Book Review: "Art and Madness" by Anne Roiphe

Title: Art and Madness: A Memoir of Lust Without Reason

Author: Anne Roiphe

Publisher: Doubleday

ISBN, PUB Date: 9798-0-385-53164-1, March 15, 2011

Reviewed By: Joan Hanna

“It is true what they said about the fifties. You really were supposed to behave. You wanted to look like all those around you and keep your lawn free of floating leaves and nasty weeds. You wanted to live inside the lines where the ordinariness of everything would protect you from the dragons that lay at the edge of the map ready to blow fire in your face if you strayed off course, to the edge of the known world. Underneath the shirts and ties, underneath the crinolines and corsets, the hearts of men and women beat with all the old familiar regrets … the lines of what was allowed and what was not were broad, clear, and not up for discussion.” (81)

Anne Roiphe’s Art and Madness: A Memoir of Lust Without Reason is a blunt, wide-open account of the author’s life during the fifties and early sixties. Her story gives the reader a glimpse into the literary world and the expected roles played by larger-than-life literary figures and the women behind (and under) them.

Art and Madness takes us into the parties, the drinking, and the drug use. It takes us into the promiscuity and the roles that everyone was expected to play. From her playwright husband and his affairs and addiction to the men she supported emotionally (and sexually) to her own detriment. Roiphe gives her readers the literary giants and all of her characters, including herself, at their base level of physicality, sensuality, and addiction. These images expunge the romanticized figure of the tortured artist and his glass of bourbon for what it really is: a world of self-absorbed self-gratification that eventually destroys even the most brilliant and talented.

This is not a memoir for the faint of heart. It is not the story of glory days in the normal sense of the word. And I do have to say that this book has been met with a lot of criticism and negativity for its explicit depictions. Which is fine with me. The events in this book will have its readers take pause and rattle them a bit—which is exactly what it should do. Art and Madness is the story of a woman on the edge of a changing world who plays her expected role with fervor and delight until that world’s brittle cracks begin to etch themselves into her.

This is a gritty, slice through outward appearances book that is unsettling, infuriating and raw. Roiphe’s openness in Art and Madness is what I think a memoir should be. It should make you squirm and fidget in your chair. It should make you want to put it down because even the reader feels exposed. But you will not be able to put this book down. You will want to keep reading to find out how the young woman in this book finds her way out of this world. You will want to reach into this book and pull her out yourself. But I must warn you: The ending is no happily-ever-after story. I will leave the definition of exactly what it is up to the reader. Buckle in when you read this memoir because it is a ride you won’t soon forget.