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Letters to a Young Artist
by Anna Deavere Smith
Letters to artist
Anna Deavere Smith, actress, writer and playwright, offers Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts – for Actors, Performers, Writers and Artists of Every Kind. And what the title promises is exactly what the book delivers.
She has a lot of important-- and, at times, abstract -– things to say about being an artist. The advice she gives varies between the brilliant -– “Being a grown-up has nothing to do with age. I have met people at sixteen who are grown-ups. I have met people who are sixty who are not.” -- and the simple – “Ideas are a dime a dozen; to make them real takes consistent, persistent application of energy toward the idea.”
The letter form lends itself to Deavere Smith’s words – makes the advice more familiar, less lecturing. She peppers the advice with anecdotes from her life -– rich and detailed, they evoke envy of such a full and inviting life, additionally stirring the artists to follow the given advice. If she can live it, after all, why shouldn’t the reader?
Smith covers an array of subjects -– confidence, presence, and attitude; “the Man,” power and civic duty; procrastination and distractions; fame, alienation, and memory. She handles these topics in a compelling style, giving advice that is inspiring and refreshing. Deavere Smith’s writing is poetry – smooth, full of flow and rhythm.
The book reads like those talks that you have at midnight with your best friend: you wind up dissecting the entire world, sure that you have found out the answers.
Title: Letters to a Young Artist
Author: Anna Deavere Smith
Publisher: Anchor books
ISBN: 140032385
Review written by: Melissa McL
Reviewer's Rating:9
Reader's Rating: 7.00
Reader's Votes: 1
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