Comments on: william saroyan | part II http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/william-saroyan-part-ii/ Norbert Blei's Poetry Dispatch and other Notes from the Underground. “We live to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection,” said Anaїs Nin. Fri, 17 May 2013 23:30:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Barbara Vroman http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/william-saroyan-part-ii/#comment-1434 Sat, 16 Jan 2010 03:33:01 +0000 http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/?p=3840#comment-1434 For a long time I couldn’t understand why Saroyan’s wife divorced him. He wrote
lovely things about her, and wanted her to stay with him, and he was such a darling
father. How could she leave him, this unique, funny, endlessly fresh and informative
man? This essay, which I had never read before, wilts my displeasure toward her.
I am sure now that it is much more fun to read him, than to live with him.

She later married Walter Matthau and they were very happy together. I couldn’t
understand how she could chose Matthau over Saroyan. I didn’t know that for a time
Saroyan was a serious drinker.

But one of the most contagious things about Saroyan was his ability to be happy
with whatever the day brought, he smothered his darkest moments in the sheer
belief that every moment of living whatever the conditions was exciting, magical
and worth it.

Barbara Vroman

]]> By: David Dix sr. http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/william-saroyan-part-ii/#comment-1431 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:17:27 +0000 http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/?p=3840#comment-1431 Ah, Saroyan.
In the 60′s I played Wesley the saloon piano player in The Time of Your Life, at the Waukesha (WI) Civic Theatre, then on Washington St. I was thought to have performed the definitive role here in this small town.
It began my long-standing love of Saroyan’s ‘don’t give a damn’ style. Unpretentious, forthright……elixirous.
David Dix

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