So well summarized. I also was, and am, a Bourdain fan and this book included a couple details I didn’t know. I think it’s so important to learn from others’ stories. Although he ended his life too soon, his legacy, story, and struggles will likely help many others as they learn about him—and I think he would be happy about that.
Having wrestled with suicidal ideations for decades this was particularly poignant and, I think, an important biography. I was not a rabid follower but I loved his work and admired his creativity, depth, and breadth he brought to something as ordinary as "local food". I get the tension between creativity and the prison of success: Creativity is always looking past what you have done and are doing to something else you want to do. There is only so much freedom within your current art and when everything you are as a person and all of your relationships and your livelihood and a world of expectations are defined by your fame for your current "stuff" and you don't have something beyond yourself as an antidote, it is an existential cancer. Richard Cory is cliché perhaps, but "all" is inadequate to fill the soul even if we expended our life's energy to get it. Great review. I think you captured the essence of his trajectory. I too think I need to push this to the top of my nightstand wish list.
Great newsletter! I watched a few of his shows over time, but I didn't become fascinated with him until after his death. I couldn't understanding why someone that looked like they had everything would resort to suicide. It goes to show you that no matter what the outside looks like, this inside can be completely different. I have Woolever's book, but haven't read it yet. I think it's about time to move it to the top of my TBR. Thanks.
Asia Argento was, in a word, that man’s undoing. She got him to pay money to silence her accuser, then she she jumped on the hashtag me too movement, seeking to further her fame, while Bourdain was made to suffer in silence around her hypocrisy and the knowledge that what he had done for her would absolutely ruin his career, and the life of fame and fortune he’d created for himself, if those facts were ever revealed. Which they were, eventually, after he died. Argento was a black widow who cunningly invited Bourdain into her web, then so devastated his life that, I believe, in many ways he felt he had no choice but to take his own, in order to evade the coming implosion and the enduring public shame that would be his if he were alive when it was all revealed.
So well summarized. I also was, and am, a Bourdain fan and this book included a couple details I didn’t know. I think it’s so important to learn from others’ stories. Although he ended his life too soon, his legacy, story, and struggles will likely help many others as they learn about him—and I think he would be happy about that.
Having wrestled with suicidal ideations for decades this was particularly poignant and, I think, an important biography. I was not a rabid follower but I loved his work and admired his creativity, depth, and breadth he brought to something as ordinary as "local food". I get the tension between creativity and the prison of success: Creativity is always looking past what you have done and are doing to something else you want to do. There is only so much freedom within your current art and when everything you are as a person and all of your relationships and your livelihood and a world of expectations are defined by your fame for your current "stuff" and you don't have something beyond yourself as an antidote, it is an existential cancer. Richard Cory is cliché perhaps, but "all" is inadequate to fill the soul even if we expended our life's energy to get it. Great review. I think you captured the essence of his trajectory. I too think I need to push this to the top of my nightstand wish list.
Thanks, Steve. And thanks for sharing a bit about your struggles. I bet you’ll love the book.
Great newsletter! I watched a few of his shows over time, but I didn't become fascinated with him until after his death. I couldn't understanding why someone that looked like they had everything would resort to suicide. It goes to show you that no matter what the outside looks like, this inside can be completely different. I have Woolever's book, but haven't read it yet. I think it's about time to move it to the top of my TBR. Thanks.
I’m glad the review edged Woolever’s book to the top! I found it riveting.
Asia Argento was, in a word, that man’s undoing. She got him to pay money to silence her accuser, then she she jumped on the hashtag me too movement, seeking to further her fame, while Bourdain was made to suffer in silence around her hypocrisy and the knowledge that what he had done for her would absolutely ruin his career, and the life of fame and fortune he’d created for himself, if those facts were ever revealed. Which they were, eventually, after he died. Argento was a black widow who cunningly invited Bourdain into her web, then so devastated his life that, I believe, in many ways he felt he had no choice but to take his own, in order to evade the coming implosion and the enduring public shame that would be his if he were alive when it was all revealed.