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An Improvised Life (2011)

by Alan Arkin(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

030681966X (ISBN13: 9780306819667)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Da Capo Press

review 1: I have admired Arkin since before he was an actor with the Tarriers. I think he is a brilliant actor. However, he dismisses his musical career and pays faint attention to his acting career in this thin volume. There is little about his roles or films, more about his Broadway experience. Instead he writes mostly about improvisation and his career in rather bland terms. Once again, trust art, not artists.
review 2: Mostly about using improvisational acting exercises as a means of self-discovery, this book may be a useful tool for actors, but it's not likely to endear anyone to Arkin. His voice as author is overbearing and self-congratulatory. The reason for the "I know everything" aspect may be that the book is not really about Arkin, it's about what Arkin does a... mores a vocation. A memoir requires a certain degree of humility to endear the reader to its subject, but Arkin remains aloof - even a little snobbish.Arkin indicates he is protective and reserved about his personal life, and even appears not to want to share much about his film work. There is no mention of awards he was nominated for or won, and very little about his work with other artists, so I wonder why he chose to wrap this "how to" about acting in the guise of a book about Alan Arkin? In doing so, he kinds shot himself in the foot on both counts because he comes across as too know-it-all and distant to be likeable, but too self-engrossed to be credible as an instructor. I think this would have been more effective with the few crumbs of biography stripped out of the book. less

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