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| Things I Didn't Know (Vintage) | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert Hughes
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $8.85
You Save: $7.10 (45%)
Buy New/Used from $6.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  (2 reviews)
Sales Rank: 159875
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0307385981
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780307385987
ASIN: 0307385981
Publication Date: December 4, 2007
Release Date: December 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Robert Hughes has trained his critical eye on many major subjects, from the city of Barcelona to the history of his native Australia. Now he turns that eye inward, onto himself and the world that formed him. Hughes analyzes his experiences the way he might examine a Van Gogh or a Picasso. From his relationship with his stern and distant father to his Catholic upbringing and school years; and from his development as an artist, writer, and critic to his growing appreciation of art and his exhilaration at leaving Australia to discover a new life, Hughes? memoir is an extraordinary feat of exploration and celebration.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Why aren't more people reading this? September 20, 2008
Only one customer review (albeit 5-star) tells me this is a greatly underappreciated book. The life story (so far) of the man who became art critic for TIME Magazine is as entertaining as it gets. No stuffy, artsy, blather to wade through here, though there are some worthy insights on art.
We follow Hughes from his priviledged but down-to-earth (and down-under) childhood, through WWII with Japanese subs in Sydney harbor, to the fluke of his becoming an art critic on the strength of his political cartoons for an underground paper ("You draw, you're the f-ing art critic," the editor proclaimed.), to meetings with artists way beyond eccentric, to "beat", "mod" and "hippy" life in London, to flood restorations in Florence, to the life of an expatriot in Italy, and back to Australia for car accidents, lawsuits and epiphanies.
A taste of his unromantic prose (re: his days in London): "The depths of tedium that can be plumbed by sitting around half stoned, listening to people chatter moonily about rewriting human-kind and erasing its aggressive instincts through love and dope, are scarcely imaginable to those who have not suffered them."
On a personal note, his unflattering views on colorfield painters were amusing to me, as I remember as a lowly drone in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' publicity department sending Hughes at Time Magazine photos and information on Morris Louis and his ilk, with the hope of stirring up some interest for a story on the MFA show.
His book The Fatal Shore, a history of Australia, is also recommended, with the caveat that you'll need a strong constitution and plenty of time to get through this thorough-to-a-fault chronicle.
 Truly a 5-star read January 12, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
In this tightly written, adventurous memoir we begin with tragedy. Hughes gets into an automobile accident in his native Australia after a fishing trip and almost died. He did plead with family members, friends and his significant other to kill him while in hospital, but he made it through the horrendous surgeries and constant pain to write this wondrous memoir.
His description of the Australian legal system, the differences between the States and Australia, as well as his own life as a long-time art critic, are well rendered and his language is beautifully choreographed.
Hughes' writing is visual and you know right away that for him life and art are inseparable in his mind. But this makes the book even more formidable. We follow Hughes through life, his affluent upraising in Sydney to the first moment when he realizes art is important-when as a student he sees a Miro-he told a professor, "That can't be art." His professor replied, "All right, Robert," he replied, "if that isn't art then why don't you tell me what art is?" This was an epiphany for Hughes who actually started thinking about what art really was.
Overall, this is a light-hearted memoir, except when Hughes discusses his first marriage, which, while it settles him, his wife wants sexual freedom, and this left him feeling like a "cuckold, going cuckoo." But once the divorce is finalized, his writing takes back its tinge of gold, pulling away from the gothic darkness of that experience. An absolutely fantastic read where you visit Australia, London, the States and Italy
Armchair Interviews says: A must read for anyone who loves exceptional writing.
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