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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Confessions is a comic masterpiece, an American classic.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Hardcover)
In his hilarious "unauthorised autobiography", gameshow guru Chuck Barris (The Dating Game, The Gong Show) claims to have been an agent for the CIA. Enjoyment of this comic masterpiece is by no means contigeant on the reader's believing this wildly implausible assertion. In fact, the CIA sequences are woven cleverly into an (entirely credible) account of the chaos and creative energy behind the launch of Barris's earliest gameshows. Tales of his ventures into the world of espionage are "true" in one, very broad sense, however: they reflect Barris' desperate attempts to compensate for a sense of exclusion; this sense, and his belief that the machismo world of the CIA will confer on him some kind of clubby, WASPish acceptability, explain the appearances of these bizzarre passages in what might have otherwise been a factual account of his efforts as television star and producer. The theme of exclusion links him to the great tradition of American "outsider" literature, in particular to the work of Philip Roth. Roth devotees might be shocked that anyone would compare Confessions with an acknowledged masterpiece such as Pornoy's Complaint. Confessions, certainly, is at least as funny; and this reviewer hopes that its importance, unrecognised in 1984, when it was published, will finally be established with the forthcoming release of a motion picture adaptation. It is impossible to overstate the comic brilliance of Chuck Barris' prose. His descriptions of the loons, goons and misfits who populated The Gong Show, for example, are themselves worth the price of admission. He spares no one, least of all himself; and while he lays bare his faults, and is frank about the shortcomings of many of his efforts (he is particularly critical of The Gong Show Movie), he raises a spirited defence for the most reviled form of American television, the gameshow. Reading of his efforts -- "I was just trying to keep people entertained" -- it is hard not to see him as the champion of healthy vulgarity, as the Rabelais, if you will, of the tube. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is easily the funniest book I have ever read -- and one of the most enlightening. Buy several copies, and win new friends by passing it around. Above all, pester St Martins Press into arranging an early reissue.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Dating Game was just a CIA front.,
By John Coxe (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Hardcover)
This book is a fascinating biography of the working life of Chuck Barris, his development of the gameshow from afternoon space filler to pop culture and his association with the CIA. I bought and read this book many years ago (when it came out) and the impression is still with me. This man lived a more interesting life than most of us and wrote (true or false is irrelevant) a readable account of it.
4.0 out of 5 stars
True or not - it is simply hilarious,
By
This review is from: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (Paperback)
So satirical that at times even cynical. Barris indiscriminately bashes all circles of life - from women-gold diggers to Uncle Sam. Whether Barris' spy games were true or not, this book was worth the attention.
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