If you hadn't heard, Spalding Gray has disappeared. Police Tracing Clues in Spalding Gray Case is the most recent New York Times story about this perturbing turn of events.
If you have never heard of him, he is most famous for Swimming to Cambodia, a movie in which he rants neurotically for two hours, a description that really doesn't capture that this is a must-see movie. He also wrote a novel called Impossible Vacation, which I will call a roman à clef although that phrase is mainly used by authors to deny having written one. As with much of his work, it is preoccupied with the death of his mother, who committed suicide.
Most stories have picked up the AP language describing him as most known for "artful, witty monologues," although that also does not capture that they are also disturbing, obsessive and bizarre, or brilliant, intense and charming.
I hope that he hasn't offed himself. The apparent suicide of was quite enough in the suicide department. Even disappearing Ambrose Bierce-style would be less distressing.
(Finally, I guess I'll find out if NYT was serious about not breaking links from blogs. If they do, I'll change it.)
Posted by muldrake at January 14, 2004 05:35 AM | TrackBackAnd now Spalding Gray, a man with such an eerily delicious command of the language, has seemingly jumped off the Staten Island Ferry. This is man who had a seven-year-old son, an incredible career, a loving wife. But a car accident in Ireland destroyed his hip, and the depression than ran in his blood had only worsened since September 11 (he lived in Soho).
Ian William's weblog
Posted by: blair at January 17, 2004 02:37 PM