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An Interrupted Life

By Bill Gibron, PopMatters. Posted February 11, 2006.


A new book by and about Spalding Gray, the peculiar writer and performer whose body washed up in the East River last year, raises questions it cannot answer.
life-interrupted-2005
Life Interrupted
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It just sounds like the way Spalding Gray would die. His would not be a life finished by old age, or the standard natural causes. No, Gray's existence was fated to end like most of his monologues -- with a kind of closure, but with so much more life left unexplored.

Anyone who's familiar with the peculiar performance artist/actor knows that his onstage stories attempted to mine epic emotions within the smallest of human moments. Whether it was filming The Killing Fields (Swimming to Cambodia), writing his one and only novel, Impossible Vacation (as described in Monster in a Box), or dealing with a potentially debilitating eye disease (Gray's Anatomy), Gray wasn't out to try and explain the purpose of being or answer the larger philosophical questions. All he wanted was to make sense out of the funny little muddle that was his world. Apparently, he fell short.

It's been over a year since Gray committed suicide, his body washing up in New York's East River. As part of the huge healing process necessary for his family and friends we are presented with Life Interrupted, an "unfinished" work by the dear departed. Not knowing its conception or creation, one would assume this to be a career ending entry, something to tie up the loose ends in Gray's artistic catalog while giving fans and the unfamiliar a chance to revel in his final musings.

Sadly, that is only part of the picture painted here. Gray does get a few pages to explain his 2001 car accident (the title piece), an event while on vacation in Ireland that lead to a deepening of his already tenuous depression. There is also a short snippet about his family (The Anniversary) and a look at the metropolis he loved to love -- and hate (Dear New York City).

Yet the 50-some odd sides that make up this material do not constitute the bulk of the book's 256 pages. Instead, longtime friend and writer Francine Prose gets a protracted introduction, and several of Gray's intimates and well wishers, most of them famous in their own right, eulogize the man as part of a closing collection of elegies and celebrations.

In essence, what we have here is a full funeral in print form. Ms. Prose prepares the wake, we sit shiva as Gray gets the last word, and as he's buried in our memory, a collection of his contemporaries finds ways to wax poetic and prosaic about their much admired and missed associate. All in all, very stoic, classy, and serene -- which means it misses what made Gray so great in the first place.

There is nothing wrong with celebrating a writer with words -- it's a standard in the realm of the scribe. But Spalding Gray was more than just a collection of thoughts. It was the way he presented those ideas, the way he connected with audiences and drew them into his imaginary world that really made the difference. Reading his monologues (there are several collections out there, from film transcripts to the highly recommended Sex and Death to Age 14) you can just hear his cooling New England edge, the spry speaking style that distinguished his efforts from those of his peers. Like radio man Paul Harvey, Gray had control and cadence in how he spoke, bringing life both obvious and hidden to his otherwise well-chosen words. Anyone who wanted to understand how performance could be art just needed to see Gray live. One minute inside his vocal volleys and you could literally feel dead synapses re-firing.


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Spalding Gray
Posted by: bookwoman on Feb 11, 2006 8:18 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Mr. Gray was a bright, kind of quirky performer who displayed that kind of brilliance which borders on the neurotic.

He performed a couple of times in our area, and he was always entertaining and thought provoking - a kind of sophisticated, toned down George Carlin. He and his humor will be sadly missed.

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» RE: Spalding Gray Posted by: fifthworld
Our Town
Posted by: jem on Feb 11, 2006 11:34 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I had the great fortune to see Mr. Gray perform on Broadway in 1989 in Thorton Wilder's "Our Town". He was the Stagemanager, and as far as I'm concerned, gave the definitive performance of that role. It's been captured on Great Performances (with Eric Stolz and Penelope Ann Miller), if you can get a copy, I highly recommend it.

"Oh, Mother Gibbs, I never realized before how troubled and how... how in the dark live persons are. Look at him. I loved him so. From morning till night, that's all they are--troubled."

"Emily: Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?--every, every minute?
Stage Manager: No. Saints and poets, maybe--they do some."

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Poor old dude.
Posted by: Longdream on Feb 12, 2006 12:06 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Only a year ago? Seems like much longer.

One of his more blatant points was that in life, we aren't given that final coup that has it all make sense. You go eat, you crash. If you'd waited, you'd have been ok. Or not.

Nothing made sense, not for him, not for us, and nobody has the answers.

Except maybe fiction writers.

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"Interrupted"??
Posted by: fifthworld on Feb 12, 2006 2:36 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Reading James Hillman's excellent book "The Force of Character, and the Lasting Life", on our perspectives on soul, life, aging, death, legacy, and the like, I wonder if we can say that a life is really "interrupted" or if, shall we say it, Spalding's death was premature. The latter we can never know outside of the secrets of the soul, but then again that's not the issue here. It's curious to consider the "interruption" because Spalding himself was using the word. I honestly wonder how he would have elaborated on it -- or maybe he does in the book. Guess I should check it out, as an ol' fan.

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Super Sold
Posted by: Vill on Oct 19, 2006 9:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]