Ollmann's rubbery, dark lines and muted palate carefully render the complicated personality of Mr. Seabrook, at once a gregarious and prickly man.
Seabrook's life was marked with towering highs and crushing lows, which Ollmann depicts with due moral ambiguity, affectionately capturing the redeeming moments while refusing to ignore the points of depravity. "William Seabrook is drunk again.. not drunk again, but still drunk and always drunk."
Ollmann's discerning eye and instinct as a biographer are extremely sharp; he often interweaves the words of Seabrook's previous biographers and those of the man himself, dredged up from long forgotten archives.
This fantastic paperback edition features a handful of extra goodies, including Ollmann's notes, his ranked list of Seabrook's books, and a recipe for the author's "Asylum" cocktail!
**We are hosting a book launch with Joe Ollmann on Friday, the 27th of January. Admission is free. More info on the event can be found here.