Part IV – Byron on Books

The Byron Blog consists of writings, photographs and anecdotes related to my father Byron Dobell (1927-2017)

A bit of humor and history from the archives ~ 

From Byron's piece, “Telling a Book by Its Cover,” published in New York Magazine, October 6, 1968 (when Byron was the editor of Book World):

There is no one book on the publishers’ lists of the current season that is likely to raise the temperature of your martini by any measurable degree . . .

What follows, then, is a list of books that would seem to be the leading fall contenders for cocktail and dinner party chitchat. I assure you I have read none of them and that all this is merely an exercise in a telling a book by its cover . . .

10.  Pentagonism by Dr. Juan Bosch (Grove). The New York Review will do a 40,000-word review. The book is 20,000 words . . .

13.  The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten (McGraw-Hill). The blurb says “768 pages of folklore, history and anecdotes.” Mazel Tov!

14.  Revolutionary Immortality: Mao Tse-Tung and the Chinese Cultural Revolution by R. J. Lifton (Random House).  An important study but see item 10.

15.  How Babies Are Made (Time-Life). Seven-year-olds [Blogger's note: That was me!] and their parents will be talking about this book, which is doubtless the most charming introduction to sex for children, thanks to the paper cut-out illustrations by Blake Hampton. There was lots of fuss on the premises of Time Inc. about the use of a cross-section of a penis. What’s the matter with those people?

Finally, even though it doesn’t arrive until January, just beyond the season’s edge, we’ll end with one book that should be in a class with the most talked-about books of yesteryear. It’s Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint (Random House). Those who have read parts of it in Esquire, Partisan Review and the New American Review agree that it is the best written, funniest American novel of – here goes – my generation. It knocks most of the other talent in the room out the window. Will it cause a scandal? Well, for starters, it’s about masturbation and Jews. Talk all you want about this one, but please, darling, not in front of the children.

And here’s an excerpt from “Americana,” Byron’s review of holiday books for the New York Times Book Review in December 1983 (when he was the editor of American Heritage magazine):

If the Magi had traveled to Bethlehem bearing picture books, they’d still be en route. The weight alone of this season’s megabooks devoted to American life, history and art would be enough to flatten an army of Wise Men, not to mention a mere book reviewer with lower-back trouble. Fortunately, the express mail service has solved the heavy lifting problem these days, and the only remaining question is what we can learn about America from the current shipment. The answer seems to be, “Not much,” “Some,” and “A lot,” depending on whether the various texts spell out the specifics of the pictures (full captions, please) and make the necessary generalizations and connecting links without which the illustrations are just costly bonbons for the eye.

 

 In his 1983 holiday books review, Byron wrote about Oscar de Mejo: "He appears to be the only artistically successful history painter on the scene today."