My Vita, If You Will: The Uncollected Ed McClanahan

by Ed McClanahan

Book Overview

If you don't know Ed McClanahan, this "anthology of his essays, reviews, short stories, and novel excerpts (from early drafts) ought to do the trick" (Booklist).

Highlighting the collection is "Grateful Dead I Have Known," a long prize-winning meditation about Jerry Garcia and the fanatical devotion of his fans. Also collected here for the first time are McClanahans's earliest short stories, along with book reviews, lost chapters...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1887178775
• ISBN13: 9781887178778
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Catapult
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A miscellany, clever but sadly dated

Ed McClanahan is a Kentuckian who spent most of the 60's and 70's "riding the Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing circuit" at various Western universities, including Stanford, during which decades he participated in the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements and joined in the drug- and alcohol-fueled high jinks of the time, perhaps best exemplified by Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. McClanahan has three published books of fiction to his name (none of which I have read). MY VITA, IF YOU WILL is a collection of miscellaneous other works from his career, both fiction and non-fiction, most of which are revised somewhat, together with a couple essays written expressly for this book. In addition, each piece is accompanied by an "End Note," which provides retrospective commentary on the piece, or updates it, or somehow relates it to McClanahan's career as a writer and his sojourn on earth. I was relatively unimpressed by the six fiction pieces, although their inclusion is arguably justified on the grounds of showing the process of McClanahan "finding his voice" as a writer. The non-fiction pieces are clever, irreverent, satirical, anecdotal -- very much typical of the "New Journalism" a la Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson -- and moderately entertaining. Cumulatively, together with the End Notes, the non-fiction pieces provide a good picture of a certain era and segment of American society, besotted and benighted and, looking back from 30+ years, sadly dated and not particularly lamented. Of chief interest to me were the pictures of personalities from the era whom McClanahan knew and, to varying degrees of intimacy, interacted with -- Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, Richard Brautigan, Paul Krassner, and Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. (I especially like the description of Garcia "yawning and stretching and scratching like a freshly dehibernated bear.") Among figures more literary in nature who make appearances in the book are Robert Stone, Bernard Malamud, Wallace Stegner, and Wendell Berry. (Berry is a fellow Kentuckian and long-time friend and some-time neighbor of McClanahan's; he writes an afterword of sorts to the book, which is just about the best piece of writing in MY VITA.) There are many witty lines, many clever and ironic digs at the "Establishment" or of self-deprecation, and some funny episodes (the account of the drunken afternoon and evening McClanahan shared with Richard Brautigan, Gurney Norman, and Ken Kesey is hilarious). But the style, although perhaps fresh and welcome in an article in "Rolling Stone" or "Playboy", does not wear well for an entire book, and there is very little of lasting value. Three-and-a-half stars. I tossed a coin to determine whether to round up or down. It came up heads.

A new form of literature happening in our time

Ed McClanahan is one of those writers that many years down the road you will wish you had each of his books in first edition hardback on your shelf.His voice is totally new and original. The writings are hilarious, disturbing, and all too real. He is already a legend in the south, so I suggest picking up his books and read them. I guarantee you will read them again at least for the laughs. Not very often these days can a book make us laugh out loud.If you enjoy McClanahan, I suggest reading John Dufresne also. These two must share genes somewheres in their backwoods lineage I would guess.

Quite a Nice Read

For many years -- through two marriages and God knows how many moves -- I have kept a moldering issue of PLAYBOY for the simple reason that I didn't want to turn loose of one of my all-time favorite examples of the New Journalism, Ed McClanahan's "Grateful Dead I Have Known." It's THAT good. That landmark piece and other tasty goodies have been collected into McClanahan's MY VITA, with Ed providing some new bridging material describing his growth as a writer. It's a pity he's not a more widely recognized writer. If you dig Terry Southern, Charles Portis, or Hunter S. Thompson, you'll like Ed McClanahan. If you're of that bent, I'd snatch up this book before it falls out of print.