Customer Reviews

Ladies and Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce:

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

 

 

Why is this book so much more engrossing than Goldman's other biographies (Elvis and John Lennon)? Mainly because both of those subjects had been done thoroughly during their lifetimes; by the time the books came out, most people who cared to read them already knew most of the book's content.

Not so with this epic book on comic Lenny Bruce. He died in 1966 and his personal life was unknown to most, mainly because his act was considered unfit for decent audiences and he was ignored by the media.

Goldman gets much of his material from reporter Lawrence Schiller (indeed, on the cover it sayd, "by Albert Goldman from the journalism of Lawrence Schiller"). The book carefully explores Bruce's youth as Leonard Alfred Schneider, his showbiz-oriented mother and quiet, serious father, and his starnge relationship with his stripper wife Honey. Goldman and Schiller analyze Bruce's comedy and whence it came, believing this was the key to understanding Lenny Bruce himself. The book progresses through Bruce's difficult first years in Manhattan nightclubs, then moves to Los Angeles and, finally, San Francisco, where Bruce became a star. It also deals heavily with the comic's insatiable appetite for IV drugs, his fall from a San Franciscco hotel room and his horrible legal battles, which haunted him till the end of his life.

Be warned: if you are not fascinated by showbiz and the lives of the famous and notorious, this book will bore you senseless. There are absolutely no pictures and the book carefully dissects every aspect of Lenny Bruce's life. Finally, this is a book unlike any bio or showbiz book ever written; it is a peek into a world long gone and well known only to very few.

At the end, I had to shake my head. I saw this life as a waste in the same way as Charlie Parker's. Brilliance and genius subverted by drugs and egomania. The book comes across reasonably unbiased, but Lenny is painted as a martyr but also as the architect of his own demise. This book was a fascinating journey, and many names are dropped along the ride. After the 3/4 point in this book I began to see Lenny as a drug-addicted loser who had a gift for convincing people to do his will. Sounds exactly like Charlie Parker, and there are many parallels to the life of the jazz musician of the same period.
While this book was being written (completed in 1974), Goldman states that Bob Fosse was working on a film based on Lenny's life. I saw the result "Lenny", many years before reading this book, and though an entertaining film, it has little to do with the story told here. the main problem is that it is ultra-condensed, while the book tends to be excessively detailed.
Lenny had a gift, but like many geniuses had not the equivalent gift to manage it. The book does manage to give an impression of the highs and lows of Lenny's life. After reading it I searched for recordings of Lenny Bruce, and managed to find the unedited recording of the Carnegie Hall concert, know to be his most spontaneous and "best" performance. Reading the book put this into perspective. When you listen to Lenny, you may find his humour to be obscure, sort of in-jokes that you don't get right away. His appeal was more to the hip jazz musician crowd, and to them he made total sense. To the rest of the audience, it was the shock value they came for, and this is where his tragic conflict begins to eat his career, trying desperately to prove he wasn't a "dirty" comic. Lenny was not so much a comic, but a revolutionary, who went against the norms and held everything up for criticism. In the post-war era he moved in, this would be a tough apple-pie crowd for him to get on his side. Very intense story. If you were aware of Lenny's work before, the book will interest you. Otherwise it will be a long ride with an inevitable ending for those who mix hard drugs with a fast life.

I've never read a book with two exclamation points in its title before!! ...Nor a biography with a picture of the subject portrayed in death on the cover. There's something a little sensationalistic about this book.

I'm not even all that interested in Lenny Bruce although I do like to listen to his records, not so much for the (now somewhat dated) content but for the incantatory rhythms of his delivery. What I do like about this book is the way it describes the USA of the 1950s and early '60s focused through the magnifying lens of one of its sharpest critics.

In a way this makes me think of a tourist photograph where whoever is in the foreground is less interesting than what's going on behind them. I didn't expect to get caught up in this but it held my attention to the end. Goldman sometimes gets too caught up in the momentum of his prose but for the most part it's an exhilarating read with plenty of sex, drugs, and jazz to hold one's prurient interest.

Although Bruce himself doesn't come off in not the most flattering light as a person (a junkie who collaborated with the same narcs he criticized), the atmosphere of conformity, repression, and paranoia which is the fabric of the society described reminds this jaded shock-proof reader how revolutionary Lenny Bruce's accomplishments really were--burning holes in that fabric like so much casually dropped cigarette ash.

I once took this book to be the final word on the life of Lenny Bruce. Subsequent years have proven that the late Albert Goldman's research methods and conclusions leave much to be desired. His 1988 biography of John Lennon was written with a mean-spirited bias that is difficult to comprehend. It was also littered with errors of fact.

As far as I'm concerned, a precise, comprehensive biography of Lenny Bruce has yet to be written.

Tom Degan

If you have ever read any other works by Goldman, more specifically his John Lenonn bio, you realize the author only cares about sales and speculation.

In this tedious book, the most laughable lie is that Bruce was illiterate. Really. Goldman never met Bruce, but sure made some money off of him.

Do not diservice the memory and great work of Lenny Bruce by purchasing this tome of lies.