Honky-Tonk Parade: The New Yorker Profiles

John Lahr is America's most celebrated drama critic, and Honky Tonk Parade is a collection of his work that illuminates some of the most compelling, elusive, and important artists of our time, who talk to Lahr with rare candor. His portraits weave together biography, anecdote, and shrewd interpretation. Included is the hilarious profile on Dame Edna Everage/Barry Humphries; his piece on Bill Hicks, which according to the comedian himself, is what finally found him an American audience; and the first in-depth portrait of Steve Buscemi.

In writing "as lively as good conversation" (Robert Brustein), Lahr arrives at truths of uncommon clarity, a claim seconded by Arthur Miller, who said that Lahr's essay on him is "by far the best thing about my stuff I've ever read." These heralded profiles, the product of his impressive work at The New Yorker, deepen our understanding of their subjects and our culture that they so profoundly reflect. Honky Tonk Parade, like the icons whose lives and work it so meticulously chronicles, corrupts an audience with pleasure.