Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter by Antonia Fraser

 Len gifted me this book after he heard some commentary on it on a radio or TV show. It looked intriguing to me, especially the blurbs on the back cover, so I started reading it right away.

I'm so glad I did! It's a beautifully written work of love. While the author's choices and thinking are not ones I could condone, she offers her descriptions unapologetically. For example, both she and Pinter are married when they meet, and begin a love affair that lasts the rest of their lives. They are both parents and seem oblivious to the consequences these choices might have on their spouses and children. Yet they soldier on, divorce their spouses, and finally, joyfully marry. She makes no excuses, just describes in beautiful prose what they did, whom they saw, what they said. 

It's clear that they are each passionate artists, and they seem to connect and beautifully support the other's writing. Their love is illustrated through the many poems he writes her, and they are moving. One wonders if maybe their love was meant to be? Or do you have to act that way when you've made these choices? I don't know, but it is fun to watch their lives move forward.

There are many references I don't understand since they live in London and are part of a culture that I know little about. I recognize a few names, and realize they moved in stellar circles. The way she writes is fun to read... Often phrases and quotes that speak for themselves.

She alludes to her own writing and some of her struggles with the biographies she writes. She describes how Harold sometimes reads to her and she asks questions that help him develop his plot. The hardest part to read is about his physical suffering as he neared death.  It made me want to read one of his plays to see if I agree that he is Nobel Prize-worthy. 

One thing I noticed is that Fraser describes the people she meets, whether friends, stars, famous royalty, or family members, in very colorful and positive terms. Nothing trite here at all. And even the people who are sometimes at odds with them, she describes in admiring terms. 

I think what I admired the most was the devotion these two had to each other. Utterly devoted and first is each other's minds. Yet they were also independent and followed their own artistic paths. It was interesting to note that they did not co-mingle their finances. He sometimes gifted the family with fabulous trips, but otherwise, she was often in need of funds and cost-cutting. Yet she never seemed to expect or want financial help from her husband. 

This book is a keeper, I think. I'd like to read it again in awhile and enjoy the beautiful writing style again. It's instructive for my journal-writing to let people speak for themselves, for example. Her entries, journal-style, are often brief but reveal a lot. I like that.