Customer Reviews

The Death of James Dean

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have recently finished The Death of James Dean and loved it. Beath gets right to the death and explains the rest later in the book. Dean's fame, his life, his acting, his interests (racing, among other things) and the rumors around his "other" life are well researched and presented in a very straight forward manner. The book also contains photos of Dean, his friends, studio shots, photos taken by the author, photos from other deanphile's collections and a good map of The Crash. This is an interesting and riviting book of James Dean and is written superbly. P.S. Beath has also written other books (searchable on Amazon.com) including the fictional Who Killed James Dean. This is a very good book full of speculation and the great stuff of intrigue.

The most amazing aspect of Beath's book is the original and innovative research. Basically, Beath was the first Hollywood biographer to dig into public records--traffic reports, lawsuit testimony--and uncover facts about Dean's death that had been previously overlooked. If Pulitzer Prizes were not the preserve of Manhattan writers and their pals, Warren Newton Beath of Bakersfield, California would have won one for this book.

This book pulled me into a haunting but intriguing place, that exists and will always exist in the rolling hills of a California highway, to a place that has barely changed in 40-odd years, and a rabid passion for a face and human who has made a HUGE impact. Great book!

I first read this book almost 15 years ago and lost the original paperback whilst at college.But I can still recall the creepy passages of Beath's descripton of Dean's death and Beath's veiled admission of his own descent into madness and obsession-the young man that Beath describes throughout the book IS the author himself because if you read his bibliography at the front,he lists NOTES ON DYING which is the thesis the character writes in the book.Bits that stick out are the Japanese business-man buying the hulk of the tow-truck that carried away the crumpled porshe after the crash and the author stealing a high-way cornice and storing it in his room,only to find it infested with hornets and flies.Quite superb.

I read this book when it first was published, so I am obviously not in the best position to critique it at least a couple years later. However, when it comes to James Dean I am an admitted addict and have read almost everything that has been published about him over the past 30 years. What makes this book a standout is that it concentrates on Dean's death as opposed to his life. It provides very detailed information re: his last ride and how his death and the subsequent hoopla surrounding it was handled. It also provides quite a lot of previously unpublished material in regard to the period immediately before and after his death. The author has saved us all a lot of pain and irritation by researching this material in a factual and precise manner.
What makes this book a positive departure from the other Dean book is that there is no psychological stuff about Dean's tortured youth or attempts to affix a death wish to him, just a lot of good hard facts. Joe Friday couldn't do a better job in that area.
The best part of this book? It sticks to the truth and makes for an interesting read.

Beath makes the death of James Dean a very personal experience for the reader. This is not a book one reads and forgets - the reader has participated in the author's passionate search for the substance behind the tragedy and the reader is changed. I'm ready for more from this author.

I am a huge fan of James Dean. I've read almost everything there is on James Dean and then some. So about half of the information that is included in this book is nothing new to me. But as for the rest of this book....WOW! Beath DEFINITELY did his research and it shows in every single page. The only reason I did not give his book a 5-star rating was because the pictures in this book look like poor copies of the original pictures. Pictures of the accident, Dean's car, the bodies, exc are so dark you can barely make anything out. But as for the rest of the book, I was totally impressed. This book achieves a different angle than most James Dean biographers take. Not to mention many different accounts of the many different witnesses that were present during the life of James Dean. The pages describing the accident itself are so detailed and haunting as well as traumitizing it reduced me to tears. Beath makes damn sure you have no problem picturing the accident that raped the world of James Dean! It took me awhile before I coud continue with the book. In fact, in the book, Beath quotes how one of the first people on the scene after the accident saw James Dean in his car. He saw from a very short distance the damage the accident had done to Dean's body and would not look closer, it was that bad. He never went closer.

The book starts out with what the scene of accident looks like at the time of the writing(1986). The changes that were made over the years following Dean's death. Then slowly, it expands to Cholame itself, Blackwell's Corner and so on. Slowly the book moves to the morning of the last day of James Dean.

To Mr Beath, I want to say thank you and well done. You never missed a beat. And to the readers of this post considering buying this book... go for it! The only thing you "may" regret is reading the detailed descriptions of the accident itself.

Warren's book continues to outshine most every other Dean book. Granted, this is my particular area of interest, but I would challenge anyone to read this and not be enthralled. Dean's last days are meticulously researched, rumors addressed... Warren doesn't try to pretty it up. This is the way things happened. I refer to this book often - it's a bible in my home.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I think I go over it 2 or 3 times. It has been very refreshing to see the different point Warren makes in it. I have bought 4 of these books for friends including CW and Kim.

I think that too many authors sometimes work too quickly and over reach their target. Warren has focused on The "Death" element of James Dean in a sensitive but critical approach. We are all grateful for this work of genius. It goes into great detail of what JD was doing the day he died, who he met and what he ate... Suffice it to say that if you are a James Dean compatriot, you will trully understand fact from fiction by reading this book. I don't like going into details because it spoils the "ride" but with the judgement of 4 good friends and 2 of whom knew James Dean, they are very satisfied with it. Thanx!

rj

The focus of this book is the automobile crash that ended the life of actor James Dean. Dean only ever made three movies but those three had a huge impact on folks of that period.

In any case, the details given here will present you with a clearly defined account of why and how this youth noir-icon died.

He was on his way to a race, in a racecar, when a young man pulled out from an intersecting highway. So, the question arises, 'Was Dean's speed the cause of the spectacular crash or, was it carelessness on the young man's part who possibly failed to yield the right-of-way?' (HINT: Dean was just issued a speeding ticket about an hour or so before the crash!)

This book has plenty of nice illustrations and I found it a real page-turner of a mini-biography.