The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein Reviewed

I've made no secret of my appreciation of the works of SF writer, Robert A. Heinlein. I owe a huge debt to the school librarian who handed me a copy of Red Planet, and said: "Try this. You might like it." Truer words were never spoken. It was a life-changing event. 

Since then, I've read and re-read pretty much everything Heinlein published along with many critical and biographical works about him. The latest is The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein by Farah Mendlesohn.  This is an academic work, not a biography, although it does cover his life in some detail. I haven't finished reading it yet, so I'm linking to a review by Sourdough Jackson, published in File 770. 

One thing Mendlesohn does not do is to create a scheme of little boxes and try to shoehorn all the information into them. You will find no mention of the “Heinlein Individual,” first proposed by Alexei Panshin and then discussed by other commentators, except to say that some critics had found the concept useful.

Instead there are deep chapters on many aspects of RAH’s fiction. She begins with a 70-page biographical precis, including a few points missed or misinterpreted by Patterson—this section is by no means a simple digest of the earlier work. Following this is a brief description of Heinlein’s “narrative arc,” a summary of his fictional output and how the stories are related. Unlike most earlier scholars, she is able to discuss the comparatively-recent posthumous book For Us the Living. She relates it to his other work—this book may have been a colossal marketplace failure during his lifetime, but he mined it for ideas and characters throughout his career. Mendlesohn acknowledges that, although neither of the Heinleins ever wanted it to see the light of day, it’s a valuable resource for critics, historians, and the curious.

Based on what I've read of the book so far (about half), I'd say that Jackson's review is balanced and accurate. If you are interested in Heinlein or mid-20th century science fiction, The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein is worth a look.