Anything Goes by John Barrowman, Carole E. Barrowman
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Book Reviews of Anything Goes
Book Review: Here's Johnny
Summary: 4 Stars
As a fan of John Barrowman and the iconic Capt. Jack Harkness, I was eager to get this book and find out more about the mind behind everyone's favorite omnisexual 51st century man. To my surprise the book was harder to get into than I'd expected but it was more than worth the effort to get a glimpse into the Barrowman headspace and a taste of what it meant to become Jack Harkness. It's a fun and open memoir, made all the more charming by it's time-hopping retrospective style. It gives just enough to make you feel glad you picked it up, while holding back enough to make you eager for I AM WHAT I AM and all other works to follow.Book Review: It's a good ride!
Summary: 3 Stars
The Book Report: The life and times of fabulous Captain Jack Harkness, I mean I mean JOHN BARROWMAN of course I do, silly me to get the two confused, he of the TV show Torchwood, in all his dimpled and smiling glory. With butt shots. Two.
My Review: One knows what one is getting with celebrity memoirs, right? Whitewash, excuses, justifications, and a little catty score-settling. It takes a pretty damned big ego to write an "autobiography" (which this ain't, it's a memoir) in the first place; to do it before the age of sixty is, well, it's a bit uppish.
Yeah, so what, pretty people get to do what they want. And Barrowman is nothing if not pretty. Very pretty. Very very pretty. That he is also a talented actor, a fine musical-theatre singer, and a high-maintenance mess of a man makes it all the more fun that he didn't wait to write the book (with his sister, Carole). He takes it upon himself to tell us the tale of what brought Clan Barrowman from Glasgow to Illinois, what made the clan tick, and what happened as a result of this daring and quite unsettling move, made in the Malaise Years of the middle 1970s.
Wait. Make that, he tells us the tale of what happened to John of the Clan Barrowman. This is a book that relentlessly focuses on John Barrowman, contextualizing his life with the necessary information, but skimping on the lives and times of the other people in his orbit. Quite forgivable in a memoir; less so in an autobiography, which is more about the life-and-times, less about the lifestyle.
He's not forthcoming with details of his personal life, eg what his feelings were, what his thoughts were, around his coming out. He doesn't fail to mention them, understand; it's simply that, as is the gentleman's privilege, he goes very soft-focus and moves on quickly from the topic. He writes his most passionate, his most emotional, and his most harrowing stuff when he writes about the descent of a friend into madness. It's an amazing, painful, and quite wonderful passage in the book. It brings into stark relief, though, the absence of these very qualities in some other passages in his life that could have used the same treatment.
That criticism aside, I would recommend the book to most all gay guys because here, gents, here is someone whose joie de vivre and whose enthusiasm for his work have led him down some fascinating garden paths, all the while declining to be stereotyped. It's a very instructive path he's on, for the most of us who aren't in the least famous or likely to get there. It's good to see someone skiing ahead on the trail, hollering back, "there's a crevasse over here, don't go there!" every so often. Good on him that he chose to do it. Good for us that it is, on balance, a fun book to read.
The butt shots don't hurt.
Book Review: Waste of Time
Summary: 1 Stars
I was looking forward to this book as I wanted to read about Barrowman's considerable experiences on the West End musical stage. Instead, I got chapter after chapter of mostly dull stories concerning Barrowman's friends, nieces, nephews, lovers, friends, etc, and the incredibly junvenile stunts and experiences they have had. While there is a bit of theatre lore in here, again, it often degenerates into stories of on stage trickery that make the author seem incredibly unprofessional. In addition, there is a rather vulgar theme of flatulence and bodily functions that runs through the entire book - perhaps some find it funny but I found it nauseating - certainly from a 40 plus accomplished theatre performer, who must have more interesting and fascinating stories to tell.
The only time the book really comes alive is when Barrowman tells of his fears of having contracted AIDS and "coming out" to his parents - wonderfully told and a credit to his fine parents and family. The other time is when he writes a chapter about a friend and flatmate and the tragic life she lived.
A shame.
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