Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It’s a Lie: A Memoir in Essays
By
An exhilarating journey through the world of books, featuring personal reflections on Susan Sontag, Huey Newton, Barbra Streisand, W. G. Sebald, and Christopher Hitchens.
Born on the West Coast, the son of Bronx-born parents, Steve Wasserman is a generalist and public intellectual but is perhaps less well known as a cultural essayist and social critic of the first rank. In thirty splendid essays, originally published in such diverse publications as the New Republic and the Nation, the American Conservative and the Progressive, the Village Voice and the Economist, Wasserman delivers a riveting account of the awakening of an empathetic sensibility and a lively mind. Taken together, they reveal the depth and breadth of his enthusiasms and range over politics, literature, and the tumults of a world in upheaval. They include the remarkable tale of a bookstore owner who wouldn’t let him buy the books he wanted, to his brave against-the-grain take on the Black Panthers, to his shrewd assessment of the fast-changing world of publishing. Here is, as Joyce Carol Oates notes, “arguably the very best concise history of Cuba and the legendary Fidel Castro; beautifully composed eulogies for two close friends, Susan Sontag and Christopher Hitchens; sharply perceptive commentary on Daniel Ellsberg; a thrillingly candid interview with W. G. Sebald.”
Reviews
"If ever a man was in love with The Movement—that is, the peace and liberationist movements of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s—that man is Steve Wasserman. This collection of essays, in all its intelligent exuberance, pays full respect to that honorable devotion." Vivan Gornick, author of Taking a Long Look
"It's such a pleasure to see the cream of Steve Wasserman's writings now collected, from the remarkable tale of a bookstore owner who wouldn't let him buy the books he wanted to his brave against-the-grain take on the Black Panthers to his shrewd assessment of the fast-changing world of publishing. He is, as he says of his late friend Susan Sontag, an 'omnivore'—about politics, about literature, and about the way the rebellious currents he first encountered in 1960s Berkeley have continued to ripple through American life. The resulting volume is a feast." Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight
"Steve Wasserman's wit and passions are on full display in this collection of fine essays, crammed full of insights and anecdotes from several (apparently very fun) decades in the literary world. Editor, publisher, agent, and bon vivant, Wasserman enjoys books, ideas, friends, and progressive politics, and his love for them all is infectious. A troublemaker of the good kind since his youth, Wasserman continues to inspire with his vigorous dedication to the life of the mind, exhibited with clarity and grace in this book." Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of A Man of Two Faces
"An intensely personal, engaging, and illuminating memoir in the form of essays published over fifty years, Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It's a Lie is a richly detailed account of the intellectual life of an individual upon whom, to paraphrase Henry James, 'nothing has been lost.' Here is arguably the very best concise history of Cuba and the legendary Fidel Castro; beautifully composed eulogies for two close friends of the author, Susan Sontag and Christopher Hitchens, that also trace the writer's intellectual and personal growth; sharply perceptive commentary on Daniel Ellsberg; a thrillingly candid interview with W.G. Sebald. Highly recommended." Joyce Carol Oates, author of Butcher
"With its deeply human portraits and incisive criticism, Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It’s a Lie is a record of a personal and intellectual journey like few others. Berkeley in the '60s! Susan Sontag! Barbra Streisand! Orson Welles! Jackie Kennedy! Steve Wasserman is a treasure of American letters and his book is a testament, above all, to a literary life lived to the fullest." Héctor Tobar, author of Our Migrant Souls
"Steve Wasserman is so open to experience—so open and articulate about history, and the new—that to not follow his quicksilver intelligence and bountiful heart in these wonderful pages would be criminal. Read, reflect, and rejoice in the bounty. What a gift." Hilton Als, author of My Pinup
"Steve Wasserman is a passionate witness of the upheavals of the past forty years that guided America to places unimagined before. His clear and sober reflections on the Berkeley counterculture, the Panthers in Oakland, the revolution in Cuba, the anti-war movement, Orson Welles, Susan Sontag, Laurie Anderson, the writers of Los Angeles, the transformation of newspaper journalism, and the fate of the book remind us how much in this history there is to discover and to honor." Darryl Pinckney, author of Come Back in September
About the Author
