by Kate Keith

Created on: July 13, 2008   Last Updated: January 19, 2012

Two Lives' brings together a series of three essays that Malcolm wrote for the New Yorker in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Malcolm has always had the ability to cut through a myriad of information about her subjects and see other angles. Each of these essays deals with often undiscussed aspects of the lives of Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B Toklas. There is very little additionally information in this book form, compared to the articles that were printed in the New Yorker, so save a read or purchase if you have already had a chance to read them. This compilation will not unearth any hidden Malcolm gems.

The first essay deals largely with how it is possible that Stein and Toklas, who were Jewish, somehow were able to escape death or containment during World War I by living quite openly in the French countryside. As it turns out, they were protected and spared by a man with connections who was later determined to be a war criminal. Many aspects of this essay indicate that they never mentioned their Jewishness, either in Stein's writing or conversation.

Secondly, Malcolm deals with Stein's arguably most famous novel an enormous undertaking and a "text of magisterial disorder": The Making of Americans', in which she attempts to create order where there is none by categorizing and classifying people and their lives in one compendium.

Thirdly, Malcolm breaks apart Stein and Toklas' relationship, shaking the skeletons in their closets that include resentment, unresolved and outright cruelty to one another. This does not show their relationship as warm and comforting as some biographies lead us to believe of the legend of their bond. It also reminds us that, just as in all relationships, one can never know what transpired between two people except for the two people themselves.

Facts and stories and overheard conversations culled from biographies, notes and the passages of the ideas of others put this book together for any Stein/Toklas aficionado and reminded me of Hemingway's style of writing in Moveable Feast' gossipy and with snarky asides.

'Two Lives' is not an encyclopedic biography, but delves deeper into the story of the lives of Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas and serves rather as a companion volume to their lives, if you will. I have read that Janet Malcolm was famous for not taking writers at their word' - this book is a critical read that dares to attempt to discover the truths in between the lines. In conclusion, she does admit that in trying to pin a narrative on someone's life is nearly impossible it can only be a commentary.

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