From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough #AudiobookReview #GriefandLoss

in Grief & Loss

Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Audiobook-2024 Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Memoir-2024

Book Blurb:

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough.

A PEOPLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir.

A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and now grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran toward his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.

My Review:

Once again, confirmation that fame and fortune can be tragic. I do appreciate that we had Riley’s voice of calm reason and reflection to add to the tale and, of course, Julia Roberts (yes, Julia Roberts) narrates Lisa Marie’s portion of the audiobook. There were intermittent bursts of taped narrative by Lisa Marie as she attempted to recall and write her memoir. Unfortunately, for the most part, I was unable to understand them.

Of course Lisa Marie was Priscilla’s daughter and the only Elvis offspring. I greatly enjoyed the memories of her early childhood, stories of Graceland. But Lisa Marie had little adult supervision and is allowed free rein and she uses it in her teens to begin experimentation with booze and drugs.

As an adult, Lisa Marie finds love; Danny Keough (Riley’s father), compulsiveness, and a wide range of men from Michael Jackson to Nicholas Cage. (Riley, btw, is now the sole trustee of Graceland. Riley played a credible Daisy Jones in Daisy Jones and the Six in 2023.)

Yes, there is a lot of name dropping, they certainly ran in the inner circles which only confounded Lisa Marie’s place in life even more—was she merely a shadow of her father carrying his name? Her memories of him were loving and impactful, his early death a blow from which she only gradually lived with, but not well.

Priscilla Presley is painted as a stern, hands-off mother and figures in the book probably about the same way she did in Lisa Marie’s life—almost as a footnote. Riley does a good job using her mother’s tapes and memories to fill in the blanks and does so with a loving perspective. While her mother became deeply flawed and she lost her brother largely as a result, she struggles to tell their stories truthfully. She believes this is the way it was. A fine tribute to her mother as she completed the memoir her mother left upon her death in January of 2023.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts. It’s sad, tragic, and a grim epitaph.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Grief & Loss, Grief & Bereavement, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: Random House Audio
ASIN: B0CRSDK1Q8
Listening Length: 5 hrs 42 mins
Narrator: Riley Keough, Julia Roberts
Publication Date: October 8, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Authors:

Lisa-Marie Presley

Lisa Marie Presley was a singer and songwriter who was born in Memphis and raised at Graceland as the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She released three studio albums throughout her music career—To Whom It May Concern, Now What, and Storm & Grace, the first of which was certified gold. Lisa Marie passed away in January 2023.

Riley Keough

Riley Keough is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award–nominated actress. She is known for her work in Daisy Jones & the Six, Zola, and more. She also co-directed War Pony (2022), which won the Caméra d’Or for best first feature at Cannes, and cofounded the production company Felix Culpa with Gina Gammell. She is the eldest daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and sole trustee of Graceland.

The Narrator:

Julia Roberts

“I was so moved by Lisa Marie’s incredible memoir,” Roberts tells PEOPLE, in an exclusive statement. “It was a real privilege to give voice to her wild and beautiful life and I deeply appreciate Riley entrusting me with her mother’s story.”

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The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Best Books of the Year 2024

Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Memoir (2024)

Book Blurb:

Griffin Dunne’s memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances

At eight, Sean Connery saved him from drowning. At thirteen, desperate to hook up with Janis Joplin, he attended his aunt Joan Didion and uncle John Gregory Dunne’s legendary LA launch party for Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. At sixteen, he got kicked out of boarding school, ending his institutional education for good. In his early twenties, he shared an apartment in Manhattan’s Hotel Des Artistes with his best friend and soulmate Carrie Fisher while she was filming some sci-fi movie called Star Wars and he was a struggling actor working as a popcorn concessionaire at Radio City Music Hall. A few years later, he produced and starred in the now-iconic film After Hours, directed by Martin Scorsese. In the midst of it all, Griffin’s twenty-two-year-old sister, Dominique, a rising star in Hollywood, was brutally strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend, leading to one of the most infamous public trials of the 1980s. The outcome was a travesty of justice that marked the beginning of their father Dominick Dunne’s career as a crime reporter for Vanity Fair and a victims’ rights activist.

