Customer Reviews

How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I find this book absolutely fascinating!

Karen Karbo has taken the power and wisdom of a legendary woman and created an enchanting manual for us to be `Hepburnized.' Kate has always been an inspiration for me in everyday life, and just the other day I thought someone should write a book about Kate's wit and wisdom. Ta da!! Here it is.....this lovely work I recommend to anyone ready to feel the fear and do it anyway and not to mention learning to find yourself absolutely fascinating!

I want to also say bravo to Karen for calling out William J. Mann and his preposterous "bio" on Kate. Read 'How to Hepburn' and find out what I'm talking about. Karen you are also a woman of substance. Kate would be proud.

As I was looking at the biographies section of my local independent bookstore, I noticed this compact book snuggled between much larger books about two screen icons who share the same last name, Audrey and Katharine Hepburn. Given the provocative title, I wanted to venture a guess as to which Hepburn the author was talking about since both women have inspired various levels of imitation and adoration even after their respective deaths. As I suspected, the book turns out to be about Kate on the not-so-coincidental occasion of her centenary. However, author Karen Karbo is not really examining the legendary actress's life in detail but rather taking a more cursory look at the cues in her life and memorable quotes that helped shape her enduring persona. Hepburn obviously lived life on her own terms, and Karbo sets out to define what the guiding principles were behind the actress's 93-year-old life.

Toward that end, the author does a reasonably entertaining job of presenting the Hepburn philosophy, steeped as it is in self-mythologizing, but there is nothing revelatory here that would surprise fans. It's common knowledge that the woman was a difficult personality with a wealth of idiosyncrasies. At the same time, she continues to be a beloved icon for her unmovable sense of self and her non-conformist mindset just as much for her enduring career. Karbo's treatment reads a bit like a manifesto, which I'm sure is intentional, but without the cumulative context of Hepburn's life events, there is a lack of resonance to the life lessons presented. Several comprehensive biographies on the market offer theories on her life, though none more accurately encapsulates her philosophy than the subject herself in Me : Stories of My Life. Even better is the two-part 1973 interview Dick Cavett conducted with a 66-year-old Hepburn (mentioned briefly in the book and available on the first disc of The Dick Cavett Show - Hollywood Greats). With her crackling persona in full bloom, the legend threatens to make Cavett into a whipping boy with her unapologetic honesty and lacerating wit. That will give you a more vivid impression of Hepburn's outlook on life than this book really can.

Like Karbo's other books, this is funny and perceptive. There's a lot of style here, as is fitting for the subject, but I don't want to make the book sound too light: it's genuinely thought-provoking.

As another reader points out, the book has the feel of a manifesto, and here that's a good thing. It moves along with the purpose, energy, and wink-as-you-go humor of, well, Hepburn.

I looked forward to reading this book, largely because I am such a Hepburn fan. However, I was deeply disappointed. Ms. Karbo is a wonderful, breezy writer. However, the lessons in this book aren't much more than her personal opinions backed up by Hepburn anecdotes. While it's clear Ms. Karbo admires Kate Hepburn, I was not inspired nor enlightened by the material. If you are interested in learning about the actress, I suggest one of the other biographies. If you are interested in life lessons, I suggest a different book.

Disappointing book in which the author tries too hard to be cute, clever and hip in using Hepburn's life and work to advance her premise.

Along the way she gets facts wrong, doesn't bother to source direct quotes, and uses a lot of re-cycled ideas. She also reveals a real lack of understanding of Hepburn's ability as an artist and makes some comments in regard to Hepburn's work that is laughable.

Bottom-line, I believe that Karbo does admire Hepburn but she also takes some cheap shots at Hepburn with comments for which she has no proof.

Left me with the nagging feeling that the real purpose of this book was to use the name "Hepburn" to make a couple of quick bucks off of a rather insubstantial book.

As someone who wrote a well-received book about Audrey Hepburn ( the much imitated "Audrey Style") a few years ago, I LOVED this book! Ms. Karbo has written a rowdy, glittering, witty peaen to the other Hepburn.

I was not previously familiar with Ms. Karbo's work, but she is a heck of a writer, and really brought the Great Kate back to life for me. By rescuing her from the shrouds of history, she brought her into our current lives and culture. Really, I loved this book -- fast and moving -- a heck of a read. I am giving it to all my friends the Spring.

Thank you -- I really think Katherine Houghton Hepburn would have gotten a huge kick out of this book. And who knows? Maybe Audrey would have too.

I must admit I'm still a few pages away from finishing the book, but I had to write to say that I'm loving every page of it. It seems to read part biography, part love letter from a devoted fan, and part amazing graduate thesis in the way each part of Kate's life is analyzed and seen from a feminist's point of view. I so thoroughly enjoyed Karbo's personal comments, and at times comedic footnotes, that I think the author should take the book on the road and do a one woman homage stand up performance of it. If she did, I would be the first in line to offer any help on it in any way. The only reason I couldn't give 5 stars is the lack of any photos that is a must have for Hepburn fans like me, and the fact that it was too short, as I trust I will be sad to come to the ending. Thank you Karen Karbo for a fascinating new look at our never-to-be forgotten Katherine, as well as ourselves.

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Against the framework of supposedly learning to emulate Katharine Hepburn, we learn a good deal about her life and style.

The author is not kind and turns merciless when discussing Spencer Tracy.

Cute idea, amusingly delivered.

What I love about books like this one are that they give you a new perspective on how to be classy. I think that women such as Hepburn, Chanel and JKO are wonderful role-models on how to stay classy when society is telling you otherwise. This book, and others like it, give you lots of confidence to be a lady. Biographical as well as motivational. Wonderful read. :)

I loved this book! I laughed through most of it and could relate to quite a few parts in it!