Aptly titled, this bittersweet scrapbook demonstrates the kind of steely fortitude necessary to remain afloat through a...
The multitalented Reynolds nostalgically expands on a fruitful career and a chaotic adulthood.
The introduction, written by daughter Carrie Fisher, is appreciative and nods toward her mother’s impeccable memory and fitting arrival at “a point in her life where she can see farther and better than ever before.” The memoir, co-authored by former CBS late-night programming director Hannaway, greatly reflects this sentiment. Reynolds writes with regretless candor, fondly reflecting on a grand life in the Hollywood spotlight yet also recognizing the tarnish of imprudent romantic and financial decisions. Reynolds highlights many of her failures, the result of either sheer naïveté or gullibility, yet she remains continually nonplussed at the deceptiveness of people (particularly when hoodwinked by her second husband, con man Harry Karl). A promising business endeavor to purchase an aging Las Vegas hotel to house her opulent Hollywood costume collection ended up drilling Reynolds ever further down into debt left over from the Karl fiasco. Reynolds bravely admits to poring over dozens of boxes of litigation paperwork just to write comprehensively about that heartbreaking period when she was eventually forced to auction off the hotel and many of her prized memorabilia and costumes, including the unprecedented $5.5-plus million sale of Marilyn Monroe’s original subway dress. The memoir’s second section brings much needed levity to Reynolds’ escapades and details her current life as a prideful octogenarian brimming with vigor. Perhaps the most compelling portions of the book are the pages of candid, insider commentary from each of the famed actress’ films.
Aptly titled, this bittersweet scrapbook demonstrates the kind of steely fortitude necessary to remain afloat through a lifetime of stormy weather.Pub Date: April 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-221365-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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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