And yet, for all its boldface cast of characters and jaw-dropping scenes, The Friday Afternoon Club is no mere celebrity memoir. It is, down to its bones, a family story that embraces the poignant absurdities and best and worst efforts of its loveable, infuriating, funny, and moving characters—its author most of all.

My Review:

Has the drama and trauma experienced by Griffin Dunne in his life been fully exposed in his memoir?

I’m torn.

Is this memoir truly a tell all, name-dropping exposé of his life, or a bid to one up his dad? I’m not sure. Griffin details a childhood full of the growth of his father’s career that led to their Hollywood experience and the introduction to a myriad list of well-known celebrities. Most of the time it felt like he was actively grabbing the coattails of one or the other of his family or his latest squeeze using everyone as a stepping stone to something bigger and better.

He discusses his aunt, author Joan Didion, and his “soulmate” Carrie Fisher (I wondered if she knew she was his soulmate and, of course, is no longer around to dispute that. I read her memoir as well and just don’t remember mention of him). Carrie did an amazing job, not just with her writing style, wit, and often sarcastic delivery, but the overall story she had to tell.

Griffin exhibits a sense of humor, but not the delivery, and his focus is different, remembering anecdotes of the many celebrities who passed through his life. He decries his father using the violent death of his sister, Dominique, as a springboard for his newly discovered writing career, but then devotes a large portion of his own book to reviewing the sensational trial of the ex-boyfriend who murdered her and the accompanying appalling loss of justice.

Dunne writes of his sexual exploits, detailing a few, while exposing his newly clean and sober closeted father. The reason for the name of the book is touched upon only briefly well into the book and I’m not sure is relevant–to the reader anyway.

I both enjoyed and found parts of his novel disturbing and I don’t think you’ll find a lot here that would be a surprise. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Biographies of Authors, Author Biographies, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B0CQKJBPXQ
Listening Length: 12 hrs 19 mins
Narrator: Griffin Dunne
Publication Date: June 11, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links:

The Friday Afternoon Club – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Griffin Dunne has been an actor, producer, and director since the late 1970s. Among his work, he produced and acted in After Hours; he directed Practical Magic and the documentary The Center Will Not Hold about his aunt, Joan Didion. Griffin and his dog, Mary, live in the East Village of Manhattan.

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The Woman in Me by Britney Spears #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Best Books of the Year 2023

Book Blurb:

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

My Review:

I admit to the curiosity as well as the accolades by reviewers that drove me to listen to the audiobook that Britney Spears wrote (with, I assume, help from a ghostwriter). I’ve read memoirs of other famous singers and actors and many were twice as long and certainly exhibited more depth.

I also admit that I’ve not one of her songs in my favorites list and couldn’t name one that made it big. So, yes, I might have gone into this slightly prejudiced, only seeing another young, pretty blonde exploiting her body for a short fall in talent.

Okay, okay! Sorry! Just not my generation but really my question is: Was this book a complete account of the evolution of the singer, her talent growth, the origin of her songs, personal life and creative assistants, or the horrendous chronicle of the family financially spoiled by excess into literally locking her up for thirteen years.

Thirteen years! How does that happen? Yes, I was aware of the news regarding the lawsuit. It’s an indictment of the system, the lack of proper legal representation, and the loss of financial power. But I’m not sure the memoir was meant to be the story of her rise to fame or an exposé of the family’s attempt to keep her under their total physical, financial, and media control.

Britney takes the opportunity to defend a lot of her actions, but it seems like she more than once pushed the envelope when it would have been in her larger interest to back off, particularly when she wanted so desperately to keep her boys. This would also be a condemnation of sexism in the media world (many admittedly of her choice–check the book cover) as well as conservatorships, mental health, exploitation, and (again) the paparazzi.

In the audiobook, she bubbles over with her love for Hesam (Sam) Asghari, but that was strike three as of May 2024 and fourteen months of marriage.

