Trying it out in America

As the title of his new book suggests, Richard Poirier believes that the United States has been uncommonly hospitable to literary and artistic experimentation, to innovation and daring. Just as the nation likes to imagine itself as always in a state of becoming and renewal, some of its greatest writers have seemed willing to accept a measure of neglect during their lifetimes in return for the promise of posthumous triumph. Poirier's explorations of the American scene are not limited to literature. His moving account of the American ballets of George Balanchine, of Bette Midler in performance, of the reclusive Arthur Inman - whose immense diary offers incomparable glimpses into daily life during World War II - and his challenging refutations of some persistent myths of American "manhood" and of America itself, by outside observers such as Jean Baudrillard and Martin Amis, will bring readers to a new appreciation of some of the most interesting (and difficult) features of American culture.