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Nicholson: A Biography (2013)

by Marc Eliot(Favorite Author)

3.08 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0307888371 (ISBN13: 9780307888372)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Crown Archetype

review 1: I was in the mood to read a biography so I scouted Blogging for Books to see what was available for review. I stopped and was excited to see Marc Eliot's Nicholson: A Biography available for advance review. Library Journal quipped, " Fans of celebrity bios and film students alike will welcome this well-researched addition to the genre." I am not a fan of celebrity bios but I am a fan of Jack Nicholson's performances ever since I saw "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest".The trade copy of the book arrived in the mail and I sat down immediately and read the introduction and scanned the photos throughout the book. The intro promised to reveal some dark family secret and I looked forward to learning what made Jack "Jack". I wanted to know about his children and a deeper lo... moreok at the factors that made him the wild child he remains today.The book began, as expected, with Jack's early life as a child and moved very quickly to California. By page 40 it was apparent the book was less about Jack and more about the Hollywood culture and Jack's attempts to join it. The writing was dry but I struggled along hoping at some point to get a bit deeper into "Jack" and less about his drugs and sexual appetites.By page 178 I hit the photo inserts in the middle and knew that I just couldn't go further. I felt soiled and sick reading about motion picture industry and the non-stop sex and drugs. The story had become nothing more than a description of movie plots, a listing of the actors involved and the critical reviews. And sex, drugs and women. Repetitively. It felt like a reading a Ground Hog day script crafted in one of the level's of Dante's inferno.Very disappointed.I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review
review 2: Admittedly, I didnt finish this book but I gave it a good chance. I read through page 60-something. The first section had a lot of his family information and even hinted to some secret to be revealed later! (Exciting!) But then started to feel like a long IMDB list/filmography. I feel like the sentence "he worked with 'so-and-so' on 'such-and-such' a project and the critics felt 'this-way' about it" was repeated way too much. BORING! less

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