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HERE WE ARE

Name: HERE WE ARE
Author: Benjamin Taylor
ISBN: 978-0-525-50524-2

MY FRIENDSHIP WITH PHILIP ROTH

by Benjamin Taylor ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 19, 2020

A touching and entertaining portrait of Roth that is sure to delight his many readers.

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A writer chronicles his long, intimate friendship with novelist Philip Roth (1933-2018). Roth was already considered one of America’s most esteemed living novelists (two National Book Awards, among other honors) when Taylor, a founding faculty member of the New School’s Graduate School of Writing, became acquainted with him in the mid-1990s. Roth’s past had also been marked by two miserable marriages, scores of past lovers, and increasingly debilitating health concerns. He was irascible and mercurial yet always candid and authentic, and in this slim, affectionate memoir, Taylor perfectly captures the essence of Roth’s charmingly enigmatic humor and complex behavior. He generously shares memories of their somewhat unexpected friendship, honing in on their quiet, often amusing moments together—e.g., Taylor convincing a reluctant Roth to sit through the classic Bette Davis chestnut Now Voyager despite Roth’s more highbrow film interests. “In keeping with the unseemliness of my profession (as he would say) I’d been taking notes all along,” writes Taylor. “A lot of conversation got squirreled away.” The author liberally quotes Roth throughout, yet some passages seem to be derived from Roth’s novels (a notes section would be helpful). Taylor was there for Roth throughout his declining years, and he poignantly reflects on this experience and what their friendship has meant to them both. “I can’t be the first gay man to have been an older straight man’s mainstay,” he writes. “Philip had searched diligently for a beautiful young woman to see to him as Jane Eyre looked after old Mr. Rochester. What he got instead was me. The degree of attachment surprised us both. Were we lovers? Obviously not. Were we in love? Not exactly. Sufficient to say that ours was a conversation neither could have done without.” A touching and entertaining portrait of Roth that is sure to delight his many readers.

Pub Date: May 19, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-525-50524-2

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Penguin

Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

- BOOK REVIEW
CHASING BRIGHT MEDUSAS
by Benjamin Taylor

- BOOK REVIEW
DEBRIEFING
by Susan Sontag ; edited by Benjamin Taylor

- BOOK REVIEW
THE HUE AND CRY AT OUR HOUSE
by Benjamin Taylor

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107 DAYS

by Kamala Harris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 2025

A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.

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An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.

Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”

A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025

ISBN: 9781668211656

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025

Categories:

- BOOK REVIEW
SUPERHEROES ARE EVERYWHERE
by Kamala Harris ; illustrated by Mechal Renee Roe

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TRUTHS WE HOLD
by Kamala Harris

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POEMS & PRAYERS

by Matthew McConaughey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 16, 2025

It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.

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A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”

McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.

It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.