A review by keight
Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers by Janet Malcolm

4.0

As a collection, Forty-One False Starts falls to the side of indiscriminate, especially the several shorter essays at the end that felt like they were included more because they fit the theme of artists and writers than because they had something truly remarkable to say. Maybe they were victims of placement, but they probably stand out more because most of the essays are so good, most especially the titular, opening essay in which Malcolm composes a profile of the artist David Salle through forty-one possible openers for the essay, an exploration of an artist’s process that also exposes its own process. Read more on my booklog