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Peter Orlovsky, a Life in Words: Intimate Chronicles of a Beat Writer by Bill Morgan, Peter Orlovsky
jennifer60656's review against another edition
5.0
I was having a hard time deciding whether to rate this as 4 or 5 stars (Goodreads people: we need a 1/2 star rating, as many books I read need them). I give the 4-star rating to the editors - a little more context would have been helpful - examples: What sort of things were said or done to Orlovsky when Ginsberg, Corso, and/or Burroughs would gang up on him? It would have also been great to see some of the letters from Orlovsky's two major letter recipients (i.e., Allen Ginsberg and Kate Orlovsky, his mother) to make the conversations seem less one-sided.
The 5-star rating goes to Orlovsky's actual writings. I think that had Ginsberg not pushed Orlovsky so hard to be a poet, Orlovsky might have become one of the world's greatest travel writers. He was so open to everything he saw and experienced in his travels and wrote about it so well. There is also one letter he wrote to his mother concerning his younger brother's mental illness where Peter refers to his brother as a "surprise package." I read and re-read that line over and over because it was so beautiful and profound.
The Ann Chartres Introduction was also beautifully written. I wished I could have learned more about Ginsberg forcing Peter's girlfriend to have an abortion when they had spoken for years about having a baby in their lives. This book gives another side to the more common story of Peter's outbursts at Allen and other bizarre behaviors that have come from Ginsberg's point of view.
This book made me think about the responsibilities and obligations that spouses and long-time companions have to one another. To wit, while Ginsberg was traveling the world giving readings and attending to other matters, Orlovsky was descending into drug addiction and mental instability. I felt that Ginsberg should have tried harder to get and keep Peter healthy and also to think in the long term concerning Orlovsky's future, instead of playing the denial card to which allowed Ginsberg his freedom from responsibility (e.g., "what will happen to Peter when I'm gone?"), while asking Orlovsky to come home and take care of him when he was dying.
The 5-star rating goes to Orlovsky's actual writings. I think that had Ginsberg not pushed Orlovsky so hard to be a poet, Orlovsky might have become one of the world's greatest travel writers. He was so open to everything he saw and experienced in his travels and wrote about it so well. There is also one letter he wrote to his mother concerning his younger brother's mental illness where Peter refers to his brother as a "surprise package." I read and re-read that line over and over because it was so beautiful and profound.
The Ann Chartres Introduction was also beautifully written. I wished I could have learned more about Ginsberg forcing Peter's girlfriend to have an abortion when they had spoken for years about having a baby in their lives. This book gives another side to the more common story of Peter's outbursts at Allen and other bizarre behaviors that have come from Ginsberg's point of view.
This book made me think about the responsibilities and obligations that spouses and long-time companions have to one another. To wit, while Ginsberg was traveling the world giving readings and attending to other matters, Orlovsky was descending into drug addiction and mental instability. I felt that Ginsberg should have tried harder to get and keep Peter healthy and also to think in the long term concerning Orlovsky's future, instead of playing the denial card to which allowed Ginsberg his freedom from responsibility (e.g., "what will happen to Peter when I'm gone?"), while asking Orlovsky to come home and take care of him when he was dying.
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