If you’ve ever pondered the mural that Graydon Carter commissioned Edward Sorel to paint for the Waverly Inn and asked yourself, Who the hell are these people, anyway?, boy, has Dorothy Gallagher written just the book for you. The Mural at the Waverly Inn: A Portrait of Greenwich Village Bohemians looks to be a modern-day Off the Wall at Sardi’s, pairing details of the mural’s 43 personalities (Edward Albee and Truman Capote, for starters) with bios that, according to the Publishers Weekly review, vary between poignant and pithy. How long until Cafe Cluny gets a book about the portraits on its walls, with an introduction by Jay McInerney?

Nonfiction Reviews, 8/4/08 [PW]