Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2014 May 07 • Wednesday

Walter Tevis was married for twenty-seven years to Jamie Griggs Tevis. They met when they were both young schoolteachers in a small town in Kentucky. Tevis had an early success with The Hustler, followed it with The Man Who Fell to Earth but then didn't publish much, spending his energy instead on drinking and teaching.

A few years before his death, Walter left Jamie, moved to New York and published four novels and a collection of short stories.

My Life with the Hustler is Jamie's story of her time with Walter and of her own life.

Of interest to Walter Tevis scholars are, of course, Jamie's memories of her husband and some previously unpublished letters and poems from Walter.

It's also interesting to learn, among other things, that The Man Who Fell to Earth was originally to be called The Immigrant, and that Walter Tevis was called as a witness in a censorship case.

But the best features of the book are those that act as a window into a certain time and place, mid-century small town America and Mexico (where the Tevises lived for about eight months). Jamie Griggs Tevis's eye for detail and recollection are remarkable. (I found myself wondering if she kept a diary that was used as a source for this book.)

To give one example: "During our stay in Iowa City, folk music became popular—Hootenanny, coffee houses, guitar playing, and singing at parties. Pete Seeger came through town, and his host tried to sell the cuttings from his razor".