The memoir told a little flatly, there is always more to the story than is revealed.

Michelle Williams narrated and did a great job. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Composer & Musician Biographies, Actor & Entertainer Biographies, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
ASIN: B0BRBPSXCW
Listening Length: 5 hrs 31 mins
Narrator: Michelle Williams, Britney Spears – introduction
Publication Date: October 24, 2023
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: The Woman in Me [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Multi-platinum, Grammy Award–winning pop icon Britney Spears is one of the most successful and celebrated entertainers in music history, with more than 100 million records sold worldwide. In 2021, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. Spears’s album Blackout was added to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Library & Archives in 2012. She lives in Los Angeles, California. [Amazon]

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress and author. She has sold over 83 million records worldwide according to Zomba Label Group. The RIAA ranks her as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history, having sold 32 million albums in the U.S. Her success as a recording artist has allowed her to work in other media; she has acted in film and television, has written two books, and has been contracted to endorse several products, including her own perfume line.

Spears released her debut album …Baby One More Time in 1999, propelling her to international stardom. It spawned the Billboard topping single “…Baby One More Time”. She released her second studio album Oops!… I Did It Again in 2000 with continued success. A third album Britney was released in 2001, followed by the release of her fourth album In the Zone in 2003. The album’s breakout single “Toxic” won Spears her first Grammy Award. After the release of a remix album/greatest hits collection, she released her fifth album Blackout in 2007.

As a result of her fame, Spears’s personal life has received much media attention. This only escalated after her marriage to Kevin Federline in 2004. She gave birth to her first child, Sean Preston, in 2005 and to her second child, Jayden James, in 2006. The couple’s divorce in November of the same year was highly publicized, followed by an ongoing custody battle over their sons. [Goodreads]

#ThrowbackThursday

Being Henry by Henry Winkler – #AudiobookReview – Actor & Entertainer Biographies

The Fonz . . . and Beyond

Best Biographies & Memoirs

Winner for Best Humor (2023)

Rosepoint Rating: Five (BIG) Stars

Book Blurb:

This program is read by the author.

“Kindhearted and approachable Winkler shines in his narration of his memoir commemorating 50 years of showbiz work…An engaging and endearing memoir by a genuine Hollywood treasure whose work spans generations.”—Library Journal

From Emmy-award winning actor, author, comedian, producer, and director Henry Winkler, a deeply thoughtful memoir of the lifelong effects of stardom and the struggle to become whole.

Henry Winkler, launched into prominence as “The Fonz” in the beloved Happy Days, has transcended the role that made him who he is. Brilliant, funny, and widely regarded as the nicest man in Hollywood (though he would be the first to tell you that it’s simply not the case, he’s really just grateful to be here), Henry shares in this achingly vulnerable memoir the disheartening truth of his childhood, the difficulties of a life with severe dyslexia, the pressures of a role that takes on a life of its own, and the path forward once your wildest dream seems behind you.

Since the glorious era of Happy Days fame, Henry has endeared himself to a new generation with roles in such adored shows as Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and Barry, where he’s been revealed as an actor with immense depth and pathos, a departure from the period of his life when he was so distinctly typecast as The Fonz, he could hardly find work.

Filled with profound heart, charm, and self-deprecating humor, Being Henry is a memoir about so much more than a life in Hollywood and the curse of stardom. It is a meaningful testament to the power of sharing truth and kindness and of finding fulfillment within yourself.

A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books.

My Review:

I love it when a well-known actor writes and narrates his own memoir. Who better to do “the Fonz” than Henry Winkler? So, yes, I was near that generation when it was easy to identify with that crowd, his character being iconic—the perfect “greaser.”

I was a fan before I listened to his self-deprecating audiobook; a bigger fan now. The man turned a type-cast character into the amazing role of a generous human being. His success actually becomes good for others.

As a cruelly dyslexic child of German Jewish parents who expected so much more from their son and never let him forget their disappointment, he managed to plod along with his ambitions and eventually do quite well with it. He finished high school and went on to Emerson College, eventually Yale.

