The Secret Life of Walter Newkirk by Walter Newkirk ([email protected]).
Gay public relations veteran Walter Newkirk's memoir is a sprawling effort encapsulating four decades in the life of a gay man besieged by homophobia and health scares, yet decorated and greatly influenced by the art and spectacle of celebrity. As his book's title references the 1947 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the author also "daydreamed and had wild fantasies, which have somehow turned into a wilder reality." The memoir is a kaleidoscopic menagerie of movie stars, eccentric personalities, and outspoken contemporaries who play keyed roles in Newkirk's life.
In clipped paragraphs, many no longer than a sentence or two, Newkirk presents himself as an affable, bubbly raconteur drinking life in and savoring every flavor that it has to offer. While entertaining and somewhat frenetic, the book tends to skip around from thought to thought. This is obvious right from the opening chapter, which regales readers with a meticulously drawn family tree, detailed right down to Welsh roots and his alcoholic, fiery-tempered grandfather's infidelities.
The author's education, beginning in 1972 at Rutgers University, consisted of some particularly randy roommates and hours of continuous "crotch cruising" on campus. Newkirk became obsessed with the inner workings of shows such as the PBS reality-documentary series An American Family, and its matriarch Pat Loud, while he came to terms with his own homosexuality.
Perhaps his access to celebrities was best afforded to Newkirk through his work as a newspaper arts editor, where he became personally familiar with Divine, whom he discovered as an "intelligent, charming, and down-to-earth actor"; vocalist and Dreamgirls Broadway actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, Eartha Kitt, and Olympia Dukakis; all while receiving the cold shoulder from his parents, who wanted nothing to do with a son who (eventually) openly acknowledged his homosexuality.
A comfortable position working at New Jersey's Newark Museum led to more opportunities for canoodling with men and shaping his career. Newkirk's public relations firm began to take shape after it merged with his friend Tom McDowell's business. But a snow-shoveling-induced back injury introduced the author to prescription painkillers that, when mixed with alcohol, threw him into a frenzy.
Dating and sexing men via AOL chat rooms, the demise of his father, and the death of his good friend Edith Beale threw his emotional state into a downward spin. The unlikely bond with Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, Jr., Jackie Kennedy Onassis's first cousin and co-subject of the documentary film Grey Gardens, is affectionately recounted through a scrapbook of photographs and stories about how Newkirk came to befriend Edie, and how they stayed in touch over the years. His subsequent book of memories with Little Edie, MemoraBEALEia, adds flare to an overstuffed shelf of books and documentaries about the mother-daughter family who lived in squalor on a dilapidated East Hampton estate.
The memoir's most impressive feature is its three generous sections of memorabilia, including marvelous photographs, newspaper clippings, theatrical, literary, and music reviews, gossip columns, original handwritten correspondence, and yellowed pictures of Newkirk's life with Little Edie and many other celebrities. Readers unfamiliar with this snappy personality will become well-acquainted with him after encountering this fun, illuminating display of strife, success, and celebrity merriment.