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What Is It All but Luminous: Notes from an Underground Man

by Art Garfunkel

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1127241,758 (3.19)7
Biography & Autobiography. Music. Nonfiction. HTML:"Poetic musings on a life well-livedā??one that is still moving forward, always creating, always luminous. This isn't your typical autobiography. Garfunkel's history is told in flowing prose, bounding from present to past, far from a linear rags-to-riches story."
ā??Bookreporter

"It's hard to imagine any single word that would accurately describe this book . . . an entertaining volume that's more fun to read than a conventional memoir might have been."
ā??The Wall Street Journal

 "A charming book of prose and poetry printed in a digitalized version of his handwriting . . . witty, candid, and wildly imaginative . . . A highly intelligent man trying to make sense of his extraordinary life."
ā??Associated Press

From the golden-haired, curly-headed half of Simon & Garfunkel, a memoir (of sorts)ā??moving, lyrical impressions, interspersed throughout a narrative, punctuated by poetry, musings, lists of resonant books loved and admired, revealing a life and the making of a musician, that show us, as well, the evolution of a man, a portrait of a life-long friendship and of a collaboration that became the most successful singing duo in the roiling age that embraced, and was defined by, their pathfinding folk-rock music.

In What Is It All but Luminous, Art Garfunkel writes about growing up in the 1940s and ā??50s (son of a traveling salesman, listening as his father played Enrico Caruso records), a middle-class Jewish boy, living in a redbrick semi-attached house on Jewel Avenue in Kew Gardens, Queens.
He writes of meeting Paul Simon, the kid who made Art laugh (they met at their graduation play, Alice in Wonderland; Paul was the White Rabbit; Art, the Cheshire Cat). Of their being twelve at the birth of rockā??nā??roll (ā??it was rhythm and blues. It was black. I was captured and so was Paulā?), of a demo of their song, Hey Schoolgirl for seven dollars and the actual record (with Paulā??s father on bass) going to #40 on the charts.
He writes about their becoming Simon & Garfunkel, ruling the pop charts from the age of sixteen, about not being a natural performer but more a thinker, an underground man.
He writes of the hit songs; touring; about being an actor working with directors Mike Nichols (ā??the greatest of them allā?), about choosing music over a PhD in mathematics.
And he writes about his long-unfolding split with Paul, and how and why it evolved, and after; learning to perform on his own . . . and about b
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» See also 7 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
An unusual memoir. Itā€™s a semi-chronological combination of memories, personal photos, poetry, and poetical bits and pieces that may be drafts of song lyrics. Itā€™s weird, but good. And definitely worthwhile.

(Just to add something that may not be important for most people but is for me. itā€™s a great feeling book: hardcover but small and lightweight; it feels wonderful in your hand as a thing to hold. So just in the tactile sense Iā€™d give it 5 stars.) ( )
  br77rino | Jun 20, 2023 |
I wrote a review on my blog. In short I did not like the book because it was not interesting. Read my review herehttps://macymakesmagic.com/2022/11/28/what-is-it-all-but-luminous-notes-from-an-underground-man-by-art-garfunkel/ ( )
  laurelzito | Nov 28, 2022 |
Unlike many of the other reviewers, I really enjoyed this book. Itā€™s not a typical memoir, more of a stream of consciousness. Itā€™s basically a book of poetry. I listened to the audiobook instead of reading it, which I think had an impact on my enjoyment as itā€™s read by Art Garfunkel. ( )
  thewestwing | Aug 12, 2022 |
I grew up listening to (casette tapes of) Simon and Garfunkel on family car trips and somehow my parents' musical taste followed Paul Simon's solo career rather than Art Garfunkel's so I was curious to know more about the lesser known (to me) half of the duo. For straight up information, this was not the source, but it definitely gave insight into Garfunkel's creative mind and process. This is more of a compilation of some of his journals - even using a typeface based on his handwriting, which is kind of cool. Here are snippets of poems, reflections, observations, memories, with very little linear narration. Also included are some original photos. It was kind of like looking through his personal scrapbook, but as such, I felt there was a lot I didn't understand or wasn't privy to. I love the title, and it is referenced several times in the book. What I learned: top titles of the favorite books he has read, favorite songs on his ipod, 2 great loves of his life, 2 sons, a bit about his parents, that he has walked across America and several other countries, that he "lost" his voice for over 2 years, that he has read the entire Random House dictionary, that he and Paul Simon met in Jr. High and started singing together then, that he was in a couple movies in the 70s and is good friends with Jack Nicholson, that he truly sees his voice as a gift. Here's what I didn't learn: why Simon & Garfunkel split up, much about Garfunkel's solo career, any clear trajectory/timeline of his life. I think this was more an exercise in appreciation than understanding and that's luminous too. ( )
  CarrieWuj | Oct 24, 2020 |
4 stars: Very good.

