I found the first half a wee bit bland, and I suspect that other doctors have done it more engagingly. But in the second half of the book he delves into his alcoholism, the way that it started, the way in which it gained pace and the point at which he quit. He is open about the awfulness of it and I found this disarmingly honest account fascinating. So for me it was overall worth reading. Not much about ice cream though!
I only read a little bit - a delightful read grounded in wisdom. Then I bought it on kindle to read and savour while I am away.
I started this book with great enthusiasm, impressed by his erudition - the classical, historical, political and literary references - and his vast vocabulary. I mean, whoever heard of the verb to latibulate? (To hide in a safe corner until conditions improve. Maybe what we all should be doing.) There is no particular story line, he relates bits of his life around the time when his marriage to the redoubtable Georgina was failing and his even more redoubtable mother was in hospital maybe dying and I began to find the tedium relieved only by his sense of humour plus of course the erudition and the vocab. So the book was never finished, however, having picked it up again just now perhaps I regret it. His description of the aged prostitute in the same ward as his mother is poignant and funny. Mmmm, another time.
I was curious to know more about Francoise Gilot, the author of this book, after reading The Paris Muse, the novel about Picasso’s previous lover Dora Maar. Life with Picasso is a dense and fascinating account of the ten years Francoise Gilot spent with Picasso and an insight into the art world, Picasso’s friends and contemporaries such as Matisse and Braque, Picasso’s work and his thinking. But it is also an account of the life of Francoise, a talented painter, a fiercely intelligent and independent woman. Caught between the two sides of Picasso - the genius artist and adoring lover and the vicious and abusive man - she finally left him, the only woman to do so.