与一位久未谋面的老友进行了一次深入的、毫无保留的交谈,每一个转折都充满了人性的复杂与温暖。
评分这本书最让人感到震撼的,或许是它对“道德模糊地带”的处理方式。在乔治的一生中,显然存在着一些在主流叙事中常常被刻意淡化的争议性事件,比如他早期商业帝国扩张时期的那些铁腕手段,或者在关键时刻为了“更大的利益”而做出的某些牺牲。很多作者在处理这类问题时,要么选择美化,要么选择全盘否定。但这里的作者展现出了极高的勇气和专业素养,他没有回避,反而将这些“阴影”部分作为故事的核心矛盾来呈现。他没有急于给出评判,而是将所有证据和当事人的辩解都摆在桌面上,让读者自己去权衡和判断。我读到他为了实现某个宏伟蓝图而不得不“牺牲”掉一家小型合作企业时,那种挣扎和随之而来的巨大压力,被描绘得非常立体。这让我深刻体会到,伟大的成就往往不是建立在一尘不染的道德基石之上,而是建立在无数次艰难的、甚至是痛苦的“两难抉择”之中。这本书的价值,就在于它提供了一个复杂人性的全景图,而非一个简单的道德标杆。
评分我必须得提一下这本书的语言风格,简直是一场文字的盛宴。它的复杂性在于,它似乎能同时满足对学术严谨性有要求的读者,以及对文学美感有追求的爱好者。初读时,你会注意到那些教科书式的精确用词和严密的逻辑链条,尤其是在涉及乔治参与的几次重大政治斡旋时,那些引用的原始文件和会议记录,让人感觉自己仿佛置身于历史的现场,带着一种历史学家的审慎感。但紧接着,作者又会猝不及防地抛出一个极具画面感的比喻,或者是一句带着辛辣讽刺的俏皮话,瞬间打破了那种严肃感,让人会心一笑。例如,在描述某位政治对手的虚伪时,作者用“像穿着一件不合时宜的丝绸睡袍去参加阅兵仪式”来形容,这个比喻之精妙,让人拍案叫绝。这种在“冰冷的事实”与“炙热的洞察”之间的灵活游走,让这本书的阅读体验非常立体。它既让你思考“他做了什么”,更让你沉浸于“他是如何思考的”。这种文学上的张力,是很多人物传记所缺乏的,它超越了单纯的信息传递,达到了艺术再创作的层面。
评分从装帧和排版来看,这本书的制作水准绝对是出版界的典范。我特别留意到字体和行距的设置,它们的设计显然经过了深思熟虑,完美契合了长篇阅读的需求。纸张的选用,既保证了墨色的清晰度,又减少了长时间阅读带来的眼部疲劳,这在很多精装本中是难以兼顾的。但真正让我惊喜的是附录部分的处理。通常附录只是简单地罗列一下年表或参考文献,但这本书的附录部分更像是一个小型“幕后花絮集锦”。它包含了乔治的一些私人信件摘录,那些信件里的笔迹潦草而真实,透露出一种截然不同于公开场合的脆弱与真诚。还有几张老照片的扫描件,虽然清晰度不高,但那种历史的厚重感扑面而来。这些补充材料,非但没有打断主线故事的流畅性,反而像一个个精准的锚点,将读者牢牢地固定在那个逝去的时代氛围之中。这种对细节的极致追求,让整本书不仅仅是一部阅读材料,更像是一件值得收藏的文化物件。
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