------

From the back cover: ARt Garfunkel writes about growing up in the 1940s and 50s , a middle class Jewish boy, living in a redbrick, semi attached house in Queens, playing chess by day, watching the Brooklyn Dodgers by night, feeling his vocal cords "vibrate with the love of sound" from the age of five when he "began to sing with the sense of God's gift running through him." He writes of meeting Paul Simon, the funny guy who made Art laugh. Of their being twelve at the birth of rock n roll... He writes about their becoming Simon & Garfunkel, ruling the pop charts from the age of sixteen, about not being a natural performer but more of a thinker, an underground man. He writes of the hit songs, sex on tour for the thrills, reading books to calm it down, the road to walk it off... he writes of his wife to ease his soul and children to end the aloneness, and about choosing music over a PhD in mathematics. And he writes about his long unfolding split with Paul, and how and why it evolved, and after, learning to perform on his own. About his voice going south (a stiffening of one of the vocal cords) and working to get it back. And much, much more.

------------

More than most books, I find it hard to review this one. Like Garfunkelā€™s concerts, it is an amalgam of his poetic, musical remembrances, and his spoken word poetry. He roughly moves the book chronologically, although not totally. There will be one paragraph, a break, a poem, an anecdote, seemingly unrelated, but by the end, tell the picture of this true genius, the underground man.

And therefore more than most, the best way I can describe it is to provide quote from it.
----------------------
[Before truly making it big, Art found out that Paul had also recorded a song with other people, not just himself]. He was releasing a record behind my back. Or so it felt. Perception? Heā€™s base, I concluded in an eighth of a second, and the friendship was shattered for life. All else is finding forgiveness. Who have *I* hurt while in my stride?

One night at a noisy party in London in a crowded club George [Harrison] appeared behind my ear. Simon and Garfunkel had just done an outdoor concert at Wembley. I guess he had seen our show. Sweetly, intimately, he spoke of the vibe her perceived. ā€œYour Paul is to you exactly as my Paul is to me.ā€ I canā€™t get past this disclosure from George Harrison.

To me, it comes down to this: one and one can coexist, or add up to two, or in our case, they can affect each other like electric energy, resulting in this Grammy honor tonight.

At the start of the 21st century, the whole world and its collective consciousness had moved to fearā€”if you are unsure of it, fear it. If you see someone singing with an iPod in the airport is it yellow alert? Once America needed an act of provocation to invade another country, now only suspicion and paranoia are required. All for a reason and care, all effort to understand differences among nations, and their shades of gray, seem to have been swept aside by the second Bush administration. Simplistically, shockingly, it all became a war of oil and religion (Muhammad vs. McDonalds) and it dropped civilization back five hundred years. ā€˜If you fear it, attack it.ā€

To my ā€œpartnerā€™sā€ son:
Though the challenge, the direction, is as blinding as the sun, aim toward your fatherā€™s heart and just take one baby step toward it. A little is a lot. Let your true inner self be warmed. His is the heart that needs to melt. Let cracks precede the awe-full task. Then recede, slip back, go cloudy like the weather, whatever. But please persist before he dies. See him as the lonely one-a poet turning prosaic. You are the rising sun.

