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erboe501's review against another edition
3.0
I started this book over a year ago and put it aside for more lively books. At the time, I was rather bored, and I had trouble keeping track of the names. This time around, I kept up with who's who better. (But I think Kachka assumes too much of his readers. I would've appreciated more appellations and more frequent usage of first and last names instead of just last names.)
Kachka never endeared me to Roger Straus, the looming, magnetic center of the house. Straus honestly sounds like a sexist, overbearing, conceited man.
Regardless, I did learn more about the publishing industry. I still haven't decided if that knowledge makes me more eager or hesitant to join in.
Kachka never endeared me to Roger Straus, the looming, magnetic center of the house. Straus honestly sounds like a sexist, overbearing, conceited man.
Regardless, I did learn more about the publishing industry. I still haven't decided if that knowledge makes me more eager or hesitant to join in.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
Very readable. Although it felt a little unbalanced at times, I think this mostly had to do with the personalities and historical evidence available. Straus left an oral history behind and was the most outspoken partner while Farrar and Giroux were much quieter so the "flavor" of the book falls more to the Straus side.
One drawback came from the author's sort-of non-linear timeline. He would often refer to future events without using strict dates so sometimes a paragraph didn't make quite as much sense as it should have. But definitely a book to recommend for those interesting in the history of publishing.
One drawback came from the author's sort-of non-linear timeline. He would often refer to future events without using strict dates so sometimes a paragraph didn't make quite as much sense as it should have. But definitely a book to recommend for those interesting in the history of publishing.
thbevilacqua's review against another edition
4.0
Thoroughly enjoyed this history of one of America's greatest publishing houses. A fascinating depiction of the realm of publishing and editing, the side of the literary realm that many of us often forget about, and a story about some of our country's most famous and important authors. I'm also fascinated with Robert Giroux and see him as this profoundly important figure in twentieth century American literature so reading a bit about his life and experiences was fascinating.
shelfimprovement's review against another edition
3.0
Somebody else described this as reading someone else's yearbook. That's about as apt a description as I can think of. It's well-written and heavily researched, but assumes a familiarity that I just don't have.
jengennari's review against another edition
4.0
A gift, this book gave me more insight into the intersection of art and commerce than I imagined. Really understood the pressures of publishing (as well as some of the sexism prevalent in the early days of FSG). A good read for writers.
wistyallgood's review against another edition
4.0
This was excellent! Thoroughly researched, highly entertaining, the right amount of gossipy. I'm unfortunately still at a point where I need most non-fiction to be spoon-fed to me in terms of readability, and I thought Kachka delivered really well. There were an endless list of names to keep track of, so I sometimes muddled what was happening, but it was mostly fine and the narrative was very appealing. It was fun to look at my bookshelf and pick out all of the FSG books and actually understand how they came to be! This definitely portrayed publishing in a fascinating way, equal parts glamorous and a bit...nasty? An impressive glimpse into another world.
parnassusreads's review against another edition
4.0
Interested in publishing? Want an insiders take on one of the grandest American publishing houses? Looking for a gossipy rag to read on a sunny beach? Then look no further than Boris Kachka’s Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art and America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Though the extraordinarily long subtitle is somewhat off-putting, the breezy, glib narrative sets the perfect tone for a sunny afternoon of wandering attention, alcoholic digressions, and juicy gossip. Kachka likes to turn a good phrase, as the title indicates, and he tries hard and frequently to do so throughout this tour of the personalities, editors, and authors that have made FSG what it is today.
The two central figures of this narrative are Roger Straus, who started the company against the wishes of his parents, wealthy Jewish-Germans and central figures of “Our Crowd,” and Robert Giroux, who joined the company later in it’s life, after a decade or so at Harcourt, Brace. Straus was the magnetic personality who kept the company going on one side through wealthy connections and shrewd business deals, while Giroux brought in some of our best-known authors. The opposites-attract dynamic worked for a while before it fell apart, as it eventually had to. In Kachka’s rendering, Straus comes across as a larger-than-life personality, the kind that is magnetic but hard to live with in the long run. He was a notorious philanderer and cheapskate who rarely paid his authors the money they needed and his employees the money they deserved. Giroux, on the other hand was quiet, reserved, and worked hard to get his authors their due. Giroux was a Jesuit trained scholarship boy from Columbia, who ended up running the Columbia Review with his best friend and future poet John Berryman. His loyalty to his house and to his authors earned him their respect, and when he finally did break with Harcourt, Brace for their unwillingness to take risks with authors such as J.D. Salinger, he took the likes of T.S. Eliot with him.
While these two men dominate the story of FSG, there are numerous others who hold a vital place in its history. Farrar, who started the company with Straus after being ousted from his own publishing house while recuperating in Algiers after the war; Rose Wachtel, the office supplies manager who was such a tyrant that according to one of the employees, if you wanted a new pencil you had to show her the old one to prove that you really had worn down the nub. There’s also digressions on authors and their scandals, such as the possibility that Susan Sontag slept with Straus (they were a power couple downtown in matching leather jackets, according to Kachka), or Jonathan Franzen’s public spat with Oprah, which gets more pages than it really needs (and is excerpted here, at Slate.com). There are almost too many people populating this little history. To help alleviate the pain of remembering who’s who, there’s a 25-page index, along with endnotes for each chapter and an extended bibliography. Together, these tally 100 or so pages.
