Madam, - Terry Eagleton's review of Bobby Ann Mason's book Elvis (Books, March 22nd), is not the most subtle attack on Elvis we have witnessed.
His cruel sneering and playing to the gallery is all too obvious. Derogatory word after word deprives Elvis of all dignity as an entertainer and human being.
More than a thousand books have been written about Elvis, some by so-called learned authors. Albert Goldman comes to mind: his disgraceful tome (also Elvis) is all but been forgotten now, having enraged millions of Elvis fans throughout the world with its unmitigated snobbery.
Old-timers like myself have also read beautiful books about Elvis, notably In Search of Elvis, by Dr Vernon Chadwick, an Oxford graduate who pointed out to yours truly how terms like white trash and redneck are tolerated by so-called civilised society when applied to the likes of Elvis Presley.
Was ever a man so vilified? The tabloids must have covered acres with scandalous Elvis stories, full of gross exaggeration, and we great admirers of the man's superb voice masochistically read them all.
But to find every Elvis put-down cliché echoed in the literary pages of The Irish Times is surely a descent too far!
Eagleton flies much too low. Elvis Presley, by contrast, reached for the stars and became one of the brightest. - Yours, etc.,
MAURICE COLGAN,
Mooretown Road,
Swords,
Co Dublin.