Joe Gould's Secret

Rating:
Summary: No Hope For Joe Gould
Review: Joseph Mitchell takes two looks at the life of Joe Gould, a homeless denizen of NYC's Greenwich Village. From a well-known Massachussetts family and a Harvard grad, Gould lives from day to day on handouts to support his great work; An Oral History of Our Time, a mammoth undertaking which is said by Gould to be the longest book in the world. His story and its eventual sad end is reported by Mitchell with compassion and intelligence. Mitchell tells a solid tale but Gould is such an unlikeable character I felt distanced from him and never truly warmed to the book despite the author's obvious skill. I definitely will try some of his other work where the subject matter is not so limited.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Character Study-Not much of a Secret
Review: Joseph Mitchell takes two looks at the life of Joe Gould, a homeless denizen of NYC's Greenwich Village. From a well-known Massachussetts family and a Harvard grad, Gould lives from day to day on handouts to support his great work; An Oral History of Our Time, a mammoth undertaking which is said by Gould to be the longest book in the world. His story and its eventual sad end is reported by Mitchell with compassion and intelligence. Mitchell tells a solid tale but Gould is such an unlikeable character I felt distanced from him and never truly warmed to the book despite the author's obvious skill. I definitely will try some of his other work where the subject matter is not so limited.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book from a Master of American Nonfiction
Review: Joseph Mitchell was a legendary, and legendarily eccentric, writer for The New Yorker. Disparate things fascinated him: the Fulton Fish Market, gypsies, bums in the Bowery, New York's architecture, the men who worked the Hudson River. Mitchell would immerse himself in the lives of the people who held his attention, and during the 1940s and 1950s he turned out a series of New Yorker stories that are unique in American literary nonfiction.

"Joe Gould's Secret," the book, is an anthology of two New Yorker pieces. The first, "Professor Seagull," ran in the magazine in 1942. The second, "Joe Gould's Secret" (the article) ran in two parts in 1964. The first was an affectionate profile of a Harvard-educated down-and-outer named, of course, Joe Gould, who was a well-known and much-tolerated bum in Greenwich Village. The second piece expanded on the first, again portraying Mr. Gould, but also detailing the strange story of Mr. Gould's "Oral History of Our Times."

Joe Mitchell turns his acute eye for detail (and his remarkable patience) on Joe Gould, and writes with grace and humor. Mr. Mitchell had an acute ear, as well, and let's Mr. Gould speak for himself for page after page. The pieces in this book are exquisitely crafted, and all the more poignant for Joe Mitchell's secret: Not long after publishing the last word on Joe Gould, Mr. Mitchell ceased publishing. He came to The New Yorker every day, and claimed to be working on a long piece year after year, but never ushered a word of it into print. To my knowledge, no one knows (or at least no one has said) what the piece was to be, and why Mr. Mitchell could not seem to finish it.

An extraordinary book by an extraordinary writer.

Rating:
Summary: Quick, compelling read
Review: Like Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild," this portrait of a troubled hero begs the reader to wonder whether the main character is just a nut, or whether he has a keen sense of the human condition. In both this book and the aforementioned, I came away thinking the answer is "a little of both."

All in all, "Meet Joe Gould" is a quick, enjoyable read with an ending that I found both humorous and depressing. I especially got a kick out of Joe's Harvard connection...and I'm sure that Joe (class of '11) will remind other Harvard grads out there of at least a few of their old classmates--he sure did for me.

Rating:
Summary: No Hope For Joe Gould
Review: No Hope For Joe Gould By: Ashik Kabir