Rather penurious, he carefully saved his money until he had $1,000 saved to go to Hollywood, as he was told that if he wanted to be known in the theatre, he could stay in New York but if he wanted to be known in the world, he’d need to move to LA. So, he did. And he stayed with friends, used their telephones, but managed to get a job within a week. You know where that led.

It was indeed difficult to emerge from the Fonz to play other parts, but he began to find those opportunities as well. He met his future wife, Stacy, with whom he has now been married for close to fifty years. He began writing books, collaborating on children’s books (thirty-nine), many about dyslexia. He and his wife work with troubled children and he has given “hundreds of these talks.”

He enjoys gardening—yeah—started with a descendant of the spider plant his aunt smuggled out of Germany. And dogs? He frequently spoke lovingly about his dogs. There is almost no industry name familiar to you that he hasn’t met, worked with, or counts as friends—and that includes Ron Howard, the lead, who he quickly eclipsed as the favorite on Happy Days.

So many stories. Such a storyteller!

And, you know, I might have sneered and said, oh come on, toot your horn some more. But I’m listening to his voice, and he sounds authentic, vulnerable, honest, kind, and sincere. His wife joins him in narrating a few short anecdotes and it’s interesting to note she’s a cancer survivor.

The man paid his dues—in spades. The audiobook is delightful; a road down memory lane of an amazing career. It’s fun, informative, immersive, and extremely entertaining. His success becomes a vehicle for the good he does, particularly for troubled children.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts. Wholly recommended!

Book Details:

Genre: Actor & Entertainer Biographies, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals, Memoirs
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0BX7DW8LM
Listening Length: 9 hrs 22 mins
Narrator: Henry Winkler
Publication Date: October 31, 2023
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links: Being Henry [Amazon]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Henry Winkler is an actor, producer and director. He is probably most famous for his role as the Fonz in the 1970s US television sitcom, Happy Days. But if you ask him what he is most proud of, he would say, “Writing the Hank Zipzer books with my partner, Lin Oliver.”

Henry Winkler will celebrate 50 years of success in Hollywood this year and continues to be in demand as an actor, producer, and director. He co-stars as acting teacher Gene Cousineau on the hit HBO dark comedy, Barry. For this role, he won his first Primetime Emmy Award in 2018 for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy as well as two Television Critics Choice Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, he was cast in 1973 in the iconic role of Arthur Fonzarelli, aka “The Fonz,” in the TV series Happy Days. During his 10 years on the popular sitcom, he won two Golden Globe Awards, was nominated three times for an Emmy Award and was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In recent years, Winkler appeared in a number of series, including Medical Police, Arrested Development, Children’s Hospital, Royal Pains, New Girl, and Parks and Recreation. He is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous children’s books, including Alien Superstar, A Trilogy andHank Zipzer the World’s Greatest Under-Achiever, a 28-book series inspired by Winkler’s own struggle with learning challenges. Of all the titles he has received, the ones he relishes most are husband, father and grandfather. Winkler and his wife, Stacey, have three children, Jed, Zoe and Max, and six grandchildren. They reside in Los Angeles with their two dogs.

Happy (Audiobook) Thursday

The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron Howard and Clint Howard – #Audiobook Review – Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals

The Boys by Ron Howard and Clint Howard

Best Biographies & Memoirs (Audiobook)

in Biographies of Movie Directors (Kindle)

Book Blurb:

“What was it like to grow up on TV?” Ron Howard has been asked this question throughout his adult life. in The Boys, he and his younger brother, Clint, examine their childhoods in detail for the first time. For Ron, playing Opie on The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days offered fame, joy, and opportunity – but also invited stress and bullying. For Clint, a fast start on such programs as Gentle Ben and Star Trek petered out in adolescence, with some tough consequences and lessons.

