Harpo Speaks! by Harpo Marx, Rowland Barber
|
List Price: Our Price: $12.65 You Save: $9.35 (42%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $5.29 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Harpo Speaks!
Book Review: How could you NOT love this man?!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading this book, all I can say Harpo led such an unbelieveable life, and I feel so gratified that I could share in it by reading his life story. I was hooked from the first page, and I just couldn't put it down. This man went through so much adversity in his childhood, but he was neither bitter nor cynical about it. He just accepted whatever life threw at him, and we are all the better for it. He has (or should I say had) a magnificant way of telling a story. I loved reading about the early days and his adventures of being "Exapno Mapcase" when he was in Russia. And the way he told the story of how his wife Susan courted him. She sounded like a great lady. Also, how Harpo and Susan told the "The Story" to their kids about how they were adopted. Harpo truly was a gentle man, and I for one, am glad he was able to achieve peace and serenity in his life. His story is uplifting, and I really and truly wish I could have met this sweet, funny, and adorable man. Highly recommended.Book Review: This is one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read.
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading the first 2 pages of this book, I handed it to my wife, asking her to read those same 2 pages to see if her reaction would be as strong as mine. I suppose it was, because I had to wait for her to finish the book, all 600 pages, before I could resume. Once I got the book back and began reading, I understood why my wife had seen fit to so brazenly commandeer it from me as she did. It turned out to be one of the most engrossing books I've ever picked up, from page 1 to the very end. I devoured the book in record time, finishing the last handful of chapters in a 6-hour read-a-thon on a lazy Sunday afternoon/evening. I was simply unable to put it down. Harpo, who never spoke a word on film, turned out to be a fascinating storyteller. He lived a very full life, and recounts it with enormous humor, candor, charm, and what I perceived to be total honesty. He never seems to go out of his way to make you laugh (though he is very funny) as his brother Groucho did in his auto-bio "Groucho Speaks", anBook Review: From a Fan
Summary: 5 Stars
only 58 pages into it but i love it so far. here's a great excerpt...
"Groucho having been chosen by Minnie (their mother)
to follow in the footsteps of Uncle Al, had already
seen Uncle Al on the stage, and he knew his routines
and songs by memory. I decided to take Groucho on as a
partner (as Chico had once taken me on, in the
cuckoo-clock promotion), when i found out that stores
in the neighborhood were paying a penny apiece for
cats. I've forgotten why they were. There must have
been a mouse plague or cat shortage, or both, that
year.
So now I was a promoter. Groucho and i put on a
show in our basement. We performed Uncle Al's popular
sketch, "Quo Vadis Upside Down." Admission: one cat.
It was my first public performance. As I remember,
we grossed seven cats at the box office but made a net
profit of only four cents. Three cats got away. Well,
that was show business."
:-)
Book Review: A Gentleman and a Gentle Man
Summary: 5 Stars
I read Harpo's biography long ago, and recently renewed acquaintance with it after seeing a cable biography of the brothers.What makes this book so wonderful is 1. a sense that Rowland Barber accurately captured Harpo's "voice" and 2. Harpo's own story, told with gentle humor and no self-pity whatsoever.
And what a story! That someone who was literally expelled from school in second grade (through the window by bullies) could have met so many fascinating people and lived such a wonderful life is amazing. But the nice thing is that you can cheer for him all the way; I'm only sorry I never had a chance to meet Harpo. By all accounts, he was a lovely person with no malice in him at all. I can't remember who this should be attributed to, but it was said of him at his funeral that "he believed the best of everybody until he was proven wrong, and even then, he gave them the benefit of the doubt". That's the man this book reflects.
Book Review: Nearly Perfect Autobiography
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I haven't finished reading this book yet I feel confident saying it is one of the most entertaining, honest, insightful and pleasurable autobiographies ever written. I'm reading it a few pages at a time during my leisure times. At 482 pages it'll be a few more months before I finish it.
Which is fine with me. These are 2-3 page vignettes, told in chronological order, from the life of one of the last vaudeville performers, one of the first movie performers and a unique rags-to-riches story. Although Adolphe "Harpo" Marx never spoke onstage or in any of the Marx Brothers movies, his voice in the book -- as aided by co-author Rowland Barber -- is EXACTLY what you'd expect him to sound like. The vignettes are sad, or funny, or amazing, or just characteristic of the event-filled times in which he lived.
This is a book to savor, to bask in, to enjoy -- one sitting at a time.