During his final year, Gardner McKay gathered his notebooks together and began writing this memoir of a life so richly varied that it would seem contrived if it were a movie script. Dozens of handwritten diaries were augmented by events he'd written about previously. Both devotees of his short stories and plays as well as fans from his years as a television star will enjoy his unusual insights and even more unusual adventures.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely Not a Cartoon Character,
By MadameX "scribe3" (Louisville, KY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Journey Without A Map (Paperback)
According to Gardner McKay, his fans from Adventures in Paradise were responding to a cartoon character. Maybe, maybe not. It seems to me that Gardner McKay always had an indefinable presence that went far beyond the role he played in Adventures in Paradise. And to my way of thinking, this magnetic presence was mainly what people were responding to when they watched Adventures in Paradise. Journey Without a Map attests to this presence and the depth of his spirit. Told with humor & blatant honesty, we find out exactly what he thought about his father, mother, brother, Hollywood, people in Hollywood and some politicians. I particularly liked his descriptions of meeting Frank Sinatra, Richard Nixon and John Wayne. His travels and real life adventures in the jungle are told in detail, again in a straightforward way. There is never any sense that he wants to impress in the telling of his experience in the jungle but that he was simply fulfilling what he truly wanted to do. The pictures selected are also straightforward and in black & white. It's like he's saying, here I am, here's the real me, take it or leave it. His rapport with nature and animals is exceptional and his insight into people is rare. My assessment after reading this book is that Gardner McKay was in touch with the truest part of himself and this part is beautiful. After digesting the initial shock of such honesty, I found myself thinking about things he said and the way he saw life. The book is nearly 500 pages long but written in short story form on different topics so you can pick and choose the ones you want to read first.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Journey into an Author,
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This review is from: Journey Without A Map (Paperback)
Before I was a hundred pages into "Journey Without a Map", I e-mailed an old friend and told him he needed to read the book. "His prose is so poetic it borders on free verse, you won't believe some of the stuff he did - it's as compelling as anything I've ever read."
I also reasoned that my friend, an actor of considerable talent and experience who turned his back on his profession in disgust almost 20 years ago to write, would find a great deal of common ground within the pages - though I doubt seriously that he has ever walked across the Venezuelan jungle, and suspect he couldn't find the island of Bermuda in a sailboat if he started a hundred yards offshore with a strong tailwind. But while I was tucked away in a prep school during its years on the air, and was only vaguely aware of "Adventures in Paradise" and Gardner McKay - my friend, several years my senior, was, I suspect, as bombarded by it as the rest of the United States at the time. I don't intend to check with him to see if this is true, because I'm not about to change theories in mid-review for something as trifling as accuracy. I DO know, that he has not as yet purchased the book, and can only conclude that he has ignored my advice because of the very attitude that plagued McKay from the moment he abandoned his acting career. As he says: "The crime of starring in Hollywood will taint me for the rest of my life." It taints him still, eight years after his death. I am, apparently, one of the few of my generation in America who, to my best recall, had never seen more than a few minutes of his screen persona when I picked up his play "Sea Marks" in the early 70's, so I went in cold. I read it cover to cover in one sitting, and then I went back and read the male character again, aloud, so I could hear it as well. There has never, from that day to this, been the slightest doubt in my mind that Gardner McKay was a writer of extraordinary lyricism, wit and craft, with a profound understanding of the human condition. This autobiography makes it clear that he had an unflinchingly candid grasp of himself, as well. Read this. You owe it to yourself. Then go to the French catalogue and order his plays. Find his short stories, his insightful and literate theatre reviews. Read them, too. You don't have to thank me. Gloating is its own reward... You won't BELIEVE some of the stuff he DID!
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Journey Not to be Missed,
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This review is from: Journey Without A Map (Paperback)
Gardner McKay was a man without equal in many ways. Anyone who ever worked with him as an actor or read any of his work as a writer or heard any of his "Stories on the Wind" series on Hawaii Public Radio knows that already. But to read fascinating, pertinent parts of his life of adventure and creativity (not to mention romance) in his own words, set down in what were to be his last days, is its own kind of peak experience. It will stay with you for a long time. I can't recommend it too highly.
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