An intriguing, honest look at the hidden side of Hollywood.
In this debut memoir, entertainment journalist Merrill recalls her decadeslong career as an interviewer of Hollywood’s brightest stars.
When Merrill was growing up in 1950s Baltimore, she thought that her only strength was her pretty face and that her only option was to marry well. After she ended up a divorced mother of two by the age of 25, she decided to take her life in her own hands and turned her camera-ready face and love of talking into a career—first as an Emmy Award–winning local talk show host and later, as an entertainment journalist. Merrill interviewed numerous celebrities for short video profiles that were then distributed to television stations around the country to publicize movies. She shares anecdotes about her intimate conversations with such luminaries as Paul Newman, Jimmy Stewart, Tom Hanks and Cher. Her career eventually took her to film sets around the world, including a bleak Russian hotel where she had to barter Marlboros and Tootsie Rolls to get the electrical wiring fixed. However, Merrill’s story isn’t all name-dropping and globe-trotting. The author’s honesty is impressive, as she delves into her desperate search for a husband after her divorce, her sugar addiction that drastically affected her appearance and behavior, and her stubborn belief that she was always right. She tells it all with a drive that will leave readers with little doubt about how she became successful. However, although her voice makes her an engaging storyteller, it doesn’t always make her likable; some remarks about women in Hollywood, however truthful they may be, come off as rather sexist (“they could get away with their bitchiness as long as some powerful man protected them”), and her frequent use of “fat” as an insult may offend some readers. Nonetheless, Merrill’s willingness to admit her mistakes is refreshing, and her tales from the film-publicity trenches are consistently engaging.
An intriguing, honest look at the hidden side of Hollywood.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1490314808
Page Count: 180
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
