Memories Are Made of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter's Eyes (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author), Jerry Lewis (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this evenhanded biography of her famous father, Deana Martin acknowledges that Dean "wasn't a good father, but he was a good man." The youngest child of four from Dean Martin's marriage to his first wife, Betty MacDonald, the author recalls how her mother began drinking so heavily that Dean's new wife, Jeanne Biegger, eventually took Betty's three girls in (Betty's son was living with his grandparents) and brought them up along with the three children she had with Dean. Martin details her father's life from his teenage years as a card dealer to his first Atlantic City gig with Jerry Lewis, offering her own observations along the way ("A glass of apple juice masquerading as scotch in his hand, he perfected a role that was going to become... indistinguishable from the real Dean Martin"). Perhaps Martin forgives her emotionally detached father too quickly, as when he doesn't show up at her first live theater performance ("I guess Dad felt that with so many children, if he did it for one, he would have spent his whole life doing it for the others"). But in the end, hers is a heartfelt and honest portrait of a mysterious father.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

With Holden's help, the daughter of one of the most successful mid-twentieth-century entertainers makes quite a treat of her account of growing up chaotically amid A-list celebs. Of her father, his feminine namesake (her name rhymes with the queen of the jungle's) says that he wasn't a good father, but he was a good man. He left her and her siblings with his mentally deteriorating first wife, and after she abandoned them and they went to live with him and his kindly new wife, his workaholic ways made him absent a lot. Still, when he was around, he was affectionate and even indulgent, hence, a good man, and the book breezes along on a stream of happy anecdotes about him and his eventually large family (Deana got a passel of half-siblings) and their relations with the family of his famous confrere, Frank Sinatra, and scarcely lesser luminaries. Martin left wife two, too, setting a pattern his children have followed with their spouses while remaining lovingly loyal to one another. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (November 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400098335
• ISBN-13: 978-1400098330
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,450 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on Dino yet!, October 28, 2004

By	Andrea Kim Fuller "kimmmmmy" (Dillsburg, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Memories Are Made of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter's Eyes (Hardcover)

For anyone who adores Dean Martin and wants to know more about what the man was really like, this is the best book ever. The other bios will have all the information and dates and stuff - this book has the HEART!
Well written, emotionally vulnerable, and honest. Dino is one of the few celebs that, the more i find out about what he was really like, the more i like him!
And the pictures are TERRIFIC!
BUY THIS BOOK!
kimmy
[e-mail]

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read, November 3, 2004

By	A. Nowak "Capo Beach" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Memories Are Made of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter's Eyes (Hardcover)

Deana Martin's honesty and vulnerability about her life is what makes her book so sincere. It is a look into a world most of us never experience. The people she has met throughout her life such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis, The Beatles and even the frightful....Charles Manson, is an experience worth reading about. For all of us who love Dino's music, this permits us a look at his life through Deana's eyes.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFUL WONDERFUL BOOK!, October 30, 2004

By	DINO4EVERFAN (STATEN ISLAND, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memories Are Made of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter's Eyes (Hardcover)

This has to be the best book I've every read about Dean. Written with class,love and heart - the love leaps through the pages. Sharing those stories of growing up in the Martin home was precious and touching. This book is a must for Dino fans!