Everyone remembers people and events that shaped and changed their lives. Long after they leave the world’s stage, these individuals and events inform and direct us through memory. That’s how I feel about Neil Simon’s plays; they are touchstones from my childhood. That’s reasonable: when I was young he was the King of Broadway. His movies set some of my first standards for comedy. But, that was a long time ago and Mr. Simon hasn’t had a hit play in years. So, I’ve been reading plays by other authors. Still, when I heard of his death, I did something I haven’t done for a while: I read something Neil Simon wrote. Not his plays this time, but his memoirs. And I’m still thinking about what I read. Rewrites Rewrites is Simon’s memoir of the first half of his life, and to some extent, it’s like his early plays. This book covered his early, energetic years as a writer when hope was built on promise and potential. The book is a charmer, and it confirmed two things I guessed but didn’t know before. First, Simon’s stories all have strong autobiographical elements and that the art of plays is in the re-writing. [amazon_link asins=’0684835622′…
I’m a big believer in role models. While we are growing up, we emulate the behavior of those we admire, hoping we’ll be admirable too. Eventually we sort our our own priorities and personalities but until then, it helps to have someone to follow. Given all that, I probably could have picked a better person to imitate than Lillian Hellman. For one thing, Lillian Hellman was a professional dramatist and I don’t like her plays. As dramatic vehicles they are “theatrical” pieces where characters quiver, thunder or plot but rarely come to any realizations and the plays are aging as well as my old Earth Shoes. In other words, not. So Lillian’s plays are out. Her integrity was attacked often and well, most notably when Mary McCarthy said, “Every word she writes is a lie—including ‘and’ and ‘the.’” Those who tracked down the details suggest there’s some exaggeration in Miss Mary’s statement but not enough to acquit Miss Lillian. So she wasn’t a good example there either. Nevertheless, I was looking for a unique voice and shimmering images of words when I found Lillian Hellman’s An Unfinished Woman. One role model, made to order. An Unfinished Woman was popular around the…