The Kindness of Strangers (New York Review Books Classics)

The Kindness of Strangers (New York Review Books Classics)

A memoir about showbiz in the early 20th century that travels from the theaters of Vienna, Prague, and Berlin, to Hollywood during the golden age, complete with encounters with Franz Kafka, Albert Einstein, and Greta Garbo along the way.

Salka Viertelâ€™s autobiography tells of a brilliant, creative, and well-connected womanâ€™s pilgrimage through the darkest years of the twentieth century, a journey that would take her from a remote province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Hollywood. The Kindness of Strangers is, to quote the New Yorker writer S. N. Behrman, â€œa very rich book. It provides a panorama of the dissolving civilizations of the twentieth century. In all of them the author lived at the apex of their culture and artistic aristocracies. Her childhood . . . is an entrancing idyll. In Berlin, in Prague, in Vienna, there appears Karl Kraus, Kafka, Rilke, Robert Musil, Schoenberg, Einstein, Alban Berg. There is the suffering and disruption of the First World War and the suffering and agony after it, which is described with such intimacy and vividness that you endure these terrible years with the author. Then comes the migration to Hollywood, where Salkaâ€™s house on Mabery Road becomes a kind of Pantheon for the gathered artists, musicians, and writers. It seems to me that no one has ever described Hollywood and the life of writers there with such verve.â€
Country USA
Brand New York Review Books
Manufacturer NYRB Classics
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 9781681372747
Color Grey
ReleaseDate 2019-01-22
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781681372747

Country	USA
Brand	New York Review Books
Manufacturer	NYRB Classics
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	9781681372747
Color	Grey
ReleaseDate	2019-01-22
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781681372747

The Kindness of Strangers (New York Review Books Classics)

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