Equal parts emotional tissue-party and shrewd cultural history.
Poignant memoir of a not-so-typical New York Jewish family’s experiences in the midcentury Hollywood demimonde.
Glamour contributing editor Weller (Saint of Circumstance, 1997, etc.) utilizes solid, often elegant but occasionally overwrought prose to tell her unusual childhood story, which improbably combines Hollywood insider glitter with the slow-motion devastation of illness, infidelity, abandonment, and humiliation. She constructs an admirable historical backdrop in depicting the trajectories of her mother, ambitious entertainment reporter Helen Hover, and Helen’s brother Herman, who flourished as a Manhattan nightclub promoter during Prohibition, then moved to California in 1936 with the family, including Helen and her enigmatic husband Danny Weller, a prideful, sickly man, determined to become a pioneering neurosurgeon at a time when they were considered the cowboys of medicine. This was the heyday of high-class Sunset Strip nightclubs like the Trocadero, Mocambo, and Ciro’s; after WWII, Herman purchased Ciro’s from competitor Billy Wilkerson and for the next decade worked ceaselessly to maintain it as Hollywood’s top spot. “It was the chemistry between the glitterati and the proletariat that made a good club work,” he realized, and he pampered Hollywood’s A-list (from Sinatra and Monroe to Bogart and Lana Turner) and recruited the era’s top talent, boosting the careers of Martin & Lewis and Sammy Davis Jr., among others. The author seductively renders Ciro's glory years, resonant with the transience of glamour and fame. By 1958, the IRS was pursuing Herman, but the last straw was discovering that he’d been cuckolded by his embittered brother-in-law. He violently assaulted Dr. Weller in front of Weller’s daughters, and the final section here follows Herman’s fall and the Weller family's disintegration: Helen has a breakdown; Danny cruelly cuts off Sheila, who depicts herself as “Daddy-dumped, selfish-healthy-big-sister-of-polio-victim, phony-school-spirited, taunted-by-the-boy-across-the-street-who-started-out-with-a-crush-on-me, tantrum-throwing self.” This section is unfocused and maudlin, but the narrative mostly maintains an energy and comprehension that sheds fresh light on the fragile beauty of postwar Hollywood and the fabulous Sunset Strip.
Equal parts emotional tissue-party and shrewd cultural history.Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-312-24176-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2003
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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