PLF

The other New Yorker profile is on the man who, if my arm were twisted, I might claim as my favorite writer of the 20th century. Patrick Leigh Fermor's life reads like slightly improbable fiction. In his teens he walked from Holland to Istanbul, eventually reulting in two of the best travel books ever written, A Time of Gifts and my personal favorite of all his works, Between the Woods and the Water. In WW II, he lived in caves with the Cretan partisans for several years and captured a German general.(They would quote Horatian odes to each other in Latin). He then traveled with his wife Joan through the Caribbean and eventually settled in Greece, where he built the house where he lives today, occasionally generating one of his perfect books, masterpieces of erudition, wit, adventure and elegance. At 91, if a pic Reid sent me is good, he looks not much older than I do! (Actually, he is only 89 in the photo).

The New Yorker piece, by Anthony Lane, is perfect. Lane knows and understands the old pirate, and is-- properly I think-- a bit in awe. He is a perfect match-- what other New Yorker writer would say this?(Of one of PLF's Greek friends):

"Psychoundakis celebrated by going outside and firing a German rifle which he had purloined a half century before. That is my idea of a book launch".

Another good piece on Leigh- Fermor can be found here.

And for Lane, see also his review of the Da Vinci code-- same issue as Meinertzhagen-- which was so funny I almost choked on the ice in my drink. "A dead Frenchman is found laid out on the floor of the Louvre. His final act was to carve a number of bloody markings in his own flesh, indicating, to the expert eye, that he was preparing to roll in fresh herbs and sear himself in olive oil for three minutes on each side". The female lead is "a dab hand at reversing down Paris streets in a car the size of a pissoir". And: "We get a flashback to the council in question, and I must say, though I have recited the Nicene Creed throughout my adult life, I never realized that it was originally formulated in the middle of a Beastie Boys concert".