Customer Reviews

Julia: Her Life

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

 

 

As the author of this book, I would like to
respond to the "review" below. It seems to me that when someone purports to review a book, they should do so based on more than one caption. Yes, the caption incorrectly says that Julia's character suffered an epileptic fit, but the text of the book goes into great detail about the character's diabetes. I viewed every one of Julia's movies several times. I welcome serious, thoughtful criticism of my work. but I don't feel that someone who can't bother to read more than the captions has a right to lambast my work.

As a typical movie fan, I had to idea what was behind the appealing, beguiling screen presence of Julia Roberts. I only saw the incandescant smile and the undeniable charm of this young actress. James Spada has done his homework and he uses multiple sources to put together the story of this complex, often insecure woman. In the early part of the book, the reader learns that Julia's parents created and directed a children's theater in Atlanta, Georgia. They were some of the first people to cross the color line, and their clients included the four children of Martin Luther King. Julia's father was charismatic, but troubled, and ran the gamut from charming to abusive. Her mother had her own problems and was unfaithful to her husband. Julia and her estranged brother seem to hold divergent opinions about their parents, but clearly this was a dysfunctional family. Spada chronicles Julia's school days, during which she considered herself an ugly duckling. He follows her during the lean early years of her acting career and traces her meteoric rise from a walk-on part in "Firehouse" in the mid-80's to her first big break in "Mystic Pizza" in 1988 and "Steel Magnolias" in 1989. During this time Julia began the pattern of pursuing men, falling in love with them, and then leaving them which repeated itself countless times in her life. The book continues through the 2003 release of the "Mona Lisa Smile" and the projected 2004 sequel to "Ocean's Eleven". Although there is no evidence that Spada spoke directly to Roberts, he manages to assemble a lot of information which he shares with the reader. This book shows all sides of Roberts, some which support her charming on-screen persona and some which are a lot less charming. Kudos to him for a job well done.

When I read this book I realized that her life was very complicated. Julia's father died at an early age, when she was about 9. Her only brother Eric, did not get along and still does not talk with their mother.

Her mother remarried a man who abused them, especially Eric. There is one sister, Lisa and they have a step sister Nancy, (Motes). Neither of them were interviewed for this book.

Eric Roberts was interviewed and expressed his anger about his mother.

Julia seemed to be looking for a father figure, with many of her relationships being with actors.

If you are a fan of Julia's, I would recommend this book.

Hopefully, her happiness will last with her present husband.

Good luck and best wishes to you, Julia.

This book is highly enjoyable and a page turner if you are intrigued by Julia Roberts. It starts at the beginning growing up in a family separated with anger and distrust. It goes on to show her moving out of Georgia and living with her brother Eric and sister Lisa in New York. It talks of how she broke into acting and fame. It really gets into her relationships with men and her interactions with male co-stars. After reading this book I have a somewhat different view of the actor. I used to wish I had her life and envied her tremendously. It seems like she has difficulties with men, possibly falling in love with love and when it begins to get deep and intimacy is the next step forward, things start to get rough. It seems like anger and distrust keep coming up in her life and at least in her relationships with men. It does not really go into many female friendships, touching on Susan Sarandon and her sister Lisa. The author does a good job of tieing his research together to make a cohesive picture of Julia. He had a little bit of help, from private sources and her brother who send emails of info to him. It is interesting to me as to why she and her brother are still estranged. It seems as if something big must have happened to create such a chasm. It also seems as if Julia has followed her mothers and Eric's abandonment of each other on in her own life, I think this is sad. I see her as an open, say what's on your mind person, yet this may be because she is a hot commodity and can do this without as many repercussions as some of us have to contend with. If she was getting shunned for this behavior, and maybe she has, I don't know if it would be so quick to happen. It seems like an exciting life but with addiction of some kind having to be there is it really being enjoyed as completely. Is love being enjoyed completely if both partners can speak the truth without fear of some form of abandonment. Oh well, I had alot of thoughts come up from reading it and am grateful. I am glad I read the book. I do not feel the envy that I had once felt and see Julia as much more human, which I would think the author would want you to walk away with.

