"Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me," by Deirdre Bair

There are so many elements to love about the fascinating book, “Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me” (Doubleday, 2019), by Deirdre Bair. What a joy to read such a great writer writing about such great subjects – the Irish writer Samuel Beckett and the French feminist icon and writer Simone de Beauvoir. This book is a memoir about writing biographies, and I had trouble resisting all that that involved. Bair tells us how in recent years (she is now in her eighties) she looked back to the process of getting to know each of these famous writers, and from the perspective of many years later, how she sees what an improbable and amazing process it was. She describes how she decided, as a doctoral student in 1971, to write a biography of Beckett. She knew it was perhaps brash to propose herself to him as his biographer, and to secure his cooperation and his time for many interviews; she was young and an unknown and unproven writer. Many in academe and elsewhere thought it presumptuous of her. But, surprisingly, Beckett agreed. Thus Bair started down the long road of doing intensive research in various libraries, and conducting numerous interviews with Beckett as well as with many of his colleagues, friends, and associates. There were many trips to Paris (as well as Dublin and other locales), many times when Beckett was not able to meet with her (and often did not communicate with her about why), and much sometimes snarky cross-talk among Beckett and his associates about who had met with Bair and what they had said. After many delays (including Bair's always needing funding, and always needing to plan her trips around her family life), the biography was published in 1978 to much acclaim. Then, as Bair was casting about for her next project, she stumbled into writing about Simone de Beauvoir, famous both for her feminist writing and for her long relationship with the still-more-famous philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre; these two leading intellectuals/writers' unconventional relationship was a staple of French and international gossip. De Beauvoir also consented to this biography, and was generally cooperative, although – as with Beckett – there were glitches along the way. The de Beauvoir biography was published in 1990. Both of these biographies were well received (including the Beckett biography’s being awarded a National Book Award), although some scholars dismissed Bair’s writing, and/or spread rumors that she must have had a sexual relationship with Beckett in order to secure his cooperation on the biography; sadly, sexism was then (even more than now) rampant in the world of scholarship as elsewhere. One of the reasons “Parisian Lives” is so compelling is the way Bair takes us deeply into the process of research and writing, and shares with us the many unusual situations she encountered, and the many quirks of the two subjects as well as of the people who surrounded them. She has a great eye for the telling detail. And she is a flat-out excellent writer. Another strength of the book is Bair’s willingness to share with readers her initial lack of knowledge about what good biography would entail, as well as her worries and her missteps along the way. But we can also see how very determined she was, how very hard she worked, and how thorough her research was. She grew to be very fond of each writer, and in particular became a confidant of de Beauvoir, but also knew she had to keep a certain distance in order to do her work as a biographer. Bair went on to write biographies of a disparate group of famous people: Jung, Anais Nin, Saul Steinberg, and Al Capone. I highly recommend “Parisian Lives,” which I found completely engrossing throughout, to anyone interested in biography, memoir, literature, feminism, Paris, Beckett, and/or de Beauvoir. It is one of the very best books I have read recently.