With the perspective of time and success – Ron as a filmmaker, producer, and Hollywood A-lister, Clint as a busy character actor – the Howard brothers delve deep into an upbringing that seemed normal to them yet was anything but. Their Midwestern parents, Rance and Jean, moved to California to pursue their own showbiz dreams. But it was their young sons who found steady employment as actors. Rance put aside his ego and ambition to become Ron and Clint’s teacher, sage, and moral compass. Jean became their loving protector – sometimes over-protector – from the snares and traps of Hollywood.

By turns confessional, nostalgic, heartwarming, and harrowing, The Boys is a dual narrative that lifts the lid on the Howard brothers’ closely held lives. It’s the journey of a tight four-person family unit that held fast in an unforgiving business and of two brothers who survived “child-actor syndrome” to become fulfilled adults.

Happy Days, The Andy Griffith Show, Gentle Ben – these shows captivated millions of TV viewers in the ’60s and ’70s. Join award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard and audience-favorite actor Clint Howard as they frankly and fondly share their unusual family story of navigating and surviving life as sibling child actors.

My Review:

Who doesn’t love Opie (if you are old enough to remember him) or Richie Cunningham (still not old enough?)? How about the movies Night Shift, Splash, Apollo 13, or The Da Vinci Code? There are literally so many awards and nominations, they have to be broken down into tables for acting, directing, writing, Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Golden Globe Awards. A tremendous life achievement.

So when I saw The Boys in audiobook format, I had to give it a listen. Gees, what a charmed life! I gotta say, he was one extremely lucky kid. Not to say he hasn’t worked hard for it. He has—from the time he was a small boy. I must say also that it is a powerful story of his parents and I was awestruck repeatedly at the wisdom, sacrifice, and love his parents showered on their two boys.

Yes, two boys, and I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t know Clint Howard as a name or as Ron’s brother, but as a character actor. I do recognize his face though again, he’s not been leading man material.

As you might expect, Ron Howard delivers his memories with an easy, relaxed, and sincere tone. The stories for the most part were uplifting, revealing, and confirmation of the “what you see is what you get” person. It’s personal. Interesting in that even with the obvious spread in ages between the brothers, there were times when they remembered the situation differently. Their points of view shaded by their own memories and experience.

Clint’s memories and experiences as he grew older took a darker path, not that his moral compass tilted so much as his temperament was 180 degrees from that of his big brother—and his delivery reflects some of the lack of power he wielded under the shadow of Ron.

Not always in chronological order, the narration caught backstories as a way of leading into the next event that took their lives through the process of becoming major name-worthy persons. They both did some mighty sacrificing for a normal childhood and still managed to reap the kind of knowledge you don’t get in a book.

Clint lacked the focus, the drive to go behind the scenes that Ron had and as an actor sweated in each and every role.

Not delivered with the dynamics and sense of humor that Matthew McConaughey threw into his memoir, (McConaughey is an in-your-face actor), the brothers nonetheless combined their memories in a loving memorial for their dad (more so than their mother), who in his turn sacrificed his own acting career for that of his boys whom he carefully nurtured, guided, and protected in their road to the pinnacle of Hollywood. You couldn’t hope for a more powerful legacy.

I downloaded this audiobook from my lovely library and thoroughly enjoyed the journey of child actors that have endured through sixty-plus years of growth in the entertainment industry.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Rich & Famous Biographies, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B092BB6JSF
Listening Length: 13 hrs 18 mins
Narrator: Ron Howard, Clint Howard, Bryce Dallas Howard
Publication Date: October 12, 2021
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Boys [Amazon]

The Authors:

(No listed bios on either Amazon or Goodreads author pages.)

Ron Howard (L) (1954-), born in Duncan, OK. Director, producer, screenwriter, actor. Married to Cheryl since 1975. First known as Opie from the Andy Griffith Show from 1960 through 1968. He also starred in American Graffiti and then Richie Cunningham in Happy Days. His heart, however, was in directing and he has an impressive list of credits. He has four children. For more information, see Wikipedia.

Clint Howard – (1959-), born in Burbank, CA. American actor, writer, and producer. Character actor best remembered for his role in Gentle Ben and later in Star Trek. Married to Kat. For additional information on Clint Howard, see his biography.

happy thursday!

