My Life With George

FILLING card catalogues with the best names at dinner parties and keeping a retentive diary of one’s own bons mots are not, despite considerable published evidence, what makes an autobiography. It takes an unremitting activity of the reflective qualities, that sixth sense which is imagination, and a lifetime of writing discipline to produce an autobiography which is anything more than anecdote and travel itinerary. These qualities come together with the approximate frequency of a visit from Halley’s comet — I. A. R. Wylie has achieved them. Her father is unforgettable. The ‘George’ who is her conscience has kept her keyed up to the penetrating clarity which is the book’s most notable quality. From her years in Germany, England, and America, Miss Wylie has written a story heads above any of her fiction.