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Marlon Brando

Name: Marlon Brando
Author: Nancy K. Peardon
ISBN: 978-0988455719

A MEMOIR

by Nancy K. Peardon ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 3, 2013

A new, different twist on familiar Brando stories.

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With her debut memoir, Marlon Brando’s former executive assistant delivers a chatty tell-all about the often erratic Hollywood legend.

Peardon’s life story may cause readers to ask: Why would an intelligent, energetic and attractive young woman be friends with a man who once locked her in the trunk of a car for fun and threatened to cut her hand with a knife—even if his name was Marlon Brando? Gossip about the late actor’s troubled family life and accusations of his abusive behavior toward women are nothing new, but this memoir isn’t intended as another scathing account of the Hollywood icon. Instead, it’s a loving—and gushing—tribute to a friend, warts and all. Peardon met Brando in the late 1970s, when she was 20 and working as an assistant at her father’s dental office; Brando, in his 50s, was a patient. They were immediately attracted to each other, writes Peardon, but Brando wouldn’t have sex with her, he said, because he liked her father. Thus began their “on again off again” 28-year platonic friendship, during which Peardon sometimes worked for the difficult Brando; he fired her twice. The author writes about Brando with fawning adoration, quick to forgive and point out his good qualities, such as his commitment to civil rights issues. In some ways, Brando seems to have been a father figure to her, especially after her own father committed suicide; according to Peardon, her conversations with Marlon Brando helped her through many life challenges, including her divorce. The book re-creates dialogue between Peardon and Brando, which makes for a vivid, easy read, and also includes a few pictures, letters and handwritten notes from Brando himself. Alice Marchak, Brando’s personal assistant for 50 years, offers a tougher, more inside look into the legend’s day-to-day life in her 2008 memoir Me and Marlon, but hard-core fans may appreciate Peardon’s wide-eyed adulation.

A new, different twist on familiar Brando stories.

Pub Date: April 3, 2013

ISBN: 978-0988455719

Page Count: 320

Publisher: The Falcon Press

Review Posted Online: March 22, 2013

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.