I'm Chevy Chase . . . and You're Not [Hardcover]

Rena Fruchter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2010

Chevy Chase is a much-loved Hollywood star. His success as a writer and actor on Saturday Night Live in the 1970s made him a household name, but it had been a long, hard route to the top for Chevy—behind the fame lay a childhood riddled with abuse. But his remarkable strength and determination helped him rise above it and find his talent as an actor, writer, comedian, and musician. Best known for his role in the National Lampoon's Vacation series Chevy has starred in some of the greatest comedies of our time. Now, for the first time, Chevy speaks openly and candidly about his career, his personal struggle with drugs, his friendships with three presidents, and his family life. Honest, funny, and informative, this is the complex and fascinating world of Chevy Chase.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Gracefully written, keenly observed, Fruchter’s portrait limns the joys of friendship and of lives devoted to art.”  —Kirkus Reviews starred review

of Dudley Moore: An Intimate Portrait

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Rena Fruchter is the author of Dudley Moore: An Intimate Portrait and a former music columnist for the New York Times. She lives in New Jersey.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Virgin Books; First Edition edition (March 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852273461
• ISBN-13: 978-1852273460
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very little to learn about Chevy, May 31, 2007

By 

D. B. Roe (Midwest USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: I'm Chevy Chase . . . and You're Not (Hardcover)

This was easily the worst bio I have ever read. Let me save you the time and money before you buy. Chevy was abused as a child and had a horrible mother, otherwise he is really a great, sweet, talented, strong and good looking guy (his "Cary Grant" looks are well covered in the book). I have enjoyed most of his movies and grew up on SNL but this book does little to help you understand the real Chevy vs. what you hear from his SNL castmates and others. It is a fluff piece for Chevy written by a lightweight biographer, I'm sorry to say. The book contains, literally, pages and pages of scripts written by Chevy or lines from his movies (that any fan well recalls), as well as full reviews (mostly positive) from various movie and TV critics. She also includes several paragraphs of internet based reviews by FANS about how great some of his awful movies (as Chase admits) really are. Pretty pathetic and boring filler that struck me as something a high schooler might do to fill pages for a school assigment.

If you are interested in Chevy, SNL and that era of comedy, I can suggest "Live From New York" as it was far more insightful and honest than this fluff book.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting content marred by bad writing and an AWOL editor., June 16, 2007

By 

D. W WISELY "chiffandfipple" (Birmingham, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I'm Chevy Chase . . . and You're Not (Hardcover)

Clearly, a great book about Chevy Chase is possible. A show business icon with a fascinating personal and professional history is the subject here, after all. But the book is marred by organizational problems and flat, unsophisticated writing which is nearly juvenile. Perhaps most importantly, there's little or no evidence of an author who took a critical approach. I have no reason to think Chevy is lying to her, but there's nothing here to suggest that she tried to balance Chevy's account with those of other principals in the story.

This is one of those books that makes me wonder if there was an editor involved at all.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Self-serving Autobiography, June 11, 2007

By 

FinFan (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I'm Chevy Chase . . . and You're Not (Hardcover)

This is not easy for me to write, since I love Chevy's movies and TV stuff, but I really feel that this autobiography was very self-serving. Every chapter leaves you feeling as if Chevy paid handsomely for the author to portray him a certain way. I'm not saying that he isn't exactly the way the book leads you to believe, as I've never met the man...but this account of Chevy's life paints him as almost saint-like...like he is so far above everyone else in Hollywood--morally, ethically, and intellectually. As he was one of my idols growing up, I can only hope that this book accurately reflects the person that Chevy is...but it just seems to good to be true.

As for the book itself, I found the writing to be a little disjointed. The author combines sentences within paragraphs that seem to have little to do with each other. She also included lengthy descriptions for each movie that was being discussed, which I guess would be necessary if you've never seen his movies, but these descriptions were duplicated at the end of the book in an appendix of sorts. The book did provide an accurate timeline of Chevy's life and the events that shaped it...I just wish the author had delved a little deeper into some things, and gave us a little less info on some others.

Overall, I thought the book was just ok. I really, really wanted to like this book more than I did, but in the end, it is what it is--a very average, somewhat entertaining account of an actor who, for me, is one of the funniest comedians alive today.