Glenn Gould: A Life in Pictures

the Estate of Glenn Gould

Doubleday

What is there to say about Glenn Gould that hasn’t already been said? Anyone who is inter­ested in the sub­ject is already famil­iar with the many mytholo­gies sur­round­ing this gan­gly, pill-popping ago­ra­phobe who wore win­ter coats year-round and played the piano with neu­rotic pre­ci­sion and stun­ning clar­ity. Yet Glenn Gould: A Life in Pictures (Doubleday) — filled with rare black-and-white pho­tos from the CBC, the National Library of Canada and Columbia Records, as well as fam­ily snap­shots — is still a fresh and rel­e­vant book. The sub­stan­tial intro­duc­tion by the Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Tim Page sums up Gould’s life and work suc­cinctly yet gen­er­ously. The images them­selves are a bit dis­ap­point­ing: many are too blurry to work as full-page blow-ups. Still, the pho­tos cap­ture Gould’s char­ac­ter, a strange amal­gam of self-conscious awk­ward­ness and camera-conscious van­ity. And some­how even the fuzzy pho­tos are effec­tive, show­ing Gould as a flail­ing whirl­wind of cre­ative energy and a fas­ci­nat­ing kook.