Bobby A.M. recorded them. Kazys Varnelis edited them. And now Terence Riley reviews them. “The Philip Johnson Tapes”, published by Monacelli in November, gets a full page in Bookforum this month, and well, um, it’s not exactly a barn burner.

It’s easy enough to accuse Riley of being soft on Stern for being soft on Johnson. With his intermittently nauseating politics and penchant for heavy duty self-aggrandizement, there’s no degree of scrutiny which Johnson shouldn’t be made to bear, up to and including the third degree (burns). (And we say this as members in good standing of the P.J. International Fan Club’s New York chapter.) Riley’s review is, surprise! fairly collegial and soft-focus. It sounds like the book is, as well.

Still, Riley does observe that certain stones were left unturned in Stern’s conversations with Johnson. Since we know for a fact that Varnelis takes the dimmest possible view of Johnson’s activities in the 30’s, we’re a little surprised that Varnelis didn’t attempt to dig up more dirt. Then again, what was he to do? Resurrect Johnson and grill him for answers? And what was Riley to do, for that matter? He’s probably right that Stern tried almost everything within the bounds of decency to get some straight talk from Johnson.

Obviously we’re just going to have to review the damned book ourselves and make sure. When is somebody going to get it over with and rat out all the juicy stuff on P. Cortelyou? There must be one of those gag orders in place that doesn’t lift until twenty-five years after the subject’s death. Fuss and bother.

Drawing Attention [Bookforum]