A
Literary Saloon
&
Site of Review.

Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

Contents:

Main

the Best

the Rest

Review Index

Links

to e-mail us:

the complete review - biography

The Autobiography of
Alice B. Toklas

by
Gertrude Stein

general information | our review | links | about the author

- Return to top of the page -

Our Assessment:

B+ : gossipy, but an interesting portrait of the times

See our review for fuller assessment.

The complete review's Review:

       Written in a mere six week, Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas is an entertaining document. Written on behalf of Toklas (much as Defoe did for Robinson Crusoe, Stein suggests), the book is certainly as much about Stein as Toklas. While avoiding most mentions of true intimacy, Toklas is presented as a close and keen observer of Stein and her influence in Paris.
       Supremely self-assured, and convinced of her own genius Stein pulls off this neat feat of being center stage in an autobiography in which the first-person narrator (Alice B.) humbly defers to her. It is fun. Centered on the time that Stein spent in Paris, the autobiography does also fill in some of the details of Stein's youth (as well as a Toklas' origins). It provides a useful, if not entirely reliable, overview of Stein's life.
       Once Toklas joins Stein in France the focus is very much on who Stein knows and what role she plays among the artists of the day. The name-dropping and gossip amuse, because these are big and important names and Stein does give us unexpected glimpses of them. However, there is not that much depth to her account -- well and breezily related, it still is little more than idle gossip.
       Stein writes well, and the book is certainly fun to read. It gives an excellent picture of intellectual Europe (and specifically Paris) in the early 1900s, and the cast of characters -- from Picasso to Hemingway to regal Gertrude herself -- is hard to top. An amusing and worthwhile read, certainly recommended.

- Return to top of the page -

Links:

• Vintage publicity page
• Penguin Clasics publicity page

• Bookblog
• cult of degan
• A Good Book
• Bobby Matherne

• Gertrude Stein Online
• The World of Gertrude Stein
• Gertrude Stein at books and writers
• The Work of Gertrude Stein by William Carlos Williams
• Bibliography