Customer Reviews

Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book does a nice job of putting together bits of information and stories from a variety of sources into one volume. The author's style is strong and brisk and keeps you reading. The best parts of the book are his discussions of the plays and movies, although he pads things out with a few too many pages of direct film dialogue transcription. Even when the material was very funny on its own, the Marxes' delivery is what made their movies classics, and no amount of quoting can really bring Groucho's performances to life on the page. The first part of the book is, by necessity, also largely about Chico and Harpo, and Kanfer keeps all the brothers in focus as long as they remain important to Groucho; Kanfer also nicely charts the various rises and declines of Groucho's later life.

There are two main problems: one is that there are virtually no notes, despite the vast amount of direct quotes from various sources. There is a list of major published works on Groucho, with some given helpful annotation, but more detailed notes should have been present. The other problem is that, too often, Kanfer forgets to let us know what year he's talking about, or how much time is passing between sections. Several times, I found myself flipping back and forth, trying to place an incident in time. The book is strictly chronological, but the details get slippery. I would also have liked a few more photographs. Overall, recommended--almost certainly the best bio yet about a cherished and never to be forgotten man.

As a Marx Brothers fan, I've purchased and read many of the biographies/critiques of Groucho and Bros. (and there are a *lot* of them!), and I found this to be one of the most entertaining. We've reached the point in history where first-hand biographies can no longer be written--most of Groucho's friends, collaborators, and family are dead, so Kanfer's is likely the first of books that will study Groucho from a more historical perspective, using newspaper articles, movie reviews, and the books that have gone before (Kanfer points out, a little defensively for my tastes, that Groucho told so many tall tales you couldn't take first-person testimony at face value anyway). "Groucho" makes for an effective (if somewhat detached) bio: overall quite entertaining, not skimping on Marx's low points and somewhat pessimistic worldview as well as his more familiar triumphs. By all accounts, including this one, Groucho was not a guy you'd want to pal around with unless you had the sharpest wit (and even then he'd dislike any attempt to outshine him), and Kanfer does a credible job of portraying Groucho's sourness as well as handling a controversial subject: just how badly Groucho was treated by women in his later years (and to be perfectly fair, his less-than-stellar treatment *of* women throughout his whole life). I have to praise an aspect of this book not many other reviewers have mentioned: it is immensely funny, not because Kanfer is a humorous writer, but because he has the good sense to occasionally step aside and recount some of Groucho's funniest lines or dialogue. Still, the occasional sloppiness in writing and editing (as mentioned by other Amazon reviewers) did make me scowl once in a while as I read it. I wouldn't call this the definite Groucho bio-- but it's an entertaining read and a decent synthesis of the many books I've read before with a slightly fresh spin. Still, given Groucho's disarming, misleading wit about anything personal, can there *ever be* a definitive bio? I'm eagerly awaiting Simon Louvish's "Monkey Business"--given his excellent *and* entertaining W.C. Fields bio, perhaps it's Louvish who can best do justice to the Marxes--but with this enigmatic cult icon whose greasepaint mustache and quick words hid a much more complex man, I wouldn't be surprised if Groucho's up there having a good old laugh on all of us who are trying to analyze his wit rather than just enjoy it.

Mr. Kanfer makes a point late in this book that once he was pushed into show business at an early age, Julius Henry Marx ceased his existence, eternally replaced by the acerbic, wisecracking, iconoclastic character "Groucho". The man no long was; only the persona remained. The detailing of this problem -- which ruined Milos Forman's recent Andy Kaufman biopic, i.e. the examination of the man where the public persona is omnipotent -- is the real strength of this book. Kanfer does a great job showing how Groucho could never escape being Groucho; he was either the funny little man with the greasepaint moustache, cutting people down with his razor sharp wit, or he was nothing. It's a great psychological portrait.

The vaudeville sections are bright and lively, really capturing the anarchic spirit that the brothers held. Kanfer does a good job showing the transition from vaudeville to movies, including the fears and trepidations of those involved, especially Groucho's. Even though we know that worldwide fame would eventually come, the road traveled to get there is filled with much tangible drama.

Groucho's later years are done particularly well. They're especially effective when the reader gets an indication of how far Groucho has fallen: a man who once verbally terrorized all the women in his life gets his karmic retribution. It's quite a sad chapter; I as a reader couldn't wait to read of Groucho's death, just to put the old man out of his misery. Very powerful.

Unfortunately, the book is weak in several other areas.

The sections dealing with Julius' childhood needed a deeper biographical sketch of his mother Minnie Marx. We are told repeatedly of her great will and dominance over the boys, but we only see glimpses of that. Kanfer does yeomen's work researching the other areas of Groucho's life, so why skimp out on the beginnings?

Later, when dealing with the heyday of the Marx Brothers movies, it is apt to re-quote a criticism Groucho himself makes on page 380: "[Critics] do a new kind of writing. They rent our movies, tape-record them and write down all the good jokes in their books. Quite a writing feat!" He's talking about the glut of criticism following the Brothers' renewed popularity in the 1960s, and Kanfer uses the quotation wisely to that extent. Unfortunately, he himself uses that very same hackneyed technique! There are transcriptions of scenes from 'Duck Soup' and 'Horse Feathers' that run for pages. Granted, they are almost as entertaining on paper as they are on screen, but they serve little purpose in a biography. Kanfer tries to tie the scenes into the narrative of Groucho's life, but he generally fails to do so effectively.

