David Thomson, author most recently of "Have You Seen . . . ?" is a regular contributor to The Guardian, The Independent, The New York Times, Movieline, The New Republic, and Salon. He lives in San Francisco.
“The most intimate book yet from this most personal, intellectually
present of critics. . . . [An] eloquent, open-ended memoir.” —The
New York Times Book Review
“Honest, observant, and at times moving. . . . Try to Tell the
Story is a fine book, modest and self-effacing but also forthright
and uncompromising.” —Washington Post Book World
“Moving and provocative. . . . A vital exploration of how England,
America, and the arts . . . turned him from a seething stammering
school boy into an interpreter extraordinaire.” —Newsday
“The wry, alert intelligence that has always marked David
Thomson’s film criticism is here brought to bear on the
complex narrative of his own life, and, with admirable
compassion and tenderness, on those closest to him who shaped
it. Rarely has the unwilling achievement of maturity been as
honestly, astutely, or humbly reprised as in this haunting and
deeply affecting memoir.” —Phillip Lopate
“Those of us who are struck by his balance of authority and wit
when it comes to celluloid have sometimes had cause to wonder where
and how David Thomson acquired his astonishing deadpan synthesis of
lightness of heart and extreme gravitas. Well, now—and to
borrow an expression from his ancestral ‘hood—we bloody well know.”
—Christopher Hitchens
“Try to Tell the Story exists—like life—on the razor’s edge between
laughter and tears, bliss and heartbreak, confusion and
compassion. It is full of marvelous riffs on movies, music,
and sports, but at heart it is an unashamedly tender, disarmingly
open attempt to understand the mystery, the complexity, and
sometimes insanity of family life.” —Douglas McGrath
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