Only two years after her death, the exquisite Audrey Hepburn has already been the subject of several biographies; the second this year (after Warren G. Harris's Audrey Hepburn, p. 753) claims, not wholly convincingly, to be definitive. Certainly, no book on her life better expresses the nature of her grace and attraction than this one, by London Evening Standard film critic Walker (Fatal Charm, 1993, etc.), an astute judge of acting talent. Afflicted with a problematic childhood, Hepburn was traumatized by her parent's divorce when she was six. By managing to conceal much of her family history later, she avoided also being stigmatized by her father's work as a Nazi propagandist in England during the late 1930s and by her Dutch baroness mother's brief flirtation with fascism. Her father was something of a mystery man, and Walker adds to this sinister aura with some wildly unconvincing speculation on his possible Eurasian mixed-blood heritage. Walker is on firmer ground when he presents an admirably balanced picture of Audrey's painful experiences during the WW II occupation of the Netherlands and her minor efforts on behalf of the Resistance. In a dispassionate narrative, he traces her subsequent dance and film career, her sudden rise to stardom in Hollywood, her lengthy and troubled marriage to Mel Ferrer and briefer one to Dr. Andrea Dotti, her graceful withdrawal from film work, and her heroic efforts as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Walker's sympathy for his subject is manifest, but there is something vaguely superficial about his approach to her life, as evidenced by the type of canned social and artistic history that places the 1967 Bonnie and Clyde alongside the 1962 Children's Hour as examples of the new permissiveness in Hollywood. This intelligent but surprisingly bland recounting of Hepburn's life and career leaves readers wanting someone to delve a bit more deeply. (60 b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Jan. 20, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-11746-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Noted jazz and pop record producer Thiele offers a chatty autobiography. Aided by record-business colleague Golden, Thiele traces his career from his start as a ``pubescent, novice jazz record producer'' in the 1940s through the '50s, when he headed Coral, Dot, and Roulette Records, and the '60s, when he worked for ABC and ran the famous Impulse! jazz label. At Coral, Thiele championed the work of ``hillbilly'' singer Buddy Holly, although the only sessions he produced with Holly were marred by saccharine strings. The producer specialized in more mainstream popsters like the irrepressibly perky Teresa Brewer (who later became his fourth wife) and the bubble-machine muzak-meister Lawrence Welk. At Dot, Thiele was instrumental in recording Jack Kerouac's famous beat- generation ramblings to jazz accompaniment (recordings that Dot's president found ``pornographic''), while also overseeing a steady stream of pop hits. He then moved to the Mafia-controlled Roulette label, where he observed the ``silk-suited, pinky-ringed'' entourage who frequented the label's offices. Incredibly, however, Thiele remembers the famously hard-nosed Morris Levy, who ran the label and was eventually convicted of extortion, as ``one of the kindest, most warm-hearted, and classiest music men I have ever known.'' At ABC/Impulse!, Thiele oversaw the classic recordings of John Coltrane, although he is the first to admit that Coltrane essentially produced his own sessions. Like many producers of the day, Thiele participated in the ownership of publishing rights to some of the songs he recorded; he makes no apology for this practice, which he calls ``entirely appropriate and without any ethical conflicts.'' A pleasant, if not exactly riveting, memoir that will be of most interest to those with a thirst for cocktail-hour stories of the record biz. (25 halftones, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-508629-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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