When Groucho has his popular rebirth, with the television show 'You Bet Your Life', what should be an important time in contributing to the enduring appeal of the comedian is glossed over. A period of ten years feels like just two, before we are thrust into Groucho's twilight. I would have loved more anecdotes and analysis from this era.

My suggestion to those interested is that this is a good start to get an understanding of Groucho. For those already versed in Marx lore, this book will probably infuriate rather than enlighten you.

Stefan Kanfer's excellent biography of Groucho Marx is long overdue. A fine researcher and perceptive critic, Kanfer examines the sad method behind Groucho's comic madness and provides a detailed portrait of his bittersweet relationship with Harpo and especially Chico. However, "Groucho" is more than a "warts-and-all" biography - placing the anarchic spirit of Marxian humor in its proper historic context. Kanfer chronicles the creative highs and lows of Groucho and his brothers with refreshing clarity. Overall, it is an indispensable work that should be on the bookshelf of any Marx aficionado.

I've been a Marx Bros. fanatic for over 35 years, and I have read everything there is to read about them. Mr. Kanfer's book is basically a rehash of stories culled from earlier books. His book is chockfull of apocryphal anecdotes and misquotes (how do these authors know exactly what was said behind closed doors?). The photos were also disappointingly familiar. On the plus side, I enjoyed some of his insights into Groucho's fragile psyche.

For the real stuff I would recommend Steve Stoliar's :Raised Eyebrows", and Hector Arce's, Groucho".

An amazing account of an amazing man and his career. The first sections, in which Groucho steps from boy soprano singer to hilarious vaudeville acts that carry him and his brothers to Broadway and cinema stardom, are particularly well written. Kanfer elegantly descibes the marxistic method of success, based on tradition, originality, audience feed-back and perfection.

Like most GM biographers, Kanfer uses many of the well-known gags from shows and films. One important gag is missing, though. In the Carnegie Hall performance in 1971 - which Kanfer uses as the starting point for his story - Groucho at age 79 appears in a solo act, going on for hours with escalating intensity, funnier than ever. I remember I neclected school for listening to the recording of 'An Evening with Groucho' until my sister stole the double LPs. At the end of the three-hour show, during storms of applauses, you can barely hear a tiny female voice asking Groucho:

'Wanna do some more?' 'What?' 'Wanna do more stuff?' 'Some more what? I haven't started yet.'

As a Marx Brothers fan for over 30 years, I harbor no illusions as to what an ornery and mean-spirited man Groucho could be. He was never comfortable with himself, and, unfortuntely, he passed along a lot of that insecurity and misery to those who were closest to him. He was also a caring, literate, and liberal man with a worldview and wit like noone else. Yet, according to Kanfer, Groucho's entire life was a failure. ALL the movies are terribly flawed, no generous deed was performed without a sinister intent, and the fact that he was a greater comedian than writer negates all the success he had in the latter area. This is more a vendetta than a book. Kanfer is more mean-spirited than Groucho ever was. In addition, his idea of research is to read every other book on the subject and then weigh in with a third-rate behavioral analysis. I'm currently reading Simon Louvish's new bio of all the Marx Brothers, and, so far, it is a breath of fresh air (and well-researched to boot). If you want to read a bio of Groucho, seek the out-of-print Hector Arce book. All things considered, Groucho was a very great man, but you'd never know it from Stefan Kanfer's tedious character assassination.

This is a fascinating...and frequently sad account of "the life and times" of a truly great comic artist. First with his brothers and then on his own, he created a public persona wearing a "hard clown mask", a persona which he then became in his private life. Eventually and literally, on-screen and off, what people saw is what they got. Kanfer examines Marx's relentlessly unpleasant relationships with his mother and with his brothers, his inadequacies as a husband and father, his immaturity in "matters of women, money, and power", the impact of Irving Thalberg at MGM on the Marx Brothers movies made at that studio, and the agonies Marx experienced during his later years. Many (most?) of his most painful wounds were self-inflicted but, as Kanfer suggests, Marx also did great damage to family members. How ironic that someone capable of making so many people howl with delight would be "incapable of expressing strong emotion, no matter how deep." That is a realm within Marx which even Kanfer was unable to penetrate.

This book breaks no new ground, merely rehashes old old stories. Hector Arce's biography (Groucho) is much better factually and in its discussion of Groucho's inner life.

Kanfer seems to have read everything ever published on the Marx Bros., but evidently didn't talk to anyone who knew them. He relates the facts of Groucho's life succinctly and, I assume mostly accurately -- but there's absolutely no sense of getting into his subject's head. The book observes Groucho from a distance, talking about his character traits without ever exploring them. It's interesting enough to make you want to seek out other books on the subject, and does cover the events AFTER Groucho's death in some detail. If this were the only book on the subject, it would be adequate -- but it isn't. There are much better books out there.