His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra
by Kitty Kelley
List Price:
Our Price: $31.36
You Save: $88.64 (74%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Kitty KelleyEdition: Audio Cassette
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Unabridged
Published: 2000-09
ISBN: 0736648216
Publisher: Books on Tape
Book Reviews of His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra
Book Review: Way Too Many Negative Details for a Good Story
Summary: 3 Stars
Admittedly Frank Sinatra had an extraordinarily rich and interesting life, but one much too full of details for a single book. So in this rendition of his life, the reader is left to ask the question: how many, hook-ups, breakup, screw-ups, jam-ups, and mob-ups can a story have before it goes well past being well-told, into a whole other zone of being just plain incoherent gossip?
One would think that of all people who should know where this mark in the sand lies, it would be Kitty Kelly? Yet, in this biography, Kelly, who is normally so good at culling the low hanging fruit from the rumor mill and gossip trees and turning them into a tasty and sometimes even a succulent wine, this time, gets it so wrong. She seems to have fouled up the fermentation process altogether and gone well past coherence into a whole new zone of vinegar, all the way past Go into complete incoherence.
There are just way too many repetitious unnecessary details, vignettes, spats, breakup and irrelevances to make this a well-rounded, coherent and interesting story. Some of the details, which after a while just start falling all over each other, simply should have been relegated to footnotes, mentioned in passing, or left out altogether. In the interest of "tightness" and coherence, Kelly, more than anyone, should know that more is not always better. Sometimes unorganized details in a manuscript can overpower the story. As is the case here, they cannot even be tamed by forcing them into a "Procrustean Bed" of the author's own making. Kelly knows, all to well that details must be sorted, selected and ever so carefully placed so that through organization alone, they are allowed to tell their own story. Here, it seemed that Kelly, just as she accuses her subject of doing in the manuscript, allowed her own enthusiasm to get well ahead of her keen sense of organization and storytelling. What a pity: so much material, so little time.
Despite this, one can reassemble this jigsaw puzzle of "way too many pieces" into a mosaic beneath the clutter to get at a reasonable psychological portrait of Frank Sinatra, and still be able to see that he was pretty much handicapped at birth: Accidentally misnamed; an only child; collar-flowered ears, a busted eardrum, skinny and slight of stature. Add to this that he had only a smattering of talent, in a heavily male dominated culture and you get at an early age, a personality blanketed with deeply rooted insecurities.
But these were nothing compared to the "trip his mother put on him" to heighten these congenital insecurities. She was overbearing and over-protective, dressed him like a girl and spoiled him. And then, as this his most powerful role model and ally through life, provided him a very poor example of adult humanity. Dolly Sinatra was the dynamo of the family: the matron and breadwinner, who cursed in technicolor, always dabbled over the edge of legalities, including being jailed multiple times for running an illegal abortion clinic, and for her prohibition era Speakeasy activities. The fact that Frank's father was present, but missing in action: a virtual "nobody" who deferred to his mother, pretty much sealed his psychological fate: Little Frankie had no chance of evolving into a normal well-balanced adult.
What Frank Sinatra had going for him was a very contradictory self-destructive kind of self-confidence spawn mostly out of fantasy and denial. It was one that bordered on unwarranted arrogance, fits of uncontrolled anger, depressive spins, hovering on the rim of immorality and illegality, and leaving him with an empty emotional reservoir. Throughout his life he was little more than an insecure bully with an average voice. Yet he used bullying to his advantage, and as a weapon to "club his way" through life.
And as life would have it, after many inevitable "ups-and-downs," failures and come backs, shattered and scattered love affairs--especially with Ava Gardner -- he became a raving financial and professional success, but an utter moral, personal and human failure. End of story.
Five stars for the research, two for the organization; three for the book.
Entertainment Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Entertainment Books
When You Are Engulfed in Flamesby David Sedaris
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2008-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.85
Price in other shops:
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Official Strategy Guide (Brady Games)by BradyGames
BRADY GAMES; Published: 2008-11-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.49
Price in other shops:
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artistsby Neil Strauss
William Morrow; Published: 2005-09-01; Imitation Leather; Book
Best price: $18.14
Price in other shops:
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Mealsby Michael Pollan
Penguin; Published: 2007-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.97
Price in other shops:
Pieces of My Heart: A Lifeby Robert Wagner
HarperEntertainment; Published: 2008-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops:
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesiaby Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.20
Price in other shops:
Too Fat to Fishby Artie Lange, Anthony Bozza
Spiegel & Grau; Published: 2008-11-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.97
Price in other shops:
Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voiceby Maureen Mccormick
William Morrow; Published: 2008-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops:
A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanityby Bill O'Reilly
Broadway; Published: 2008-09-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.60
Price in other shops:
The Last Lectureby Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow
Hyperion; Published: 2008-04-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Ava Gardner: "Love Is Nothing"by Lee Server
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2006-04-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.57
Price in other shops:
The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynastyby Kitty Kelley
Doubleday; Published: 2004-09-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Sinatraby Richard Havers
DK ADULT; Published: 2004-09-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreamsby Nick Tosches
Delta; Published: 1999-04-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.94
Price in other shops:
Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biographyby Kitty Kelley
Pocket; Published: 1992-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
The Sinatra Files: The Secret FBI Dossierby Tom Kuntz, Phil Kuntz
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2000-06-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.39
Price in other shops:
Jackie Oh!by Kitty Kelley
Ballantine Books; Published: 1984-05-12; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $150.00
The Royalsby Kitty Kelley
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 1998-10-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.04
Price in other shops:
Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatraby George Jacobs, William Stadiem
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 2004-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.55
Price in other shops:
Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey and the Last Great Show Biz Partyby Shawn Levy
Main Street Books; Published: 1999-07-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops: