16 Oct 2010 18:25:44
Wills meets the challenge with his usual literary aplomb. This collection of well-crafted essays, in which he revisits people he has encountered and events he has witnessed as a journalist, professor and historian, might be the only later-in-life memoir we will see from the busy Pulitzer Prize winner.
He seems comfortable in his own skin, whether it's as a bookish teenager who annoyed his father by reading so much or as a conventional adult who never smoked marijuana (or even tobacco) and never looked for love beyond his one and only. For many in his circle, he became the go-to guy for all things Catholic, the churchgoer who carried a copy of the New Testament (in Greek) for on-demand spiritual sustenance.
Wills made himself heard through his writing. A conservative who opposed the Vietnam War, wrote critically of Richard Nixon and concluded that Alger Hiss was indeed guilty of treason, he could be difficult to pigeonhole politically. That he was close to the left-wing oral historian Studs Terkel and to the right-wing columnist William F. Buckley Jr. is a reminder that one who revels in intellectual inquiry can treasure the company of all kinds of people.
Though loyal and empathetic, Wills is not blind to the flaws of friends and loved ones. Among the few people who merit their own chapters are his father and Buckley. Both men were risk-takers who brought to his life an excitement and recklessness that he couldn't generate himself. One of the few regrets he expresses is the 30-year silence that followed a disagreement with Buckley.
Some people rubbed Wills the wrong way — conspiracy theorists, religious hypocrites and self-centered actors don't fare well in his memory — and he recalls a slight with apparent ease. More readily, he recollects a kindness. Hillary Rodham Clinton insisted on a hug instead of a cordial handshake even though her friend had recently suggested that her husband resign after the Monica Lewinsky affair.
This slender book couldn't be a more fitting way for an insightful writer to cherish the years he has spent observing others.
He seems comfortable in his own skin, whether it's as a bookish teenager who annoyed his father by reading so much or as a conventional adult who never smoked marijuana (or even tobacco) and never looked for love beyond his one and only. For many in his circle, he became the go-to guy for all things Catholic, the churchgoer who carried a copy of the New Testament (in Greek) for on-demand spiritual sustenance.
Wills made himself heard through his writing. A conservative who opposed the Vietnam War, wrote critically of Richard Nixon and concluded that Alger Hiss was indeed guilty of treason, he could be difficult to pigeonhole politically. That he was close to the left-wing oral historian Studs Terkel and to the right-wing columnist William F. Buckley Jr. is a reminder that one who revels in intellectual inquiry can treasure the company of all kinds of people.
Though loyal and empathetic, Wills is not blind to the flaws of friends and loved ones. Among the few people who merit their own chapters are his father and Buckley. Both men were risk-takers who brought to his life an excitement and recklessness that he couldn't generate himself. One of the few regrets he expresses is the 30-year silence that followed a disagreement with Buckley.
Some people rubbed Wills the wrong way — conspiracy theorists, religious hypocrites and self-centered actors don't fare well in his memory — and he recalls a slight with apparent ease. More readily, he recollects a kindness. Hillary Rodham Clinton insisted on a hug instead of a cordial handshake even though her friend had recently suggested that her husband resign after the Monica Lewinsky affair.
This slender book couldn't be a more fitting way for an insightful writer to cherish the years he has spent observing others.
