MY FATHER, CHARLIE CHAPLIN

This is a loyal, understanding picture of the author's famous, controversial father as an artist, parent, and individual. It is loyal too to his mother, Lita Grey; his grandparents; Paulette Goddard, his stepmother; Chaplin's present wife, Oona; and his younger brother, Syd; and presents an extraordinary combination of relationships among all of them. From a young child's view to that of a man in his '30's, this is the story of marriages, divorces, the making of Chaplin's pictures, his performances, directing, his exhausting demands for perfection, his home and front page life, his mercurial temperament. It covers the shadows of Lita Grey's two breakdowns, terrifying to her sons; the companionship and brightness that Paulette brought them; the long drawn out unpleasantness of Joan Barry's paternity suit; the many causes of Chaplin's exiling himself to Switzerland; his stubbornness in maintaining his position as an ""international"" citizen; his views on many subjects. An insight on a much discussed, criticized figure, this is not a formal biography: it is rather an expansive memory book where personal and intimate details fill in the total effect of a complex personality. Curiosity should spark this, for the subject is still newsworthy.