Surprisingly dry, uninspiring rendering of a potentially intriguing life story.
“Godmother” of women’s erotica reflects on her young life as a self-styled political and sexual revolutionary.
Longtime sex educator, provocateur and journalist, Bright (Love and Lust: A Sex Journal, 2010, etc.) was born to an eccentric academic couple with an abiding professional and recreational interest in India and Indian culture. Early on, the author bounced back and forth between her mother and father’s care, from Los Angeles to Edmonton. Bright’s remembrances of her parents, who were bitterly divorced when she was two, aren’t especially vivid, and what she divulges about her mother is none-too-flattering. Most striking is the recollection of her mom’s failed attempt to drive their VW into a frozen Canadian river, a suicide attempt that would have also taken Bright's life. With such an unstable upbringing, it’s not surprising that the author turned to radical politics in high school and daily confrontation with pre–Equal Rights Amendment sexism from all sides. She went off to “commie” camp as a teenager and become editorially involved with The Red Tide, a leftist publication. After waltzing through college, she decided her interests were in gender and sexual politics, and she became the founding editor of the erotica magazine On Our Backs. Yet however heroic Bright’s sexual and political accomplishments may or may not be, one gets the sense that her middle-class activist antics stem more from superficial reaction rather than personal conviction. Throughout, the author’s self-congratulatory tone may prevent readers from fully embracing Bright’s worthy sexually and politically liberating accomplishments. For someone whose career and reputation rests so heavily on being a sex expert and erotica guru, she writes about her own fairly tame sexcapades with a coldly cerebral and often ironic detachment.
Surprisingly dry, uninspiring rendering of a potentially intriguing life story.Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58005-264-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Seal Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This lengthy biography of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy reveals lives as melodramatic and star-crossed as one of their movies—without the happy ending. Author Rich (president of one of four MacDonald/Eddy fan clubs still extant in the US) reveals more about the two lovers than even the most avid fan might want to know, including Nelson's descriptions of Jeanette's ``little nighties.'' The question it leaves unanswered is how the feisty soprano and the lusty baritone, certainly among Hollywood's most popular stars during the late 1930s and early '40s, managed to make such goulash of their love affair. Although both singers regularly denied it, according to Rich, they were attracted to each other from the moment they met. MacDonald was characterized as ``an ambitious career gal with a bad reputation'' and was rumored to be one of Louis B. Mayer's couch tomatoes. Mayer, in fact, frowned on the singers' relationship for professional as well as personal reasons, but cast them in Naughty Marietta, their first film together. It made the duet stars—and brought them to bed after nearly a year of stolen kisses. It wasn't romantic. In a jealous rage, Nelson raped Jeanette, according to Rich. But she forgave him, beginning a cycle of reconciliation and rejection that went on for 30 years, and included suicide attempts and miscarriages. In a rejection phase, MacDonald married actor Gene Raymond (who, she discovered, preferred men as sexual partners) while Eddy wed a possessive woman who refused divorce, in spite of his numerous infidelities (MacDonald was not the only liaison). A source for much of the material, including intimate details of the couples' private meetings, is Eddy's mother, Isabel, via her son's diaries and letters. A filmography is included. A bonanza for MacDonald/Eddy fans, a pan full of nuggets for aficionados of Hollywood and MGM, but an encyclopedic struggle for the less dedicated. (b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Sept. 19, 1994
ISBN: 1-55611-407-9
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Donald Fine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
A breezy, anecdotal insider's memoir of network television, from a top producer (``The Mary Tyler Moore Show'') who also chaired NBC for five years in the early 1980s. Aided by former NBC executive Rukeyser, Tinker spins stories from 40 years in a colloquial, irreverent voice; he admits most of his important decisions were made haphazardly. In 1949, after failing to find a job in publishing, he joined NBC Radio, developing quiz shows, then crossing over to the network's fledgling TV section. After leaving for a stint in advertising, he returned to NBC's California division in time to further his relationship with Mary Tyler Moore of ``The Dick Van Dyke Show,'' who became his second wife. Eventually, Tinker decided to form a production company—MTM—when his wife was offered her own show. Tinker affectionately recalls the talents and trials involved in building unorthodox shows like ``Hill Street Blues,'' where network anxieties had to be assuaged, and ``Lou Grant,'' which lost sponsors in response to star Ed Asner's vocal leftist politics. Tinker's years at NBC were rewarding, but he laments the network's takeover by General Electric, with ``it's just another business'' approach. Tinker imparts some lessons learned along the way. Programmers should follow their instincts and recognize that new series, especially innovative ones, need time to find an audience. Flagship news programs represent the network at its best, so the current belt-tightening bodes ill for quality. Tinker takes pride in having booted shock-jock Howard Stern from NBC radio. But the high standards and public service approach he calls for will rely more on networks' noblesse oblige than on policy proposals. He also predicts, contrary to the view of many media observers, that some networks will continue to thrive in the expanding universe of cable. A late-summer beach read for TV folk and curious couch potatoes. (8 pages b&w photos—not seen)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-75940-X
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
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