Mine Enemy Grows Older

My friend Margie King Barab, who is married to Seymour Barab, was, as a young woman, married to Alexander King (she was his fourth and final wife). Margie is in the process of writing a memoir about her life with King, and after reading the draft of Margie's memoir, seeing Alexander King's paintings hanging on the walls of the apartment where she and Seymour live, and seeing video recordings of "Alex in Wonderland" (which belong only to Margie), I could see how as very young woman coming straight out of Nebraska, Margie might have been charmed by this brilliant man. After reading around 100 pages of Mine Enemy Grows Older, I can understand completely why she was smitten.

The book, published by Simon and Schuster in 1958 (my copy is its sixth printing), comes with two dust covers. The one with the cello and the horse (how did Alex know that Margie would marry a cellist after he died?) is the outer cover, and the grey one is the inner cover. The text on the outer cover reads, "NOTE: If this jacket (the author painted it) is too strong for you, take it off. There's a conservative jacket for conservative people underneath."




The reviewer I linked to above (on The Neglected Books Page) seems to think that the book becomes tiresome towards the end. I'll let you know when I get there. But for the time I remain thoroughly entertained. I'm not quoting anything because I taking the copyright warning seriously. I did not take the above photos: they came from an Amazon listing!

If you can find a copy of this book in a used bookstore, grab it.