Summary

Diski considers the life of Howard Hughes in this “He Could Afford It.” She calls his life “a series of obsessions” and explains that what made him special was that he had enough money to see these obsessions through to fruition (23). People with lesser means, she says, have to fit their neurosis into the real world. She discusses Hughes in light of a biography by Charles Higham entitled Howard Hughes: The Secret Life. Of the book, she says, “It’s a world where God and Charles Higham sit in judgment and everybody gets their just desserts” (24). Higham discusses the sexual escapades Hughes indulged in with both men and women, and Diski notes that for Higham, “women are either virgins or sluts” (24). She says that Hughes’s life comes across as miserable and sad. She discusses numerous tragedies that happened...