"The great virtue of McCormick's memoirs is their blunt honesty. He
writes with a persuasive directness about what happened to him and
what he believes..."--"Arts and Letters"
The title of John McCormick's autobiographical book, may be taken
both literally and symbolically. In a literal sense, going to sea
was an early and powerful ambition, while seagoing is also a
metaphor for the twists and turns in a rootless life, a long
voyaging. This is not a conventional autobiography. It is personal
only as necessary for continuity, and never confessional. The
essays center upon telling episodes in the author's life and strive
for objectivity and accuracy about the recent past, both personal
and historical. He does so, as he writes, without "any pretension
of producing a true history." The events of his life are
necessarily unique to him, thus he finds uniqueness in the events
that impinged upon him.
McCormick begins with his early years, growing up in the American
mid-West during the Depression, a time of broken family relations
and random jobs. He relates his falling away from religious faith.
He describes his first experience as a sailor in a tanker, which
gave him physical liberation, a world free of constrictions, as
with Hemingway. In discussing his early teaching experience, he
gives a vivid portrayal of Germany in the immediate postwar years,
along with observations of residual pro-Hitler sentiment and the
awkward circumstances (for Germans) of the immediate past. He
devotes a chapter to a moving memoir of his friend Francis
Fergusson, eminent Rutgers University scholar. McCormick also
relates his experience as an amateur bullfighter and reiterates his
defense of bullfighting as an art. He paints a vivid picture of an
adventure at sea while working on a definitive biography of George
Santayana, reflecting also on changes in the genre of biography,
with its prevailing emphasis on trivia and sensationalism. In
describing his retirement to England, McCormick describes the
conflict between nationalism and expatriation. He punctuates
details of his naval war experiences with thoughtful observations
on military combat. Finally, in his closing chapter, "Coda: Closet
Space," McCormick attempts to make sense of old age and death.
This autobiographical account of a well-lived life encompasses far
more than a splendid teaching and literary career. It will provide
insight and good reading for those who know McCormick's scholarly
work, for students of the humanities, and for the general public
interested in vivid prose.
John McCormick is professor emeritus of comparative literature at
Rutgers University, and honorary fellow of English and literature
at the University of York. He is the author of "George Santayana: A
Biography, Catastrophe and Imagination, The Middle Distance, " and
"Fiction as Knowledge."
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