Ever since I was a child, I've always has a weak spot for the homeless. Seeing a person on the street beg for money, to beg for food, or to watch them shuffle through a trash can...it almost brought a tear to my eye to see a human being struggle so hard to survive. Luckily for me, my parents found us a nice neighborhood in which the homeless could be viewed only on television. Movies such as Tom Hank's "Philadelphia" portrayed a homeless man as someone who was smart and noble; a person that simply couldn't support themselves due to one large misfortune. I liked to believe that the homeless were good people and that they deserved some of my help. I had a place in my heart for them...I gave them my hope. That was soon going to change. Walking down the streets of downtown, it is not uncommon for people to be bombarded by pleas for money by the homeless. On my way to visit my brother at the Georgia State Village, the homeless tread along the sidewalk, and with their dirty clothes and their hot breath still reeking with alcohol, the simple task of walking up the street becomes a virtual war zone for my emotions. Should I give them some money, the money I know they will spend on another bottle of alcohol, or should I just walk on and ignore them? Somehow, I've learned to look away. I ignore them, and I get to save some pocket change. When my teacher gave my English class an assignment to read a nonfiction novel, I wanted to make sure that I picked one that I would like. So I asked for a recommendation. The book he proclaimed to be worth the time was Joe Gould's Secret. The story was written by Joseph Mitchell and it told about his relationship with a bohemian that was working on the biggest history book ever written. Joe Gould was homeless and for the first time, in a long time, I started the book with hope that Joe Gould was different from all of those other homeless people I see on the streets. There were reasons for my high hopes. Not only had Gould gone to college, but he actually graduated from Harvard University. An educated man, I thought who better than Joe Gould, a bohemian, to write an oral history of the modern man. The book is broken up into two parts. The first part is an article written by Mitchell called "Professor Sea Gull". It told about how Joe Gould was a true bohemian. Not only did Joe Gould detach himself from society, but he claimed that he would have run away from it if he was given the chance to be apart of it. It portrays Joe Gould to be a good man. It told about how Gould was not a beggar, he was more like a sort of Socrates. He would ask for a conversation and in return, for giving a person information, or a lesson in life, he thought it to be fair for them to pay for it. Also, Gould had a circle of friends that helped contribute to the Joe Gould Fund, the fund Gould set up to help him write his Oral History. Gould's favorite joke to do included his indulgence in getting people's attention at parties by jumping-around-upside-down while "speaking" like a seagull, hence the name Professor Sea Gull. The second part of the book is from the personal account of Joseph Mitchell. Like many others, Mitchell is a contributing member of the Joe Gould Fund. Not only that, Mitchell is one of Joe Gould's listeners. At first, to get info for his story, Mitchell adamantly takes notes of Gould's accounts of the Oral History. When Mitchell asks Gould to produce the Oral History, Gould tells him that it is in a safe place off of Manhattan...in one of his friend's cellars to be exact. So, Gould tells Mitchell that he will go and get it as long as Mitchell funds his trip. He agrees. Upon returning from his trip, Gould makes up the excuse that he could not open the cellar on the account of the fact that the owner of the cellar is not at home. This is the first in many lies that Gould would produce for money. As the story progresses, I see how Mitchell is beginning to get annoyed with Joe. He tries to find ways to get him off his back. Gould forms a relationship with Mitchell in a way that no other has had before. However, Gould's stories are never about the Oral History, but instead, the about the story of his own life. During this session with Gould, Mitchell peers into what Gould is writing about. He finds five essays. These five essays are all about the life of Joe Gould. Never does Mitchell spot him writing on the Oral History. One day, Gould comes into Mitchell's office. As always, he has a pair of dirty clothes on and his breath has the stench of alcohol (Joe claims is helps him to think better). Earlier, Gould refused to meet a book publisher, so Mitchell goes out of his way to make it so that Gould and a publisher meet coincidentally in his office. Gould practically kicks the publisher out, "Publish all of the Oral History or none at all," he says. How is it that Gould was so against the publishing of the Oral History? It is here when it finally hits Mitchell that there is no such thing as the Oral History. As Mitchell is about to confront Gould about his lie, he realizes that the lie Gould tells is the lie that Gould lives on. He doesn't confront Joe. The good in Joe Gould is destroyed. Gould is aware of the fact that Mitchell does not want to confront him with the lie. With the power of denial ability, Gould goes on with his lie, but is careful when Mitchell is around. Joe Gould's character of being a bohemian is further destroyed when a rich woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, decides to help Joe Gould live a healthier life style. He is secretly given enough money to live in a hotel and is given enough money to have three square meals a day. Just as any other human being, he realizes how much he enjoys comfort. He becomes adept to living like a normal person, only for it to be ripped away when the funding stops pouring in. Gould scrambles to hold onto his life style when he is finally kicked out. He was never meant to live out on the streets. Gould would die in a psychiatric hospital, alone, the way it was meant to be. With his death, a horde of people sent out a manhunt to look for the Oral History. The book was never found. Fact, Gould was not a bohemian. A bohemian is a person, as an artist or writer, who lives and acts free of regard for conventional rules and practices. Sure Gould wrote about his own life, but that does not make him a writer. Fact, Gould was a liar and a conman. Gould lied with the fact that he did not have a history of the people. He conned people, people like Josef Mitchell, into giving him money. Fact, Gould enjoyed the comforts of having a home. Gould didn't want to let go of his cozy little hotel room nor the comforts of knowing when the next meal is coming to you. The truth was that Joe Gould was just another bum. When I first finished reading this book, I felt ...empty. I really didn't have any feelings on Joe Gould. As I began to think about it, I began to hate the book. I absolutely hate the fact that I read the book. It was an average story, of an average writer, about the average bum. There was no lesson to be learned from the book. There was no tragedy, no honor, there was just some humility shown by Josef Mitchell. My hopes of finding a homeless person who carried with them some integrity and some basic decency, was lost. Joe Gould's Secret was an incredible waste of time, just the same way that Joe Gould's life was. Now, it's just a little bit easier to turn the other cheek when a homeless person begs me for some money.

