Gray's Anatomy

To be able to see this maverick original perform live would have been a treat. Sadly he is no longer alive, and that is a shame for the theatrical, cinematic and literate world. I have known about Gray for years now, but had never read his work until Gray's Anatomy, which I took from the library. What a fun and easy read it proved to be. While his neurosis is full blast, it is endearing still, unlike Larry David for example, who manages to turn his neurosis and self-obsession into one part revulsion and one part humor. Gray is one part humor and one part wisdom. Gray's Anatomy is a tale of his experiences-perhaps real, perhaps fabricated-in searching for a cure for a macula pucker, damage to the eye where vitreous (the jelly in an eye) "has broken down, dissolved, liquefied, due to trauma or age-we don't know yet-and it's pulled away from the retina and left a little piece of skin or edema on the macula-the macula being the center of the retina, which is responsible for all detail in sight." Such detail is interesting, frightening and even ironic. Such is the substance of many of his adventures in health, as he travels several continents... But I come back to an endearing, thankful feeling in Gray's story. I can imagine that his performance, while simple and/or minimal become the lectures of an "absent minded professor," or a friend on a passionate tear. I have already sought out his other writings, and his filmed versions.

Spalding Gray, at his best, is the funniest obsessive-compulsive neurotic whiner you'll ever encounter. "Gray's Anatomy" is one of his more hilarious pieces. he delves less into his childhood traumas and more into the insanity and inanity of growing older in America, and the result is first rate.