Vermeer in Bosnia: Cultural Comedies and Political Tragedies

From the master chronicler of the marvelous and the confounding–author of Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder–here is a much-anticipated new collection of more than twenty pieces from the past two decades, the majority of which have never before been gathered together in book form.

Lawrence Weschler is not simply a superb reporter, essayist, and cultural observer; he is also an uncanny collector and connector of wonders. In Vermeer in Bosnia, whether he is reporting on the aftermath of the Yugoslav wars (and noticing, for example, how centuries earlier Vermeer had had to invent the peace and serenity we so prize in his work today from a youth during which all of Europe had been as ravaged as Bosnia) or dissecting the special quality of light in his beloved hometown of Los Angeles, Weschler’s perceptions are often startling, his insights both fresh and profound.

Included here is Weschler’s remarkable profile of Roman Polanski–written years before the release of The Pianist, yet all but predicting the director’s confrontation with the Holocaust in that film–alongside an equally celebrated portrait of Ed Weinberger, a young designer crushed and yet hardly bowed by an extreme form of Parkinson’s disease. Here is Weschler limning his own experience as the grandson of an eminent Weimar-era composer, and then as the befuddled father of an eminently fetching daughter. Here is Weschler on Art Spiegelman, David Hockney, Ed Kienholz, and Wislawa Szymborska.

Here, in short, are some of the most dazzling pieces from Lawrence Weschler’s own brimming cabinet of marvels.

"This volume collects two decades' worth of longtime New Yorker staff writer Weschler's original meditations on the arts and current events. In a pair of opening essays on the Balkans, Weschler (Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder) recalls conversations with two distinguished jurists on the Hague's Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal whose comments led him to explore the peacefulness of Vermeer's paintings in the war-torn context in which they were created, and Shakespeare's Henry V's depiction of wartime atrocity. A third Balkans essay recalls Belgrade's carnivalesque anti-Milosevic protests of November 1996, commenting on Serbian nationalist reflexes. A group of essays entitled 'Three Polish Survivor Stories' opens with a riveting profile of Roman Polanski, in which Weschler relates the director's cinematic aesthetic to Polanski's childhood Holocaust experiences and to the violent events of his adult life. Weschler also profiles the Polish-Jewish newspaperman Jerzy Urban and converses with cartoonist Art Spiegelman, whose Holocaust-themed work Maus, based on his parents' lives, generates insights into a Jewish-American generation gap. In three rich pieces relating to Los Angeles, Weschler evokes artist Bob Irwin's 1950s high school days, writes superbly about earthquakes and discusses with artists and a cinematographer the uncanny qualities of the city's notorious light. Weschler also brilliantly draws out from David Hockney the process of discovery behind that artist's highly developed photo collages and studies the impact of Parkinson's disease on Ed Weinberger's sculptural furniture. Less satisfying is a family biography section, centered on Weschler's grandfather, that lacks philosophical shape. Admirers of Weschler's blend of reportage, history and art criticism as well as newcomers will enjoy the far-ranging collection. Illus. Agent, Sterling Lord Literistic. (July 6)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

From the master chronicler of the marvelous and the confounding–author of Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder–here is a much-anticipated new collection of more than twenty pieces from the past two decades, the majority of which have never before been gathered together in book form.

Lawrence Weschler is not simply a superb reporter, essayist, and cultural observer; he is also an uncanny collector and connector of wonders. In Vermeer in Bosnia, whether he is reporting on the aftermath of the Yugoslav wars (and noticing, for example, how centuries earlier Vermeer had had to invent the peace and serenity we so prize in his work today from a youth during which all of Europe had been as ravaged as Bosnia) or dissecting the special quality of light in his beloved hometown of Los Angeles, Weschler’s perceptions are often startling, his insights both fresh and profound.

Included here is Weschler’s remarkable profile of Roman Polanski–written years before the release of The Pianist, yet all but predicting the director’s confrontation with the Holocaust in that film–alongside an equally celebrated portrait of Ed Weinberger, a young designer crushed and yet hardly bowed by an extreme form of Parkinson’s disease. Here is Weschler limning his own experience as the grandson of an eminent Weimar-era composer, and then as the befuddled father of an eminently fetching daughter. Here is Weschler on Art Spiegelman, David Hockney, Ed Kienholz, and Wislawa Szymborska.

Here, in short, are some of the most dazzling pieces from Lawrence Weschler’s own brimming cabinet of marvels.