FAMILY

a crowd in the balcony

in the sport of used book bin diving there are finds and then there are eff-eye-en- dees. a book that i fished out yesterday by the late harvard professor, laurence wylie is undoubtedly one of this latter category.

in beaux gestes (1977) wylie—a witty and dignified professor of french civilisation—models and interprets many different gestures from france’s baffling battery of non-verbal communication.

he admits that many of the gestures are the domain of boys in the schoolyard or young men doing military service and that his behaviour in the photographs is incongruous. says wylie, “an elderly harvard professor should not be making these gestures.” this however is the precise appeal of the book and the reason why it remains one of my best eff-eye-en-dees to date.

thanks, ragbag