Customer Reviews

All the Way : A Biography of Frank Sinatra, 1915-1998

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Though this book highlights some enlightening details about Frank Sinatra's life, much of it is shoddy hackwork. The reader learns the true story of how Sinatra freed himself from the talons of Tommy Dorsey. The reader learns of the strong influence of Sinatra's mother, Dolly, on his life. Dolly's own life as a Hoboken ward leader and her barely mentioned extraciricular activity as town abortionist fascinates. The friendship of Dolly and Ava Gardner, both foul-mouthed and proud of it, also fascinates. Ditto, the true story of how Sinatra resurrected his failing career by landing his role in "From Here to Eternity". Yet much is left out in this biography. The author seems to have gathered as much material as he could be bothered with and just slapped it together at breakneck speed in a book. It seems to be a specialty of Mr. Freedland's. More time is spent on Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio's "raid" on an apartment Marilyn Monroe was allegedly staying than Sinatra's relationships with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr.. The Rat Pack is glossed over; more time is spent on detailing Lauren Bacall's role in the original Bogart Rat Pack than in Martin and Davis's roles in the Rat Pack that most Americans are familiar with today. Much time is wasted on Sinatra's philosophical views on life, some of which seem to probably have been press releases written by his publicist. The author often doesn't put two and two together. Though Sinatra had great talent as an actor and played some fine roles, his career fizzled by the mid-sixties. Mr. Freedland mentions that Sinatra refused to do second takes but fails to understand that few directors would go out of their way to hire actors who refused to do second takes. Sinatra undercut his own film career. The bio is also very flighty. For instance, the author mentions a benefit concert Sinatra gave in New York which was attended by Jackie Kennedy Onassis at which she wore some sort of head band. Mr. Freedland informs us that the sort of head band used by Mrs. Onassis at the concert was sold out of New York stores within 24 hours as if that was pertinant information. The Jackie Onassis tidbit is indicative of Mr. Freedland's writing style. All in all, All the Way is useful in its way yet disappointing and borderline awful.

I've read many Sinatra biographies and this is by far the least interesting and most pretentious. Michael Freedland's self-imporatnce oozes from within the lines; his claim that some of the stories are told here for the first time have no interesting payoff whatsoever for Sinatra fans. This is more like reading a book by Robin Leach and the "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous." I think we need to ask the Brits to stick to their side of the Atlantic if they can't do any better than this.

I LOVE THIS BOOK ABOUT SINATRA. HE WAS A MARVELOUS HUMAN BEING,MAYBE THE MANIC DEPRESSIVE PART, TRUE, BUT ALOT OF THE NEGATIVE THINGS HE DID, I THINK SOME OF THEM WAS WHEN HE WAS DRINKING. THEY WERE NOT THE TRUE FRANK SINATRA. THE TRUE FRANK WAS A KIND HEARTED, LOVING, GIVING PERSON. MAY YOU REST IN PEACE FRANK UNTIL WE HEAR YOU SING IN PERSON, IN HEAVEN, AGAIN.

Michael Freedland's British background is too apparent for American readers. His English spellings are bothersome and frequent grammatic uses of "were" instead of "was" get in the way of what otherwise would be a facinating story of one of American music's top performers. The editors failed to catch misspellings of Tiajuana, Mexico. Freedland bashes Sinatra's parents unnecessarily and takes too much credit for "publishing for the first time" anncedotes that may be moderately interesting. This book comes across as an episode of "Lives of the Rich and Famous" with an English accent. Freedland collected notes over a period of years and the book often reads like a collection of them.

Michael Freedland's editor did not change the spelling or grammar for the American audience and I found it laborious to "read" around the frequent s for z swap. Our Americanized version of English probably puts the Britts off when we say "the band was" instead of "the band were." But frequent plurals where it would be more familiar in singular form were also a distraction. Mr. Freedland says in his forward that he collected notes over a period of years and then wrote the book. Sometimes it reads that way. Freedland bashes the early Sinatra years and makes Frank's mother seem very overbearing. Maybe she was but this autobiography is not very kind to either of his parents. Frank Sinatra's life was threaded with attacks from the press, some deserved, no doubt. Mr. Freedland seems to enjoy twisting Frank in the breeze and comes across as one of those media hacks who saw a chance to make a name by bad mouthing an enormous star. I was often bored! by the author's dry storytelling. As interesting a person Frank Sinatra was, it's incredible that an autobiography could be such a bowser.