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62 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Another dubious book about Katharine Hepburn, March 3, 2010
This review is from: I Know Where I'm Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography (Hardcover)
I've always had my doubts about Charlotte Chandler but I'm not that familiar with the subjects of her other biographies. However, I have read both Katharine Hepburn's books as well as all her published interviews and have viewed all her televised interviews. Hepburn had a very distinctive "voice". Much of this book sounds nothing like Katharine Hepburn. It, in fact, reads like bad fan fiction. If Chandler ever interviewed Hepburn, which I doubt, she has dramatically embellished whatever Hepburn told her. This book is simply a fake. Chandler combines quotes from Hepburn that have been seen elsewhere in Hepburn's own books and published interviews but then expands them with purported quotes from Hepburn that sound nothing like her and which, of course, are sexually and personally revealing because we know that's what sells books. A good example is the first chapter of the book which is about the death of Hepburn's brother, Tom. Katharine Hepburn wrote about his death in her own autobiography, Me, Stories of My Life. The version in that book bears little resemblence to the over-wrought nattering in Chandler's book. Why would Hepburn have related this version of his death to Chandler but use an entirely different version, in tone and and detail in her own book? As far as I know, Hepburn never used the word "onliness" ever. Its such a idiotic choice of a word and is an immediate tip off that the book is a fraud. Sometimes, Chandler just makes factual errors. For example on page 3 of the book she has Hepburn saying: "The next day, our uncle Floyd took us out sightseeing. He was my father's brother, and a bachelor. We had a wonderful time with him. . . " Hepburn didn't have an uncle Floyd. She did have an uncle Lloyd Powell Hepburn. He was, however, married to a woman named Harriet Dawson in 1904. He was not a bachelor. So this is obviously a fabricated quote and, needless to say, isn't in Hepburn's own book. Another example of a factual error in a purported quote from Hepburn. In 1934 Katharine Hepburn obtained a Mexican divorce from her only husband, Ogden Ludlow. Chandler says in her book that "a little more than two months later he remarried." And then she has Hepburn saying: "I had encouraged him not to wait. Why should he? He deserved a real marriage. . . . " In Hepburn's autobiography she tells an entirely different story correctly saying that her ex-husband did not remarry until 1942 after she met Spencer Tracy (8 years after the 1934 divorce). Clearly Chandler just made up the quote from Hepburn about Ludlow's remarriage. She does this sort of thing repeatedly. On the other hand Chandler does quote Hepburn accurately at times. The reason we know this is that these quotes are in Hepburn's own books or published interviews. These sound like Hepburn because they came directly from her. But most of the purported Katharine Hepburn quotes in Chandler's book sound nothing like Hepburn. What are we to make of "Howard (Hughes) was the best lover I ever had. No doubt about that. Our relationship was sexually charged." In her own book, Me, Hepburn said this about her sex life with Hughes. "I think that I must have been lonely, because Howard and I had supper with one another after the performance that first night. Thus proving that persistence pays. We had supper the next night too --- so . . . . ." Somehow I don't see Hepburn telling even her pal, Charlotte Chandler, that Howard was her best lover. Katharine Hepburn never made statements like that. Its ridiculous to think they she would. She didn't discuss her sex life. Which comes to to the heart of the matter. Chandler claims that she somehow became close enough to Hepburn to record extended interviews in which Hepburn made statements about her life that she never made to any other interviewer and that she never included in her own books. Why should we believe Chandler? How is it that Chandler ingratiated herself with so many great stars who revealed so much about their personal lives? Why would the notoriously private and un-analytical Hepburn indulge in all the pop psychology that is in this book. The answer is she wouldn't. I seriously doubt that Chandler ever met Hepburn much less interviewed her. This book is a rehash of the life of Katharine Hepburn with an overlay of fabricated quotes. This book adds nothing to what has been previously written about Hepburn. And by the way, amateur writer that she was, Katharine Hepburn was a much better writer than Chandler. Go read Hepburn's book, Me, Stories of My Life, instead of this. You'll like it a lot more.
