THE FABULOUS FONDAS

by James Brough ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 9, 1973

Without the amplification --both in terms of literal wordage and sometimes dubious psychodrama -- of the forthcoming Kiernan biography of Jane (to follow in the next issue), this is a lighter-weight account of the family which has almost upstaged the Barrymores in terms of public successes and private disasters. Much of the material is the same (occasional factual variations -- how long the troth of Jane's mother's suicide was kept from her, for example) although here of course Henry receives as much attention as his two difficult children and on the whole appears in a kinder light particularly vis-a-vis Jane. Here too the whole lurid, decadent Vadim-Polanski scene in which Jane participated if only as Vadim's wife for a time is much less emphasized. Does that mean that Kiernan will attract more readers? In any case Brough, who's been around a long time, writing up the stories of other famous people -- Bea Lillie, Hedda Hopper, the Dionne quintuplets -- has written an amiable, superficial account of the famous father of the attention-getting children one of whom (Peter) rightly commented, ""We're targets.

Pub Date: Nov. 9, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McKay

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION