Louise Brooks: A Biography by Barry Paris
|
List Price: Our Price: $15.39 You Save: $7.56 (33%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $10.74 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Louise Brooks: A Biography
Book Review: Well written book about a fascinating woman
Summary: 5 Stars
Mr. Paris succeeds marvelously at the difficult task of bringing a person to life---and he painlessly educates the reader along the way about silent films, directors and much else.
I've read several biographies in my time--do enjoy learning about others--and this is in my top five. Highly recommended.
Book Review: An excellent biography.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have not yet read this entire book, but just glancing through it when it arrived I would find that I have just read twenty pages or so whenever I openned it up. I can't wait until I read it cover to cover.Book Review: Definitive
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the book. Who was Louise Brooks? Read this book. Paris is the best.Book Review: Portrait of a career misspent and partially redeemed
Summary: 4 Stars
Seeing Louise Brooks for the first time (in _Diary of a Lost Girl_)was one of the more memorable movie experiences for me; and then I was curious as to why an actress with such presence and natural acting skills didn't have more extensive screen credits. This book recounts why: she was impulsive, wilfully threw many opportunities away (including a role in Cagney's "Public Enemy"), and in the words from an Aerosmith song, "keep the right ones [people] out and let the wrong ones in." As a whole I found this biography informative and balanced: it duly celebrates Brooks' gifts but doesn't downplay her faults -- and they (good and bad) were many; I suspect quite a few readers, like myself, will come away from this book much less enamoured with Brooks as a star but more sympathetic to her as a flawed but resilient individual. The book is also a fascinating introduction to the various personalities that Brooks came into contact with during her heydays, including Charlie Chaplin and Marion Davies.
On the negative side, I thought this biography relies too much on quoting wholesale various letters of Brooks (which aren't always reliable indicators of veracity) and offers no insight -- or at least reasonable speculation -- on several basic aspects of her life, such as whether she was ever with child.