NONFICTION - May 23, 1993

THE MEMORY OF ALL THAT: The Life of George Gershwin by Joan Peyser (Simon & Schuster: $25; 319 pp.) George Gershwin’s family has carefully guarded the composer’s image since his death at 38 in 1937, going so far as to deny the persuasive claims of one man to be Gershwin’s son. Joan Peyser, author of a biography of Leonard Bernstein and a long-time music writer, establishes that blood tie fairly conclusively, and on the whole gives an interesting account of Gershwin’s relationship with his family and the influence of black music on his work. The authentic strengths of “The Memory of All That” are overshadowed, however, by its flaws, which seem rooted in Peyser’s determination to make this biography both original and controversial. Peyser is on firm ground when she shows that the brain tumor that killed Gershwin could have been diagnosed much sooner, and credibly argues that brother Ira’s lyrics often drew on George’s life, but she indulges in far too much popular psychologizing and untrustworthy gossip: she calls Oscar Levant “clearly . . . a sadist,” Ira “pathological” about money, father Morris “uninformed and jealous,” and gives credence to thirdhand accounts of George’s sadomasochism. Peyser’s characterizations are conceivably accurate but remain cartoonish because she commits the cardinal journalistic sin of telling, not showing: she provides more allegations than evidence, and when she does provide evidence it often contradicts her larger portrayal. “The Memory of All That” doesn’t rise to the level of “pathography,” as do so many celebrity biographies these days, but Peyser does give a negative spin to an inordinate percentage of the information she reports.