To grow up as the child of Clifton Fadiman, as Anne did, must have been a challenge. The father was a colossus of American intellectualism: a writer, a reviewer, a critic, a media personality. However, what comes through in this memoir is Anne's enduring love and respect for her father. Wine was one of his many passions — and Clifton was a voracious collector. It was not something, though, that Anne or her siblings inherited. An accomplished intellectual in her own right, Anne writes poignantly about the role wine played in the Fadiman household. The reader of this work is likely less to remember this than the father-daughter relationship. I also respected how, for Clifton, death was not a taboo; rather it was something he had meticulously planned and approached with his customary brio and wit. Not rated.
By Anne Fadiman