Walking with Ghosts: A Memoir by Gabriel Byrne- #Audiobook Review – #biographies

Walking with Ghosts: A Memoir by Gabriel Byrne

A Reading Ireland Month book

Best Biographies & Memoirs

Book Blurb:

When award-winning actor, producer, and international icon Gabriel Byrne was a young boy, his grandmother brought him to the cinema for the first time. There, Byrne fell in love with the transporting power of the big screen. Growing up in 1950s and 60s Dublin within a family of eight, Byrne’s formative childhood years were both carefree and challenging, spent between home, the church, school, and the streets of his ever-changing city where he observed that some of the greatest actors and entertainers could be found in the lives of those around him.

In captivating, funny, and sensual prose that brings to life the myriad voices of his youth, Byrne recounts his first formative 12 years – morning routines with his father, a barrel-maker at the Guinness factory; his debut role in a nativity play; his relationship with his dynamic mother; and his years at a seminary where he studied to be a priest. Interspersed throughout this engrossing childhood story we see Byrne’s ascent to global stardom, from his days acting in amateur drama groups in London, to his first big role opposite Richard Burton, his arrival at the Cannes stage for his breakout hit movie, The Usual Suspects, to the HBO show In Treatment for which he won a Golden Globe.

Combining the cinematic power of Fellini’s Amarcord with the poignance of John McGahern’s writing, Walking with Ghosts is both a moving exploration of the pathos in what it means to be famous and a singular account of Irish boyhood.

My Review:

Oh my goodness, this good-looking Irishman would have turned my head, but add a beautifully written book full of prose, emotional memories, and a sense of humor as well and he has also stolen my heart.

The descriptive writing style pulls a reader in quickly and my problem with listening to the narration of his own audiobook is that I didn’t have a way to highlight passages. Probably, a good thing, as there are quietly related anecdotes, humorous thoughts, as well as painful memories delivered in a sensitive and contemplative manner, and not everything that resonates can be quoted.

The man relates some soul-crushing experiences as well as unabashed astonishment at his rising popularity; sincerely self-deprecating.

There are intense moments (as he relates his time with the seminary) as well as the lighter flashes of the acting years spent rising to stardom and brushing elbows with major cinema notables though this is certainly not a name-dropping tell all.

Of course, there is the on-going story of his struggle with alcoholism and depression that appears to have controlled much of his life, cementing the stereotype of the Irish males.

The storytelling is not chronological, though he does spend time on his childhood, imparting tales of his parents and his lack of confidence or machismo. Growing up in the 50s and 60s, he collected a number of ghosts along the way and he appears to have come to terms with most of them. The lovely Irish brogue-infused narrative alternates somber thoughts to the amusing, which he apparently also appreciates kept him plowing through, one foot in front of the other, eventually to come to terms with it all and settle in peace.

A biography audiobook you’ll want to pick up if for nothing else than to hear that triumph over all that can be achieved by even the most humble of us.

Book Details:

Genre: Cultural & Regional Biographies, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals, Rich & Famous Biographies
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
ASIN: B08NTW1BND
Listening Length: 6 hrs 57 mins
Narrator: Gabriel Byrne
Publication Date: January 12, 2021
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Walking with Ghosts [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Gabriel Byrne - author — Gabriel Byrne – actor-author

The Author: GABRIEL BYRNE was born in Dublin and has starred in over eighty films for some of the cinema’s leading directors. He won a Golden Globe for his performance on HBO’s In Treatment. On Broadway, he won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and has been nominated twice for the Tony Award. He lives in Manhattan and Maine. [Amazon]

Born the eldest of six children to Roman Catholic parents, Byrne is an acclaimed actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and author, narrator of his own biography. Byrne spent five years in a seminary (now an atheist), worked in archaeology, cook, and teacher before starting to act at the age of 29. He was married to Ellen Barkin from 1988 to 1999, and to Hannah Beth King in 2014. They have a daughter born in 2017 and as of 2021 live in Rockport, Maine. [Wikipedia]

Have a good week!