Re-Reading, and 'Knowing', Your Literary Idols

Reading the works of your literary idols sometimes makes you wish you could meet them. But, if you had the opportunity, would you be happier knowing who they are in ordinary life? Would you be disappointed by their humanity?

Those are some of the questions asked and answered by Margo Rabb in her article entitled, "Fallen Idols" in the New York Times, after she re-read Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet years after her first reading of the same work.

I have had the same experience, in re-reading The Great Gatsby and reading about the lives of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.  As I read and learned about writers I'd loved in my younger years, I was both disappointed in the works, the people, and, sadly, in myself for my disappointment!  So I was also inspired by both Kate Christensen and Mary Karr who found comfort in knowing their idols lived, as we all do, flawed lives.

An article well worth your time.