A sprawling salute to an awe-inspiring, world-class actor.
Film biographer/historian Mann (Edge of Midnight, 2005, etc.) considers the vibrant life of a 20th-century icon with encyclopedic scrutiny and a pinch of whimsy.
While the author states that he considers himself a fascinated bystander rather than a Hepburn fan, this engaging, comprehensive biography certainly gives the impression that he is quite enamored of the celebrated actress (1907–2003) who was immortalized in Mary of Scotland, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, The African Queen and dozens of other cinematic classics. Mann never interviewed Hepburn herself, but canvassed a bevy of directors, close friends and intimate acquaintances for their perspectives, in addition to utilizing his subject’s newly available private documents. “I don’t want to rehash the familiar,” writes the author, who throws chronological logic to the wind and opts for a more textured approach. In his depiction, the fearless, eccentric actress eschewed classic Hollywood movie-star norms and tacitly challenged social, sexual and gender standards. An Oscar-winner at 26 (for Morning Glory), Hepburn nonetheless had an image problem; Mann’s examination reveals a proud, private woman who throughout the early 1930s dared to continuously don trousers while never managing to completely embody the mass media’s manufactured image of her. The author also takes risks, acknowledging the frequent speculations about Hepburn’s lesbianism and the sexual ambiguity of her wide yet closely knit inner circle of friends. Mann, who’s written several books about gay Hollywood (Behind the Screen, 2001, etc.), avoids labeling the actress and does justice to her odd marriage to Ludlow Ogden Smith. Mann recounts the untold stories of Hepburn’s life: her intrepid ascent from persnickety tomboy in Hartford, Conn., to performance royalty; her drinking; her loyalty to friends like lifelong confidante (and rumored lover) Laura Harding, among many others; and the ardent, transcendent affection she held for Spencer Tracy. Tapping into a wellspring of sources, the author has managed to reanimate with great skill and dexterity this shrewd, sophisticated woman.
A sprawling salute to an awe-inspiring, world-class actor.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2006
ISBN: 0-8050-7625-5
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
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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