We give one sixth their worth to those alive; afterward the other five.

Be a better Buddhist. Do all I do now with increased ā€˜ichinenā€™. If itā€™s all in the eye of the beholder, then enrichen the beholder.

Robin Gibb recovers from a coma. What brought him back from the edgeā€”his mother, his doctor, the power to pray? I heard they played him pieces of the album he was making at the time he slipped away. Did he say, in the climb from a very deep hole, ā€˜I gotta get back to my rock n rollā€™? ( )
  PokPok | Dec 21, 2018 |
Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
Garfunkelā€™s book... is a splattering of 30-plus years of handwritten thoughts, lists, travel notes, bad poetry, confessions, snarky digs, platitudes and prayers gussied up for publication in different fonts and sizes. Reading it is like rummaging through a huge junk drawer of the mind.

Unfortunately, the singer... is more successful behind the microphone than he is on the page.
added by danielx | editWashington Post, Sibby O'Sullivan (pay site) (Sep 14, 2017)
 
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Epigraph
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Kathryn, my woman, my wife.
I remember when I almost lost you.  It was 1996, James Arthur was six.  We went to Canada with hope of cancer treatment.

I contemplated losing you.  Losing my lover.  Raising James without you.

I couldn't handle it.  It was my absolute darkest hour--the deepest saddest trough I ever knew.  Thinking there might be no mother, no You in our lives, I felt the huge Something you are.  As big as my life.

But you are here, in all your magnificent mystical Substantiality.

Mom was right--God is good

10/13/16
First words
I was a nervous wreck as I packed my things in the middle of the night on January 2, 1969.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Biography & Autobiography. Music. Nonfiction. HTML:"Poetic musings on a life well-livedā??one that is still moving forward, always creating, always luminous. This isn't your typical autobiography. Garfunkel's history is told in flowing prose, bounding from present to past, far from a linear rags-to-riches story."
ā??Bookreporter

"It's hard to imagine any single word that would accurately describe this book . . . an entertaining volume that's more fun to read than a conventional memoir might have been."
ā??The Wall Street Journal

 "A charming book of prose and poetry printed in a digitalized version of his handwriting . . . witty, candid, and wildly imaginative . . . A highly intelligent man trying to make sense of his extraordinary life."
ā??Associated Press

From the golden-haired, curly-headed half of Simon & Garfunkel, a memoir (of sorts)ā??moving, lyrical impressions, interspersed throughout a narrative, punctuated by poetry, musings, lists of resonant books loved and admired, revealing a life and the making of a musician, that show us, as well, the evolution of a man, a portrait of a life-long friendship and of a collaboration that became the most successful singing duo in the roiling age that embraced, and was defined by, their pathfinding folk-rock music.

In What Is It All but Luminous, Art Garfunkel writes about growing up in the 1940s and ā??50s (son of a traveling salesman, listening as his father played Enrico Caruso records), a middle-class Jewish boy, living in a redbrick semi-attached house on Jewel Avenue in Kew Gardens, Queens.
He writes of meeting Paul Simon, the kid who made Art laugh (they met at their graduation play, Alice in Wonderland; Paul was the White Rabbit; Art, the Cheshire Cat). Of their being twelve at the birth of rockā??nā??roll (ā??it was rhythm and blues. It was black. I was captured and so was Paulā?), of a demo of their song, Hey Schoolgirl for seven dollars and the actual record (with Paulā??s father on bass) going to #40 on the charts.
He writes about their becoming Simon & Garfunkel, ruling the pop charts from the age of sixteen, about not being a natural performer but more a thinker, an underground man.
He writes of the hit songs; touring; about being an actor working with directors Mike Nichols (ā??the greatest of them allā?), about choosing music over a PhD in mathematics.
And he writes about his long-unfolding split with Paul, and how and why it evolved, and after; learning to perform on his own . . . and about b

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Love, learn, sing and move // The hard parts are worth it too // It is a man's life.

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