Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1010277 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Absolutely worth reading!
For anyone who has ever felt envious of others around them in school, at work, or wherever, this book is a must read. About a start student with Mr. Trillin at Yale, the book details the unhappy life this apparent bright star led after college. It's tough to put it down and by the end I felt I had a better sense a the qualities many of us have but for which we do give ourselves much credit.

Should Have Been a New Yorker Article
Calvin Trillin's examination of the spectacular youth and troubled adulthood of his college idol, Denny, is at first an engaging look at the gee-wiz idealism of 1950's Ivy Leaguers, but quickly becomes a tiresome guilt trip. Trillin's worship of his friend borders on the homoerotic. His obssessive need to keep Denny as a symbol kept Trilling from seeing Denny as he really was when living, and now keeps him him from realizing that the details of Denny's life are not as endlessly fascinating to the world as they are to Trillin himself. To the extent that Denny's plight reflects the repressive culture of the 1950's Trillin has the germ of a fine feature article, but a note attached to the book by a friend to whom I had loaned it sums it up nicely: "Made it to page 100. Couldn't take any more about Denny."

Trillin's unanswered questions a disappointing cop-out
Calvin Trillin sets the stage for a potentially fascinating expose; however, he fails to deliver when he leaves the most important question unanswered. Why did Denny kill himself? It is understandable that an author could take the position of "no one will ever know," but Trillin points out that he had a chance to know. This is evidenced by his quote from one of Denny's recent acquaintances "Roger would have said you didn't know him at all." Come on, Calvin, that was your chance. Get to know Denny and fill us in. It is anticlimactic to get to know Denny in the 50's era so well, and then be left totally in the cold about the end of his life, and who he ultimately became.