Essential for anyone interested in 20th-century dance and pop culture. (16 pages b&w photos not seen)
The complex life and enormous influence of one of the most commanding creative forces in America dance and show business is examined in this first-rate biography.
Robbins’s genius was legendary: He was second to none at creating a dance move or at staging and directing. His artistry stretched across the consciousness of a generation, from On the Town (which broke the color barrier as the first completely integrated Broadway show) to The King and I to West Side Story to Fiddler on the Roof—as well as countless ballet pieces, such as Fancy Free and Afternoon of a Faun. Despite his successes on the screen, however, Robbins was always most at home on stage, both for theater and ballet. The behind-the-scenes stories of his famous productions are enjoyable, particularly since a wondrous assortment of the late-and-great appears on practically every page (Leonard Bernstein, Nora Kaye, Zero Mostel, Ethel Merman, George Balanchine, Patricia McBride, etc.). Despite the stellar supporting cast, however, Robbins remains the star of the show and is the soul revealed. Demonized throughout his life by his insecurities (his difficult relationship with his parents, his sexuality, his feelings toward Judaism), his unrelenting push for perfection (he was often brutal to the dancers and actors), and his politics (he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee), Robbins appears in these pages under the guise of a tormented genius. Lawrence (The Shape of Love, 1990, etc.) presents a trove of fascinating, exhaustive information (there are over 60 pages of notes) and makes good use of the many quotes given by those who loved Robbins (and those who despised or feared him).
Essential for anyone interested in 20th-century dance and pop culture. (16 pages b&w photos not seen)Pub Date: May 7, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14652-0
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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