Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: When Hollywood Had a King: The Reign of Lew Wasserman, Who Leveraged Talent into Power and Influence by Connie Bruck ISBN: 0375501681 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5
Rating: 5
Summary: Hollywood Nonfiction has a Queen
Comment: Because of its "Hollywood" subject matter, one automatically expects such a work to wallow among the typical low-echelon, Peter Bart/Border's 'Hollywood' section quality works that starry-eyed angelinos are used to settling for. Yet Ms. Bruck brings no less than expert intelligence to a definatively intelligence-free land (little surprise that she is a native New Yorker), and the result is positively scintillating.
While her phenomenally comprehensive research unlocks more doors than any human could ever hope to pass through in one book, Bruck refuses to settle there: her rare and insatiable appetite for the pure, unadulturated truth tempers all six chapters in the novel so that she brings to nonfiction the same uncompromising search to understand every complexity in a multifaceted world that Virginia Woolf achieves with human consciousness. Paradoxically, through composing such a meticulously focused narrative Bruck essentially chronicles nothing less than a comprehensive history of Hollywood as a simeultaneous force of awe and kitch in American society.
Whether or not one judges Wasserman's history significant (in today's global economy it most urgently is) is of no consequence to the critical reader. "Hollywood" asserts itself as a masterful, self-contained work of art, which operates on a level above and beyond that of its nominal subject.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Consequential Book
Comment: One would assume that the subject matter alone of a book with such a title as this one would condemn it to the same low-echelon level as your typical run-of-the-mill Peter Bart/ Border's Hollywood bookshelf fanfare; but what winds up being the most revolutionary aspect about "Hollywood" is the intelligence brought to a definitively intelligence-proof world. With such a powerful approach, Connie Bruck unlocks more doors than she would ever need, but does not simply stop at that. Her vicious appetite for the unadulturated truth tempers each of the six chapters in this book, cultivating a work of non-fiction as true to the multifaceted layers of its subject as Virginia Woolf is to human consciousness. As a result, Bruck's focused undertaking charts nothing less than the complete history of Hollywood as a simeultaneous force of awe and kitsch in American history.
Whether one considers Wasserman's odyssey relevant (which, in today's phenomenally globalizing era it most urgently is) needs not even be questioned; a book as scintillating as Bruck's clearly holds its own, regardless of its artistic content.
Rating: 5
Summary: Velvet Jaws
Comment: Long ago, I recall someone suggesting that diplomacy is "letting others have it your way." (I forget who said it.) As I read Bruck's holograph (it's more than a portrait) of Lew Wasserman, I was reminded of that observation. According to her account, Wasserman had a special talent for achieving his objectives while preserving cordial relationships with a wide and diverse range of potential antagonists. For example, with the heads of various studios with whom he aggressively negotiated on behalf of MCA's clients; with James Hoffa from whose union Wasserman hired 15,000 members; and with other talent agents after MCA became a major producer of films and television programs. As I completed reading this book, I felt gratitude for the brilliant presentation of the material about Wasserman but I was also favorably impressed by Bruck's demonstration of skills which we normally associate with a cultural anthropologist. As we all know, "Hollywood" is far less significant (if significant at all) as a place than it is as a state-of-mind. Bruck appropriately establishes Wasserman as the gravitational center of her book but she also probes deeply into basic sources of power and influence within the evolving culture of the entertainment industry, sources which remain long after Wasserman was no longer actively involved. For me, the entertainment value of Bruck's book is derived much less from the glitz and glamor of stardom of "Tinseltown" than it does from her examination of all manner of business issues, relationships, and conflicts. It is impossible to understand who Wasserman was and to appreciate what he achieved without correlating his personality and career with the history, economics, art, politics, and psychology of the empire over which he reigned for so many years. Bruck makes such correlations with consummate precision while preserving, throughout her examination of Wasserman ("a shark you almost had to admire as he circled you") the nuances of his multi-dimensional humanity.
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
