Essential for anyone interested in 20th-century dance and pop culture. (16 pages b&w photos not seen)
The complex life and enormous influence of one of the most commanding creative forces in America dance and show business is examined in this first-rate biography.
Robbins’s genius was legendary: He was second to none at creating a dance move or at staging and directing. His artistry stretched across the consciousness of a generation, from On the Town (which broke the color barrier as the first completely integrated Broadway show) to The King and I to West Side Story to Fiddler on the Roof—as well as countless ballet pieces, such as Fancy Free and Afternoon of a Faun. Despite his successes on the screen, however, Robbins was always most at home on stage, both for theater and ballet. The behind-the-scenes stories of his famous productions are enjoyable, particularly since a wondrous assortment of the late-and-great appears on practically every page (Leonard Bernstein, Nora Kaye, Zero Mostel, Ethel Merman, George Balanchine, Patricia McBride, etc.). Despite the stellar supporting cast, however, Robbins remains the star of the show and is the soul revealed. Demonized throughout his life by his insecurities (his difficult relationship with his parents, his sexuality, his feelings toward Judaism), his unrelenting push for perfection (he was often brutal to the dancers and actors), and his politics (he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee), Robbins appears in these pages under the guise of a tormented genius. Lawrence (The Shape of Love, 1990, etc.) presents a trove of fascinating, exhaustive information (there are over 60 pages of notes) and makes good use of the many quotes given by those who loved Robbins (and those who despised or feared him).
Essential for anyone interested in 20th-century dance and pop culture. (16 pages b&w photos not seen)Pub Date: May 7, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14652-0
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
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
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
SEEN & HEARD
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