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40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Fiction posing as fact, March 6, 2010
This review is from: I Know Where I'm Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography (Hardcover)
"Drawing on a series of recordings made over many years, beginning in the mid-1970's ..." that's the blurb from the inside cover of Charlotte Chandler's "I Know Where I'm Going" and that is the only "proof" she offers that she ever met Katharine Hepburn let alone interviewed her. I'm sorry -- I'd have to hear those "recordings" in order to believe that one word in this book attributed to Hepburn was actually spoken by her. One would also expect that an author granted the opportunity to speak with Hepburn would have kept diaries listing the dates,times, and circumstance when she spoke with Hepburn -- alas -- that evidence is not presented in the form of Notes. Anyone familiar with Hepburn's actual interviews particularly her classic appearance in the 1970s with Dick Cavett is quite aware of her manner of speaking, her phrasing, her use of language, her wit, etc. Reading her own books, ME:Stories of My Life and The Making of the African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost Mind, one can see Hepburn's very distinct speaking style transformed to the written word. In Chandler's "interviews" that style and even Hepburn's wit are missing, instead she sounds trite and banal because the words aren't Hepburn's instead they are the words of a writer attempting to make us believe it's Hepburn. Chandler has Hepburn speak about her sex life with Howard Hughes by asking the reader to believe that while hiking with a 19 year old boy who was working for George Cukor, Hepburn who was in her 60's blurted to the boy that she'd slept with Howard Hughes in order to get the film rights to The Philadelphia Story. Please -- don't insult the reader with this kind of silliness. There are also researchable inaccuracies in the book particularly in regard to the plots of some of Hepburn's films: example -- Keeper of the Flame -- the synopsis given is inaccurate because Stephen O'Malley doesn't rescue Christine Forrest as Chandler indicates. He tries to rescue her but ultimately she is shot and killed by her husband's former secretary played by Richard Whorf. Christine dies in O'Malley's arms having told him a few moments before the truth about her husband and his plans for establishing fascism in the United States. There are other inaccuracies in regard to dates including Chandler stating that Hepburn's husband, Ogden Ludlow, remarried in 1934 two months after Hepburn obtained a Mexican divorce. In reality, Ludlow remarried in 1942 after Hepburn obtained a second divorce in Connecticut. As usual with a book of this nature, most of the people quoted are dead so words can be put into their mouths without fear of being contradicted. Interestingly, Katharine Houghton, Hepburn's very much alive niece, who also acted with Hepburn in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and who undoubtedly would have known about these numerous "interviews" that Chandler was conducting with her aunt is not among those recognized in the acknowledgements. Could it be that Ms. Houghton refused to speak with Chandler? Director Anthony Harvey who worked extensively with Hepburn and who was also a very close friend is not quoted or acknowledged. Perhaps, he too refused to be involved with this fictionalized version of Hepburn "conversations." This book is just one more attempt to capitalize on the name and face of Katharine Hepburn. The publisher should be ashamed to be associated with this piece of junk passing itself off as interviews with Hepburn completed over "many years." As a 50-year plus fan of Katharine Hepburn, my advice is don't waste your money on this bad attempt at fan fiction, instead if you want to hear an interview with Hepburn, buy the DVDs of The Dick Cavett Show in which Hepburn's wit, charm, intelligence, and thoughts on a range of topics are on display for everyone to see and hear. Then if you want more, read the books that she wrote -- those are the places to find Katharine Hepburn.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Questionable At Best, March 18, 2010
This review is from: I Know Where I'm Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography (Hardcover)
Of all the books that I have read by Charlotte Chandler, this one is probably the worst. Described as a biography, this book is by no means the all-inclusive story of Hepburn's life. Chandler and/or her publisher claim that this book was the result of taped interviews with Hepburn conducted by Chandler at the home of film director George Cukor. The text of this book quotes Hepburn verbatim. All of this sounds great, but the accounts as put down in this book do not sound like the often interviewed Hepburn nor do they match up with things she has said in her own autobiography. There are some chronolgical inconsistencies that stand out like gaping holes to anyone familiar with Hepburn's career and personal life via other books written about her or by her. What does seem apparent is that Chandler has patched together information from a variety of sources that have been out there for decades and has put her own spin on things. There is nothing new or interesting that is related in this book that hasn't been said before in a more cohesive way. For example, she has one scene where Hepburn rants on about what she needs to make brownies. Big deal. Most people who have more than a passing interest in Hepburn know that she liked making brownies, that she had a real aversion to dining anywhere except at her own home, that she wore Spencer Tracy's clothes. Elements like these try to warm up the reader and give the impression that Chandler was a Hepburn insider. The 'meaty' stuff included in the text such as the death of Hepburn's brother Tom(which is used as a continuing thread through the book)gets so personal that it is entirely inconsistent of someone so notoriously private. Check out the other previous AMAZON reviewers who have given this book 1* ratings. They've really nailed it regarding why no one should buy this book.
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