Customer Reviews

Greta Garbo, A Life Apart

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
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Take it from someone who has a shelf full of books on Garbo, Karen Swenson's "Greta Garbo, A Life Apart" is easily the best of the bunch. Where other authors have simply repeated stories from book to book, Swenson uses a detective's eye to find the facts. The book is highly readable and manages to give you a glimpse of who the mysterious Greta Garbo really was.

Karen Swenson is to be commended for a fine biography of Greta Garbo. Garbo is an enigmatic star more closely resembling a lonely sphinx camping out in the Sahara than a glitzy glamorous star in Hollywood's Golden Era.
Swenson delineates the Garbo career from the Swede's girlhood in a poverty stricken home in Stockholm to the extremely wealthy recluse she became in New York following her 1942 retiriement from the silver screen. (Her last flick was a bomb called "Two Faced Woman." Garbo had at least two faces in real life. The athletic outdoor woman she was could be kind and cruel as her moods were quicksilver in the soul of this Viking child of the North.
Barry Paris's book on Garbo contains more pictures and is, on the whole, better written. I did, however, enjoy Swenson's work
on the screen legend devouring the biography in huge portions of time.
Garbo was a great talent who lit up the screen with her peerless beauty and style. Costumes by Adrian and the magic of MGM camermen aided her in the climb to the top but she was herself unique for her aura of lonely beauty.
I appreciate the work of Karen Swenson. I hope you the reader do as well. If you read only one book on Greta Garbo you could do worse than selecting this excellent biography to fill you in on the Swedish queen of film.

Barry Paris' Garbo biography was hard to beat, but Swenson's manages to do so. Well-written, convincingly researched and even-handed (neither a white-wash nor an attack). I heartily look forward to Swenson's upcoming book on Joan Crawford. If anyone can put a rest to that Mommie Dearest nonsense, Swenson certainly can.

This wonderful story, about a wonderful woman, combines a selection of rare photos with startling new information about her childhood, her career, tumultuous relationships with lovers and friends, and her life after Hollywood.

Although the book is interesting taking into consideration its factographic side, it is written in a very pretentious manner trying unnecessarily to colorize the biography and therefore making it trivial and sometimes even pathetic. Just to mention: usage of such expression like "Turkey's great metropolis" in order not to call it Istanbul or Canstantinople seems to be quoted from an essay composed by some sixth-grade pupil.

I still consider "Garbo" by Barry Paris the best Garbo's biography.

Swenson conveys an understanding of and respect for her subject as few biographers have. Not that anyone can know too much about Garbo, Swenson dug deep and this bio is full of pictures and information to make any Garbo fan's heart flutter into cardiac arrest! The Best!

Garbo: A Life Apart is a modern biographical masterpiece. I got started and could barely put it down. It was filled with great information. I have been following the life of Greta Garbo for about 7 years and have a collection of memorabillia to show for it! I have to say this is a MUST for any fan or collector of Garbo material!!! BRAVO Karen Swenson!!

This biography is as haunting as Greta Garbo's life and work were. The book is strong because the author covers literally every aspect of Garbos' life and movie career -- critiquing roles and decisions to an extraordinary extent.

The book is weak, in places, because they author allows a somewhat heavy-handed narrative style to take over. As other reviewers have noted, there are elements of pretension (particularly at the beginnings and endings of chapters). Regardless of the faults, this is as good a work on Garbo available in print.

Karen Swenson is one of the best biographical writers in Hollywood having written works on Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, and most recently Joan Crawford. In "A Life Apart" Swenson examines the life of one of the greatest screen actresses ever, Greta Garbo, known for her breathtaking beauty as well as her insistence on maintaining a private life after her career exploded.

In this well-researched book Swenson interviews people who knew Garbo and writes about her early upbringing in Europe. She details Garbo's arrival in Hollywood where she would make some of the finest films in American cinema such as "Queen Christina", "Grand Hotel", and "Nonotchka". Garbo would work with well-known directors, but would butt heads in her determination to make her films the way she wanted to. Garbo's films are examined closely, but probably most interesting is Swenson's pages where she writes why Garbo wanted to become a recluse and live a solitary life.

There are some very rare photographs in "A Life Apart" and it would make a beautiful addition to anyone's library. This is one of the best biographies on Garbo I have read.

Although I am in the middle of the book there is lots of interesting information about G.G. Stayed in a hotel in La Quinta, CA. that advertises the fact that Greta stayed there in the late 20's and 30's. In this book by Karen Swenson she talks about Greta going to La Quinta several times. An aha! moment for me and now I want to return to the hotel (there is an original building there with its original furniture inside). Love almost anything from that time period...