Biographies and autobiographies

[BinkyBetsy]

Bringing this up from the depths with a question. What would be, if anyone knows, the most even-handed bio of River Phoenix? I don't want to read a total hagiography, but I don't want something that was slapped together from tabloid stories, either.

[carrier76]

I just finished "Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild" the other day. So, so good. Very interesting. It paints a more sympathetic picture of Clara as someone who was shaped forever by her horrifying childhood.

My brain started trying to make parallels between Clara and Britney, but I need to sit down and think about that seriously, and maybe write it down before I get back to you.

[Mutagen]

The Last Perfect Revolutionary: Zhou Enlai really stands out in my memory, even though I read it years ago. There's an element of Greek tragedy, powerful men ruined by their own inherent characters, in the portrayal of both Zhou and Chairman Mao. Of course Zhou is portrayed as a far more honorable and humane man than Mao, although the author (who is Chinese and had relatives imprisoned by the government) makes it clear that he does not let Zhou off the hook morally. The Communist Party politics are fascinating and extremely chilling.

IMHO the book is translated out of Chinese a little awkwardly (I don't read Chinese so I can't vouch for the accuracy, but there's some weird verbiage that I suspect made more sense in the original language) and it would be useful to have a timeline of modern Chinese history at hand while reading because the author occasionally throws you into historical events without much preamble or establishing dates. However it is still a good and very followable read and a really arresting character portrait.

[satellite]

I found a copy of Elvis and Me at the thrift store, so I've just started re-reading it for the first time since high school I guess, and Elvis is coming off like a creep. Having another guy to bring you a high school-looking girl, and then not being deterred that she was only in ninth grade? Ew.

[celerydunk]

Mar 23, 2011 12:15:51 GMT -4 satellite said:

I found a copy of Elvis and Me at the thrift store, so I've just started re-reading it for the first time since high school I guess, and Elvis is coming off like a creep. Having another guy to bring you a high school-looking girl, and then not being deterred that she was only in ninth grade? Ew.

Im going to spoiler this, but not sure I need to: How ridiculous is it that she wants us to believe he waited to have sex with her. She mentions he kept her presence secret because of the whole Jerry Lee Lewis scandal, but I think that's not the only secret she is keeping. I understand it because of the fortune made since his death but I still can't help but roll my eyes.

[satellite]

I know right? And I think all the "grooming her into his perfect woman" stuff might even be more creepy than the underage thing in and of itself. I'll be reading with my armchair shrink beret on.

And on a separate note. I didn't realize that both she and Lisa Marie are $cientologists. Ka-ching!

I guess Xenu's o.k. with bad plastic surgery.

[celerydunk]

Mar 23, 2011 19:00:29 GMT -4 satellite said:

I know right? And I think all the "grooming her into his perfect woman" stuff might even be more creepy than the underage thing in and of itself.

He liked them young - I believe Natalie Wood was only 16/17ish when they dated. And its just another parallel between Elvis and Michael Jackson. It's no wonder Lisa Marie was drawn to MJ.

[kanding]

Mar 23, 2011 14:15:39 GMT -4 celerydunk said:

Mar 23, 2011 12:15:51 GMT -4 satellite said:

I found a copy of Elvis and Me at the thrift store, so I've just started re-reading it for the first time since high school I guess, and Elvis is coming off like a creep. Having another guy to bring you a high school-looking girl, and then not being deterred that she was only in ninth grade? Ew.

Im going to spoiler this, but not sure I need to: How ridiculous is it that she wants us to believe he waited to have sex with her. She mentions he kept her presence secret because of the whole Jerry Lee Lewis scandal, but I think that's not the only secret she is keeping. I understand it because of the fortune made since his death but I still can't help but roll my eyes.

You know, I can believe that he waited until they were married to have sex. Why not? He probably thought that he deserved a virgin as a wife, and "grooming" her to be his perfect woman certainly didn't stop him from messing around. He got to have his cake and eat it, too. He got his sweet, innocent bride and all the women he wanted on the side.

[americanchai]

Equally as creepy, after she had Lisa Marie, he didn't want to touch Priscilla. He didn't like to have sex with women who had given birth. I believe that was in Peter Guralnick's Last Train to Memphis.

[GoldenFleece]

Mar 26, 2011 6:35:14 GMT -4 kanding said:

Mar 23, 2011 14:15:39 GMT -4 celerydunk said:

Im going to spoiler this, but not sure I need to: How ridiculous is it that she wants us to believe he waited to have sex with her. She mentions he kept her presence secret because of the whole Jerry Lee Lewis scandal, but I think that's not the only secret she is keeping. I understand it because of the fortune made since his death but I still can't help but roll my eyes.

You know, I can believe that he waited until they were married to have sex. Why not? He probably thought that he deserved a virgin as a wife, and "grooming" her to be his perfect woman certainly didn't stop him from messing around. He got to have his cake and eat it, too. He got his sweet, innocent bride and all the women he wanted on the side.

I've read Child Bride and it made a fairly convincing case that Elvis didn't wait years to have sex with her and that her mom and stepfather were so starstruck, they were willing to look the other way. And she wasn't the only youngish girl he'd ever "dated". After Elvis had left Germany, Priscilla came to be madly in love with a guy close to her age, her mother was furious, and that's what led to Priscilla moving to America (and Elvis) with not much time left before she graduated from her school in Germany. Priscilla just milked the coincidence of giving birth exactly nine months after the wedding for all it was worth to maintain her story that she didn't sleep with Elvis until after they married.

Allegedly, of course. But there was a lot of research, interviews with people who knew her from that period in her life, to call out some of the lies propagated in Priscilla's story over the years. A less charitable view of the book is that it's something of a hitpiece on her.

The bio covers the years after the marriage ends, too. Priscilla dated Robert Kardashian for a few months!