Kachka likes to sound good, yet his prose tends toward the bombastic; it starts right there in the subtitle. But who cares whether or not FSG really was the hottest house in publishing, or if it really is the most celebrated publishing house in America? Kachka is out to sell a book and to tell a good, if frequently tangential, yarn full of gossip on titans of publishing and celebrated authors alike. Just yesterday, over at New York Magazine, Kachka was pointing out the ironies of booksellers, readers, and authors bemoaning the impending death of the last brick and mortar book chain, Barnes & Noble, when it had been previously reviled as the death of independent bookstores and a bane to authors everywhere. He of course mentions the mediocre orders for his own book (only 100 copies for 600 stores), blaming Barnes & Noble for bad contract deals with his publisher, Simon & Schuster. If Hothouse had been written in this straight-forward, informative prose, I might have learned a bit more about the creation and maintenance of FSG. But then it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun, nor would it have felt like the unique treat that it is. Books like these don’t come along very often, and when they do, those with even the smallest interest in the publishing world ought to take note. Hothouse may not be the bestseller that Kachka clearly hopes it will be, but it has captured the attention of the entire book world and in that sense hits its mark perfectly.
The two central figures of this narrative are Roger Straus, who started the company against the wishes of his parents, wealthy Jewish-Germans and central figures of “Our Crowd,” and Robert Giroux, who joined the company later in it’s life, after a decade or so at Harcourt, Brace. Straus was the magnetic personality who kept the company going on one side through wealthy connections and shrewd business deals, while Giroux brought in some of our best-known authors. The opposites-attract dynamic worked for a while before it fell apart, as it eventually had to. In Kachka’s rendering, Straus comes across as a larger-than-life personality, the kind that is magnetic but hard to live with in the long run. He was a notorious philanderer and cheapskate who rarely paid his authors the money they needed and his employees the money they deserved. Giroux, on the other hand was quiet, reserved, and worked hard to get his authors their due. Giroux was a Jesuit trained scholarship boy from Columbia, who ended up running the Columbia Review with his best friend and future poet John Berryman. His loyalty to his house and to his authors earned him their respect, and when he finally did break with Harcourt, Brace for their unwillingness to take risks with authors such as J.D. Salinger, he took the likes of T.S. Eliot with him.
While these two men dominate the story of FSG, there are numerous others who hold a vital place in its history. Farrar, who started the company with Straus after being ousted from his own publishing house while recuperating in Algiers after the war; Rose Wachtel, the office supplies manager who was such a tyrant that according to one of the employees, if you wanted a new pencil you had to show her the old one to prove that you really had worn down the nub. There’s also digressions on authors and their scandals, such as the possibility that Susan Sontag slept with Straus (they were a power couple downtown in matching leather jackets, according to Kachka), or Jonathan Franzen’s public spat with Oprah, which gets more pages than it really needs (and is excerpted here, at Slate.com). There are almost too many people populating this little history. To help alleviate the pain of remembering who’s who, there’s a 25-page index, along with endnotes for each chapter and an extended bibliography. Together, these tally 100 or so pages.
Kachka likes to sound good, yet his prose tends toward the bombastic; it starts right there in the subtitle. But who cares whether or not FSG really was the hottest house in publishing, or if it really is the most celebrated publishing house in America? Kachka is out to sell a book and to tell a good, if frequently tangential, yarn full of gossip on titans of publishing and celebrated authors alike. Just yesterday, over at New York Magazine, Kachka was pointing out the ironies of booksellers, readers, and authors bemoaning the impending death of the last brick and mortar book chain, Barnes & Noble, when it had been previously reviled as the death of independent bookstores and a bane to authors everywhere. He of course mentions the mediocre orders for his own book (only 100 copies for 600 stores), blaming Barnes & Noble for bad contract deals with his publisher, Simon & Schuster. If Hothouse had been written in this straight-forward, informative prose, I might have learned a bit more about the creation and maintenance of FSG. But then it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun, nor would it have felt like the unique treat that it is. Books like these don’t come along very often, and when they do, those with even the smallest interest in the publishing world ought to take note. Hothouse may not be the bestseller that Kachka clearly hopes it will be, but it has captured the attention of the entire book world and in that sense hits its mark perfectly.
chidseyca's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5. Up and down. Good writing, but a lot of name dropping and it was very slow in some parts. I was really into it in the beginning, but then put it down and had a hard time picking it up again.
loveat1stwrite's review against another edition
3.0
The first couple of chapters was a bunch of confusing name-dropping as well as there generations of Straus all vaguely called by their last name. Eventually the names became distinguished, but again it took awhile before that happened. Very interesting insight into the old days of publishing.