Cary Grant: A Class Apart, by Graham McCann
Biographies are not usually my thing. While history is always a fun topic, I find personal details surrounding a famous figure uninteresting and unreliable. Basically, I'm far more interested in what someone did with respect to history than that person's background, temperament, marriages, children, etc. This book on Cary Grant came highly recommended, and Mr Grant was in several of my favourite movies (The Philadelphia Story, North by Northwest, and Charade), so I thought I'd give the biography a try.
I'm afraid I don't change enough: I still don't really like biographies for the same old reasons. A book on the film industry from the 30's to the 60's would have been far more interesting to me. Instead, I got too much about Mr Grant outside of his film career. Worse yet, this not very thick book is one third filmography, notes and index. Oh, it's an enjoyable book. I had no difficulty finishing it. It's just that now I know --- biographies are still not for me.
Labels: books
posted by Connie @ 11:05
2 Comments:
Well done. You read a biography - that's a book about a life - and found there was too much on the life. Your conclusion - that you don't like biographies - was very convincing. I bet the author is so pleased he made the effort to check his sources, because you resent scholarly notes, too! What else don't you like? Science fiction? Then check out a science fiction book. You'll find it has too much science fiction for your taste!
Haha! You're right: if I don't like biographies, why did I bother? Well, I thought I might have changed as I got older, but I haven't. Details about one's *personal* life are still tedious to me. I prefer to read about someone's impact on history without the gossip about his sexual orientation or his estranged mother.
As for the notes... Being a techie, I'm all for citing one's sources in a technical paper. But when a thin book on an inconsequential topic spends a third of its pages attempting to lend credibility where none exists, I'm afraid I find it laughable.
Lastly, I happen to like Sci-Fi very much. There are others, for instance, Nick Hornby, who dislike science fictions precisely because there is too much Sci-Fi for their taste. They may try it once every ten years hoping they'll feel differently. Sometimes it works. Other times, it doesn't. I never said "bios are all bad." I simple meant "bios are not for me, as this book has reconfirmed."
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