cover image Other Entertainment: Collected Pieces

Other Entertainment: Collected Pieces

Ned Rorem. Simon & Schuster, $25 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-684-82249-5

Rorem describes himself as a composer who writes rather than a writer who composes, but given the state of the audience for serious music, it's a good bet he is known to more people as a writer, particularly of often sensational diaries and more recently of a lively autobiography, Knowing When to Stop. That title is rather ironic in view of this collection, which is a pretty random assemblage of pieces that nearly all appeared elsewhere and don't add much to Rorem's record as a writer. Among the book reviews, he is particularly good on the diaries of Benjamin Britten and decidedly waspish about Kazuo Ishiguro's latest novel. In addition, we find a long talk with critic John Simon on the latter's hostile remarks about gays; some eloquent obituaries of a range of friends; and a few fragments, of which a personal essay on his home in Nantucket has great charm. In a frank foreword, Rorem writes that looking over the pieces, he was impressed by how often he repeated certain obsessions and jokes, and hoped the editor would ""weed them out."" If the editor has, it doesn't show; this is a perfunctory volume, even if it is by a man who is always worth reading. (Aug.)