Rating:
Summary: Little Man Lost In Life.
Review: Reading anything by Joseph Mitchell is a goldmine of pleasure and "Joe Gould's Secret" is no different: a fascinating profile of a well-known Greenwich Village eccentric. Joe Gould was, for upwards of thirty-five years, a homeless dropout living from day to day on his wits and handouts from any sympathetic ear, whether friends or strangers. The two parts of the book, headed Professor Seagull, and Joe Gould's Secret, first appeared in the New Yorker in 1942 and 1964.The son of a medical practitioner, Harvard-educated Gould arrived in New York in 1916 and soon dismissed all thought of holding down a steady job when he had a flash of inspiration to write what he called "An Oral History of Our Times". He decided any form of regular employment would be detrimental to his thinking. Over many years, Gould would add daily to this work "in progress" ("about a dozen times as long as the bible") even when badly hung over; loading his fountain pen in the Village post office, scribbling in grubby, dog-eared school exercise books in parks, doorways, cafeterias, Bowery flophouses, subway trains and in public libraries, some of these hangouts also serving as places to doss - alternatives to the floor of an artist friend's studio or a subway station. 270 filled notebooks had been stored in numerous drops for safekeeping until the work was completed.

Mitchell, intrigued by the "Oral History" idea, wrote a compassionate profile of Gould showing much patience and sensitivity in his dealings with his subject with whom he spent an inordinate amount of time. When a publisher friend of Mitchell asked to see Gould's material, with a view to publishing a book of selections, an indignant Gould declared that the material would either be published in its entirety or "not at all". Scruffy in appearance, wearing cast-offs, often unwashed for days at a time, all the time dogged by "homelessness, hunger and hangovers", ("I'm the foremost authority in the U.S.A. on the subject of doing without") Gould's norm was to hang around bars and diners in the Village cadging food, money and drinks from friends, visiting tourists and other regular contributors to the "Joe Gould Fund". He survived on a diet of fresh-air, dog-ends, strong black coffee, fried egg sandwiches and bottles of diner-bar ketchup supped off a plate. ("the only grub I know that's free of charge") Once asked what made him as he is today, Gould answered it was all down to a strong distaste for material possessions, Harvard, and years on end of bad living on cheap booze and grub "beating the living hell out of my insides".

Things took a turn for the better for Gould when a secret benefactor, informed of Gould's plight and worsening health, paid for his room and board at a cheap hotel for upwards of three years. When the subsidy was suddenly cut-off without explanation, however, Gould reverted to the flophouses in the Bowery that were handy for the Village. Thereafter, Gould spiralled rapidly downwards. He died in 1957 whereupon Mitchell, who knew as much as anyone about the "Oral History", was persuaded to join a Committee set up to organise the collection of the mass of scattered material that made up "An Oral History of Our Times".

If you enjoy "Joe Gould's Secret", read also "McSorley's Wonderful Saloon", a marvellous collection of profiles of old-time New York characters in a New York that is no longer.

