"Doomed and Famous" Selected Obituaries by Adrian Dannatt
Thursday, October 6, 2022
"Doomed and Famous" by Adrian Dannatt with Illustrations by Hugo Guinness (Sequence Press)
There seem to be two types of people in the world: Interesting and non-interesting. Adrian Dannatt, who appears to be fascinating himself, wrote obituaries on what looks like only fascinating people. Dannatt is a critic, an ex-Flash Art editor, and, oddly enough, a child actor. He even wrote his obituary in the book. He is clearly part of the club. If I am counting correctly, there are 76 obituaries here, and I only know twelve people. Not only would I want to spend time with those ten, but after reading this book, I deeply regret that I can't spend time with the other 64 fabulous and very eccentric figures. Well, there is one antisemite that I could avoid, but even he's interesting. "Doomed and Famous" is beyond remarkable; having this masterpiece is essential and imperative.
Dannatt wrote these obituaries for the publications The Independent and The Arts Newspaper, among others. Its genius aspect captures a world where brilliance and eccentricity rule the landscape. We have everything from artists to writers to individuals who had great wealth and prominence in society to those who seemed to do nothing but do so with great skill and wit. Most of these figures somehow fell through the cracks of wide attention, but that doesn't make them less tremendous or fabulous.
It took me a while to read the book because I either wanted to see an image of them or track down the paintings, books, or something that represents them in a visual sense. This book is an entrance to a wider world, and part of the fun is to locate their lives. Already I have put together a list of books to get from the library and elsewhere. I went beyond being a reader and very much a collector of everyone who is in this book.
Each obituary is about 1000 words, and it's unbelievable how Dannatt can turn out such interesting information and vital knowledge on these subject matters. I didn't realize that obituary writing is a classic and excellent medium. Dannatt takes it to a higher literary level that sucks the reader into a specific place and time. At times I felt that this was all made up, but I know some of the individuals, and some have very little presence online, so the reader is never sure, but now, I know these people exist. Like painting a portrait of a person, Dannatt, with his prose style, perfectly captures the importance, humor, and grace of these people. It's funny but never a joke, and perfection is perfectly defined in this superb book.