Celebrity Memoirs
I am excited about this week's Booking Through Thursday question. I have a great book to recommend.
Do you read celebrity memoirs? Which ones have you read or do you want to read? Which nonexistent celebrity memoirs would you like to see?
Most of the memoirs I've read are by writers. Wither or not they are celebrities is a matter of debate. Writing is not a profession which lends itself to public notoriety.
I'd like to provide a small list of author memoirs I have enjoyed:
On Writing
by Stephen KingThe Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life
by Amy TanMadeleine L'Engle's four autobiographical books collectively called The Crosswicks Journal: A Circle of Quiet
, The Summer of the Great-Grandmother
, The Irrational Season
and Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage
. For this question, the word 'celebrity' leads me to a need to include at least one non-writer. As far as I can think of, I only have read only one book. The good news is I love this memoir. It made me laugh and cry. I came away feeling I understood the person on a deep level, not just a story of what happened in his life. To me, this is the essence of what separates a memoir from an autobiography.
Right off the bat, I'm going to explain my contempt for the modern concept of celebrity. Famous for being famous people annoy the crap out of me.
As a result, I've not read Paris Hilton's books. Those young Hollywood types who haven't even lived and write memoirs frustrate me to no end. If the sum of your wisdom involves the name of the best acne treatments. it is not time to pen a memoir.
Live a little before you put out an autobiography, would ya?
The author of Kiss Me Like A Stranger had lived a rich life both publicly and privately. Gene Wilder is not my idea of a celebrity, but a craftsman who's craft is acting.
I vividly remember watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on a rented (yes, rented) VCR when I was in first grade. I was mesmerized by Gene Wilder. It was only a few years later when I saw Young Frankenstein. Some quality in Gene was attractive to me as a child.
It has been a while since I checked the book out of our library, so I'm not at a place of doing a review. I can say, while famous friends like Mel Brooks and Richard Prior are discussed along with his marriage to
Gilda Radner, the book is about Gene as person. It was wonderful to find him as poignant and captivating as I did (and still do) as Wonka.
I love your list and have read several of the books. The Gene Wilder inclusion made me think of Steve Martin's books. I have enjoyed his novellas, but I love his autobiographies even more. He has more than one, using each to talk about a specific time in his life, or an aspect of his craft.
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I totally agree with you about youngsters writing bios. You have to do something interesting with your life, before people want to read about it!
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Don't you wonder about the people who buy those books? I can tell you almost none of the people who played Booking Through Thursday read the popular celeb bios, so I'm assuming they are read mostly by people who don't otherwise read.
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