Dino light and lively; anyone seeking a probing look at the life of Dean Martin should look elsewhere—probably at Nick...
A biography of singer-actor Martin that has the pace, diffidence and depth of one of Martin’s T.V. variety shows.
In this relentlessly upbeat rehash of Martin’s life, Freedland breezes through familiar territory, and, while not shying away from negative terrain, seldom digs for answers or conclusions to questions surrounding Martin’s life and career. The famous Martin and Jerry Lewis partnership, for example, receives due attention as Freedland charts their rise and fall, presenting both sides of their eventual break-up. But were the “pardners” equally to blame for the breach? And what emotional bonds apparently held fast between them after they pursued separate careers? Likewise, tracing Martin’s major success as an actor and singer, Freedland hits all the marks, yet offers little insight. Did Martin work harder than his laid-back performance demeanor suggested? Was he a natural as an actor, or did he woodshed his parts behind the scenes, as the strength of some of his performances suggests? Freedland also offers a very detailed look at the workings of Martin’s greatest success, his TV variety show. The account certainly benefits histories of American television, but skirts key matters that define Martin’s winning image. What can be learned from his popularity? Why did audiences welcome Martin into their homes for 18 years? Was it because the fabulously wealthy charter member of the obnoxious Rat Pack really seemed like a happy neighbor ready to kick back, pour a drink and get high in the den? Perhaps readers who loved Dino will care less as they once more flip through his story.
Dino light and lively; anyone seeking a probing look at the life of Dean Martin should look elsewhere—probably at Nick Tosches’s Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams (1992).Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2006
ISBN: 1-86105-882-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Robson Books/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2005
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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