The Anatomy of Harpo Marx (Hardcover, New)

"The Anatomy of Harpo Marx" is a luxuriant, detailed play-by-play account of Harpo MarxOCOs physical movements as captured on screen. Wayne Koestenbaum guides us through the thirteen Marx Brothers films, from "The Cocoanuts" in 1929 to "Love Happy" in 1950, to focus on HarpoOCOs chief and yet heretofore unexplored attributeOCohis profound and contradictory corporeality. Koestenbaum celebrates the astonishing range of HarpoOCOs bodyOCoits kinks, sexual multiplicities, somnolence, Jewishness, cute pathos, and more. In a virtuosic performance, KoestenbaumOCOs text moves gracefully from insightful analysis to cultural critique to autobiographical musing, and provides Harpo with a host of odd bedfellows, including Walter Benjamin and Barbra Streisand.