Rating:
Summary: The Two Faces of Joe
Review: The first sketch that Joseph Mitchell made of Joe Gould, "Professor Seagull," primarily a simple exposition of a bohemian character that the New Yorker and its readers found to be an entertaining piece about an eccentric who claims to be writing an oral history, a book containing so many pages that it would dwarf the author if neatly stacked up. A work that would place the title of grand historian on Joe Gould, this so called Oral History was said to contain not just the usual dates and names of what people think of as history, but the over-heard conversations of the common man as well as scribbles lifted from park benches and washroom walls that Gould deemed to be more telling of history than the formal history taught in primary and secondary institutions. Mitchell infused this first work with witticisms and anecdotes that placed Gould in a more positive light than what is revealed about the man in the second story. There are many parallels in both stories; the opening paragraphs in both stories almost mirror each other but for a few telling and well-placed words, but for the most part, the second story gives the true definition of the character Joe Gould. The second story, "Joe Gould's Secret" gives the reader a different view of the same man. This version lifts the mask from the faces of the author and subject, exposing the truth that is not entirely based on fact. Here, Gould is shown to the reader with all faults and disagreeable characteristics intact. The feisty little homeless bohemian has turned into a scavenging, begging, egregious bum dead set on getting the attention or money he craves, and acts like a child when he does not get what he wants. Joe Gould doesn't actually crave money as much as what a couple of dollars can get him in the way of alcohol, coffee and the notebooks he scribbles in incessantly. The scribbles are later shown to contain not one bit of dialogue overheard by Gould, but the same four or five essays he has been working on for many years. The fact that Gould has been re-writing, tearing up and re-writing the same stories for several decades is the reason for the second installment of the character sketch given to us by Mitchell.
For twenty years, Mitchell has lived with the lie imbedded in his first sketch of Joe Gould, "Professor Seagull." The lie is intricate in nature and has many facets that kept it a secret for twenty years. With the injection of Mitchell himself into the second story, "Joe Gould's Secret," a light is thrown on the subject of the interplay between Joe Gould and Joseph Mitchell. There is a reason why Mitchell has placed himself in the story instead of writing from an onlooker's prospective as most profiles were written at the time and are written still. With this injection of author placed into the context of the story, Mitchell is giving the reader a glimpse of how the author can be seen in the same vein as the subject of the story. The two are entwined in a circle of deceit that encompasses the meaning of the word 'lie' in the direct or ordinary definition of the word.
After stumbling upon the mendacity that Gould wove with his stories of the Oral History, Mitchell feels as if he has been duped by Gould, that everything that Gould stands for is an enormous and cruel lie that Gould constructed in order to gain whatever it is that he needed for self-acknowledgement and worth. After ruminating for a while, Mitchell begins to feel some sympathy for Gould by remembering an endeavor of his own. Mitchell had a dream to write a novel that would be about a man and his conquests and revelations in New York City. The novel was to have some of the same elements as Gould's Oral History in the form of spoken dialogue from an old Negro street preacher. This novel was everything to Mitchell that the Oral History was to Gould, that is, as Gould is quoted as saying, "My rope and my scaffold, my wife and my floozy," etc. Although Mitchell was obsessed with writing the epic he constructed full-form in his mind, he was never able to actually write one word of it. This remembrance cools Mitchell's anger and he allows Gould to proceed with his deception without intervention. It takes a while for Mitchell to win his trust, but once it has been done, Gould once again dons the mask of the historian of his times and carries on as usual. Mitchell feels it unnecessary to expose Gould after this revelation of like characteristics between himself and Gould, and publishes the first profile, "Professor Seagull."
While Mitchell was able to place his dream novel on the backburner and continue life as a journalist, Gould continued to live the fantasy of the man who would someday be known as a great historian based on the jumbled dross floating around in his head. Gould had no other life and despised monetary gain and believed that he could never accomplish his goal of writing his history book if tied down to a regular job. Gould was hopeless in his yearnings and dreams. The one thing that he wanted and needed was the one thing that kept him from succeeding, whereas Mitchell rose above his desire to create a grand opus and settled for what he knew he could accomplish. The answer to the question that would tie this story neatly together is the one thing that Mitchell does not completely decipher after he has accused Gould of deception and trickery. The one line, if heard correctly, would answer many questions concerning the Oral History as well as Mitchell's dream novel, and that is when Gould indistinctly says, "It's not a question of laziness." If heard correctly, then what has kept Gould and Mitchell from realizing their dreams comes down to self-doubt and insecurities, and not from a lack of skill. These unrealized works of grand design are not with us today in written form only because the creators did not find themselves worthy of the tremendous work of placing into print what was fully realized in their heads.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book by a wonderful man
Review: This book is in the process of being made into a movie by the same title starring Stanley Tucci as Joe Mitchell, Ian Holm as Joe Gould and the lovely Hope Davis as Therese Mitchell, the photograhper and Mitchell's wife who died in 1980. The movie, slated to release in the fall, will capture the essence of Mitchell's book and will no doubt become a quiet classic.

Rating:
Summary: good writing about an ordinay subject
Review: This book with two different pieces about a homeless person of NY is remarkable demonstration of how to write a profile. The author achieve a literary level of writing descriving an empty life on an very ordinary disturbed person. The author did not try to get pity for him, nor depreciated him for his life style. He just descrives the life of Joe Gould on a very fair way.

Rating:
Summary: a brilliant book
Review: This slim volume caught my attention in the bookstore, and, after reading the first few pages at the store, prompted me to purchase it right away. It was money definitely well-spent. The book is short, but it's subject is fascinating -- a profile of a well-educated, poverty-stricken bohemian who is toiling on his life's love - an oral history of America totaling over 9,000,000 words (longer than 12 Bibles)! "Joe Gould's Secret" is one of those few masterpieces of reporting that transcends mere journalism and enters the realm of literature. Buy it today. You will be glad you did.