Ball of Fire [Paperback]

Stefan Kanfer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 7, 2005

To viewers worldwide Ball remains the ultimate screwball housewife, getting in and out of outlandish scrapes with hilarious finesse. Stefan Kanfer's biography looks behind the image, tracing Ball's comedic genius to its beginnings in a lonely childhood in upstate New York. En route Kanfer chronicles the runaway success of the sitcom I Love Lucy, the fiery marriage and eventual split from Desi - the Cuban bandleader who made her famous - and Ball's struggles to manage both a business empire and her own rebellious children.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Ball of Fire reveals all about housewife superstar Lucille Ball. She made the top-rated TV show in America before her husband's serial adulteries practically sunk it.' Sunday Herald; 'A wonderful and poignant book... Kanfer portrays Lucille Ball as insatiably anxious and insecure, a woman whose search for a father figure would only ever find the unlikely and unholdable Desi... Kanfer pulls no punches over Lucy the pain in the neck, but he gives a superb picture of how she and Desi changed television.' David Thomson, New Republic; 'Easily the year's best Hollywood biog' Independent on Sunday"

About the Author

Stefan Kanfer is the author of The Eighth Sin, A Summer World, The Last Empire, Serious Business and Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx. He was a writer and editor for Time magazine for more than twenty years. He lives in New York and on Cape Cod.

Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (July 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571220312
• ISBN-13: 978-0571220311
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,581,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Whose life is it anyway!, May 13, 2010

By 

Agnes Meo (New Jersey, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ball of Fire (Paperback)

I am what you call a Lucyfile who seeks and loves all things about I LOVE LUCY. I thought I had read all there was in terms of books and stories about the glory days of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz! How happy I was to find a book written in 2001 almost 10 years after it was written. However, I realized why it took so long for me to find out about the book, as it wasn't really about Lucille Ball's life. It was more about the people in her life and what was going on rather about the actress herself. Whatever was going in her life was made to read like she was a third party. The author, Stefan Kanver, does not delve into the mind of his subject so I always questioned its validity that it really happened as he described. On a positive note, I found the book enjoyable, as it was very readable. I kept saying how did Lucy really feel with the frustrations of living with someone like Desi Arnaz whom I love too. She was devoted to him as he helped to make her into the superstar that she later enjoyed. But I kept questioning who are these people were really? If the man was such a philanderer then why did he stay in the marriage for 20 years? It takes two to tango to make a marriage work or fail. The author never really talked about Lucille's role in her marriage that ultimately broke up because of the fame.

I did enjoy reading the book, as I love all things Lucy. I have a collection to show my devotion to the show that aired before I was born but the book did not give me an insight into the person the world knows as Lucille Ball.