A life of the spectacular Cherilyn Sarkisian, by the author of Fasten Your Seatbelts: The Passionate Life of Bette Davis (1989), Margaret Sullavan (1986), and about 25 other celebrity bios. Quirk, who has a long history with screen magazines, troweled on the sexual detail with his Bette Davis bio, and this time out shows no shyness with Cher's sex life. Of course, the lady's been frank about all that in print, and is characterized as unsparingly honest. Her story now approaches Elizabeth Taylor's for spectacle if not for drama, and she's absolutely one of a kind. Quirk at times is driven to gaga screen-mag lapses into vulgarity, and often seems to be doing no more than a high-class scissors-and-paste job with few interviews, but with Cher's energies lifting him he's produced a praiseworthy show. Unknown to her at the time, Cher lived in an orphanage for her first three years, which later gave her strange feelings about accommodations on the road. She had her first lover at 14 (her mother's boyfriend); was living by herself and bedding Warren Beatty at 16 (he was 25) and complaining that she didn't feel anything; and soon was living with much older Sonny Bono as his Trilby. Meanwhile, she could never stand her own voice on records, despite always being singled out for praise at the expense of Bono, whom she married after several years. Her second and final husband was rock-star/heroin-addict Greg Allman, with whom she had an even more agonizing marriage than with Bono. Today, at 44, she prefers vigorous bedmates in their early 20s. Her film career is more fascinating than it first appears, both for the flowering of her natural talents and for the behind-the-camera dirt and spats that Quirk uncovers, as well as for friendships with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. From no-talent to million-seller discs to Broadway to Oscar- -and all the bodies along the way.
Pub Date: Sept. 16, 1991
ISBN: 0-688-09822-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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