Three Autobiographies

The literate’s schadenfreude over reviews of Norman Podhoretz’s autobiography certifies Making It as the most provocative book so far in 1968. This very fact might be said to attest to the validity of Podhoretz’s theme: that nothing counts quite so much among intellectuals as fame and its accouterments. They would hardly be so provoked if Podhoretz’s “dirty little secret” didn’t really cut through to some painful truth, he might say. The information is relayed in Making It that it may take $60,000 a year to live in New York City decently, presumably as befits a celebrated intellectual. Sixty grand is a depressingly steep admission price to the good life. It is true that in the old American Puri...