Sleepless Nights

Sleepless Nights
by Elizabeth Hardwick
Hardwick called this book a novel, and it may look to some like a memoir (the life of the "Elizabeth" in it matches of the outline of Hardwick's), but to my mind, it's a book of criticism: not of works of art but of people. Hardwick was one of the great critics, and here she makes a series of witheringly sharp portraits of friends and relations, summing them up with a few deft words, a few well-chosen actions, and only rarely, tantalizingly, turning that same judging eye on herself. If you're the sort of reader who underlines in your books, you sometimes will feel like you should underline every sentence of this brilliant gem.