Gottlieb's 'Avid Reader' highly recommended for the wordy

Like so many other memoirs, I was led to Avid Reader: A Life (2016) by the obituary of the author, Robert Gottlieb (1931-2023), the exalted editor, writer, and publisher of many modern classical titles and periodicals, including, but not limited to, the renowned LBJ series by Robert Caro, the fifth and last volume already ten plus years in the making. Research takes time, Caro is often quoted as saying.

I did try Cato's The Power Broker (Gottlieb, editor) a while back but knowing little about New York, except a bit about Manhattan, I just couldn't get into it, you know how it is with some books you just can't get into, and thus, laid it aside never to pick it up again. 

In cre a ble!  

But Gottlieb's memoir is another story although filled with many unrecognizable names to me, like reading one of those chapters in the Bible where the names go on and on and on.  Anyway, Avid Reader is a must if there's anyone in the publishing world who has yet to read it. 

Earlier this year at the National Press Club, I saw Gottlieb's daughter, Lizzie (who is frequently referenced in Avid) and her film Turn Every Page  about the writing and working relationship her dad shared with Mr. Caro, a delightful film and relationship which I probably liked better than the book since Mr. Gottlieb comes across in the book as a boorish know-it-all, a conceited and uppity man about town, although he insists he did not like dinners out with friends, partying, did not do sports, but ballet?  Oh, yes.  (For the ballet uninitiated, that part went on too long.) 

He's much more likable in the film. 

In Avid, he spares no gloss when it comes to offering negative commentary about writers like Salman Rushdie, Lillian Ross, Pauline Kael and many more. He often mentions the breakup of friendships.  Quelle surprise!

It must be that if you are anybody in the New York's publishing world, your inclusion in the book is important, good or bad!  (Some press is good press, and bad press is press, and no press is bad! Bad! Bad!) 

It sounds like he was estranged from his first child, Roger, from his first marriage to Muriel Higgins, since Gottlieb seldom mentions him nor does he include Roger in the credits or dedicate his book to his great offsprings like he does Lizzie's sons but what do I know about good family relationships?

Avid Reader is a highly recommended title, but is that a typo with the omission of a closing parenthetical mark midway down on page 78?  

Alas!  He is gone!

patricialesli@gmail.com

A certain Oscar nominee: 'Turn Every Page'

Robert Caro, left, and Robert Gottlieb in Turn Every Page/Sony Pictures Classics

A pencil!  That's all they needed for a work session at the publisher's office, but alas, the staff had only a mechanical pencil, and it's doubtful the office youngsters had ever held a pencil, much less had one to lend.

This is just one of the humorous scenes in Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb who delight audiences with their relationship stretching 50 years.

Every Page is charming, it’s hilarious, enlightening and informative. 

It's the story of the two sages who've worked together for decades, writing (Caro, 87) and editing (Gottlieb, 91).   

As the world awaits Caro's last and final volume on LBJ, the film's editor, Lizzie Gottlieb, says confidently: “I have total faith it will get done,” but she did not ask him about a completion date.

“I know he’s working very hard to finish it,” Ms. Gottlieb said last week at the National Press Club after a screening.

It will be Caro's last volume, the fifth, in what was originally planned for three.

Lizzie Gottlieb at the National Press Club, Jan. 10, 2023/By Patricia Leslie

Lizzie Gottlieb at the National Press Club, Jan. 10, 2023/By Patricia Leslie

At the Press Club, Ms. Gottlieb sat with Bradley Graham, the co-owner of Politics and Prose bookstore, to talk about the production of her third film. 

She's Gottlieb's daughter, but her love of her dad does not skew the show.

Years ago she said she realized “I have to capture this while it’s happening now.”

 

Both stars initially objected to the movie. Ms. Gottlieb had some convincing to do but she succeeded. 

It's got great back and forth with the subjects, their wives, and others like Bill Clinton whom she interviewed on the morning of the January 6. 

Also appearing is another Caro fan, Conan O’Brien, who shows up in several places, interviewing the author.  

In rhythm Mr. Caro and Mr. Gottlieb talk separately, about the "process." They argue over semi-colons, “loom” and words, refusing to be filmed together.

Over the years they’ve become somewhat distant friends but it was not always so.  Mainly, it's been an adverse relationship, like boxers in a ring.

 

Answering a question from the audience in the Q and A, Ms. Gottlieb said the hardest part of the film was its structure, and the easiest: “capturing my dad.”

 

On the front row a woman exclaimed: “It's the most perfect film I have ever seen.” 

It took Ms. Gottlieb seven years to make it, the same time it takes Robert Caro to write a book, Ms. Gottlieb said.

She’s made two other documentaries and is a self-taught filmmaker, aided along the way by mentors. 

Writers, editors, journalists, newsmakers, librarians, publishers, researchers, broadcasters, readers, all wordy people will love it! 

The film opens Jan. 20 at E Street .

patricialesli@gmail.com