Lisa Nary

After you get past the first few chapters discussing Julia's dysfunctional family and troubled early childhood, there is nothing in this book that a serious Julia fan hasn't probably already read in a Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, or People magazine article about her. When discussing Danny Moder's extramarital affair with Julia and subsequent divorce, the author's main source seems to be the National Enquirer. While I learned some more details about the films she has done, I feel like I did not gain any further insight into who Julia Roberts is by reading this book than I would have sitting in the dentist's office reading a three-year-old issue of Redbook.

James Spada has written biographies of some of the real heavyweights in Hollywood, and at first glance Julia Roberts might seem out of that league. But as Spada points out in this fascinating and well-written book, Roberts is probably the only female around today who has the potential to leave a legacy approaching some of the greats that have preceded her. The book is relatively short and moves at a good clip--just the right approach to Roberts, I think. Spada offers up the requisite revelations, especially about Roberts's wildly dysfunctional family, but one never gets the impression he's simply dishing dirt, and he has solid sources for the more incendiary material, including a number of Julia's aunts and cousins, and--most intriguingly--her estranged brother Eric, who corresponded with Spada in e-mails. Spada has a witty and knowledgeable take on Roberts's films as well; he describes her first film. "Firehouse," as a "Grade Z sexploitation comedy" and her thriller with Mel Gibson, "Conspiracy Theory," he says, was "akin to a Monty Python spoof of 'The X Files.'" Anyone vaguely interested in Ms. Roberts will find this book entertaining and enlightening, and her fans will love the nearly seventy photos, most in color.

Beginning with the birth of her father James Spada is writing about the life and career of Julia and her family. This is indeed very interesting to read - and it is written in a very gripping way, but it is irritating, that this all happens without an official agreement of Julia herself. The main emphasis of this book is on Julia's private life and the sources the author names for this are persons who surround Julia or would like to do so - Julia herself didn't seem to be ready to contribute to this book with statements from her behalf. This is the biggest drawback of this book and one should blame that on the author. Because, what gives him the right to write detailed things even about Julia's love life, when he never has spoken to herself? Only the fact that the book became very extended (almost 500 pages) leaves space enough for Julia's work in movies - the things we actually love her for. Less private stuff (and so something which is none of ones business!!!) would have been better! Merely the stories that tell something about Julia as a human being are interesting. For instance when she saved a car driver, who met with an accident, or the story when she danced with a fan in sort of a pub... These stories are wonderful to read, because they show, what a great and normal woman Julia has kept to be over all times - in spite of all the trouble with paparazzi and with authors who feel they have the right to write even books about her, without having talked to her a single once. Summary: just still recommendable, but you're left with a very bad taste after reading...

I had no idea that Julia Roberts had such an interesting life. Her parents ran a children's acting workshop in Atlanta in the 1960s; among its students were the four children of Dr. Martin Luther King. Coretta Scott King was one of the workshop's sponsors, and rumors were that the Robertes were so poor the Kings paid the expenses of Julia's birth. Her parents are fascinating; her father was a Renaissance man who, people who knew him told Spada, had a dark side to go along with his talents as a teacher, writer, director, and actor. Spada paints a fascinating picture of what was an extremely dysfunctional family (helped by information he got from Julia's estranged brother, the actor Eric Roberts), and he does a credible job in making the connection between Julia's lack of good role models for male-female relationships and her string of failed romances, engagements, and marriage. While it's clear that Spada didn't get cooperation from Julia or those closest to her, he did speak to enough relatives, high school classmates, friends and co-workers to write a substantial and credible book about Julia Roberts. This is by far the best of the Roberts books--the only one, really, with any claim to serious biography--and I recommend it highly.

I was anxious to get started reading this book, as I, too, live in Smyrna and thought it would be cool to know more about Julia and the places she frequented while living here. Parts I could identify with, but overall, I felt it covered way too much on her parents (I wasn't interested in their history); and (2) it was hard to get by all the typos. Sorry, but I was disappointed in this book.

This is a very good biography on Julia. Packed with tons of info and good pictures. If you're a fan of Roberts, this is the book for you. Definitely worth it!