BERTOLT BRECHT - A LITERARY LIFE by STEPHEN PARKER - BOOK (NEW)

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“A magisterial biography of Brecht ... Parker's choice to present new material very much through the prism of the artist is compelling ... Fascinating reading.” ―The Independent

“We should be grateful to [Parker] for reminding us how important, love him or loathe him, Brecht was – and still is.” ―The Sunday Times

“Stephen Parker's Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life is that rare thing, not only the biography of a genius, but itself a biography of genius. Parker, a Professor of German at Manchester, has written a foot perfect, detailed, fascinating and really inward book on a man who was plausibly described as “one of the most complicated human beings of the past fifty years”. It may well be the best literary biography I have read, the intricate demands of the subject met and unfussily answered by the insightful calm and nuanced decisiveness of the biographer . . . His is indeed one of the great literary lives, and Parker's book is every bit as good as it needs to be” ―The Times Literary Supplement

“Stephen Parker has written an extraordinary work about a man he also repeatedly finds extraordinary, giving his book unusual liveliness and spontaneity … [T]his is by far the fullest of any English-language source, and it is the fullest biography in any language, making good use of the magnificent chronology of Brecht's life of over 1,300 pages by Werner Hecht.” ―Camden New Journal

“Stephen Parker's superb biography of a great iconoclastic writer is impressively sourced, rich in detail, well-paced, highly readable yet serious.” ―London Review of Books

“Stephen Parker powerfully evokes Brecht's life within a set of historical circumstances, without sacrificing the complexity of one to the other, in 'Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life'… Parker strikes a delicate balance between the historical events and the more temperamental qualities of Brecht's that informed his writing, be it his lifelong inability to temper his sexual appetite or manage his frail body. In particular, Parker emphasizes the latter in the way that Brecht's writings, even at his most Leninist moments, revolve around a feeling of bodily precarity and appetite-driven excess. Parker's success is the caution and deliberateness with which he traces Brecht's multifaceted, contradictory personality and artistic corpus…. succeeds remarkably in animating the world of political instability and terror that Brecht lived through, where the failure of the Left to coalesce enabled the rise of Fascism.” ―The Michigan Daily

“Parker's Brecht is a tangle of contradictions, a man led but sometimes disorientated by ideology, art and love. This superb biography may not endear us to him but it certainly brings us closer.” ―The Catholic Tablet

“[A] valuable source of information and insight.” ―Morning Star

“This immense dive into the life and work of the 20th-century German playwright and poet offers letters, diaries, and unpublished material to shed more light on his early life, all the way through to his 'transformative impact on world theater and poetry,' according to the book's dust jacket. Written by Stephen Parker, the book is out now. Perfect beach reading!” ―Backstage.com