Opinionated and eloquent, erudite and wearing his knowledge with lightness and humility, Robert Gottlieb is a delight to read. An editor for many years at New York’s top publishing houses and a contributor to that city’s premiere publications, Gottlieb is a cultural insider who, at least in this collection, largely directs his engaging intellect outward toward the wider world. His essays travel widely, from a career overview of 19th-century British novelist Wilkie Collins to 20th-century American lyricist Lorenz Hart, from a dissection of Darren Aronofsky’s film Black Swan to a careful analysis of the literature on near-death phenomena. Gottlieb comes closest to insider trading with his slap-down of Boris Kachka’s Hothouse, condemned as a shallow and hyperbolic tell-all of the publishing world he knows so well.
