My Judy Garland Life: A Memoir [Hardcover]

Susie Boyt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

An irresistible mixture of memoir, biography, cultural analysis, hero worship, and sequinstudded self-help that will speak to anyone who’s ever nursed an obsession.

Judy Garland has been an important figure in Susie Boyt’s life since she was three years old: comforting, inspiring, and at times disturbing her. In this unique book, Boyt travels deep into the underworld of hero worship, examining our understanding of rescue, consolation, love, grief, and fame through the prism of Judy. Her journey takes in a duetting breakfast with Mickey Rooney, a munchkin luncheon, a latenight spree at the Minnesota Judy Garland Museum, and a breathless, semi-sacred encounter with Liza Minnelli.

Layering key episodes from Garland’s life with defining moments from her own, Boyt explores with insight and humor what it means, exactly, to adore someone you don’t know. Does hero worship have to be a pursuit that’s low in status or can it be performed with pride and style? Are there similarities that lie at the heart of all fandom? Chronicling her obsession, Boyt illuminates her own life and perfectly distills why Judy Garland is such a legend.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

By turns clever, hilariously ironical and sweetly earnest, English novelist Boyt's paean to the legendary singer and actress elevates hero worship to the role of self-improvement. As a sensitive, conscientious, overweight youngster growing up in London, Boyt—painter Lucian Freud's daughter, although her parents split up before she was born in 1969—learned early on through listening to Judy's thrilling, moving singing that the person with the strongest feelings in life is to be the best. Boyt (Last Hope of Girls) moves through Judy's rich, complex career and increasingly unraveling personal saga while sounding important themes that resonated in Boyt's own life: being early stagestruck (Boyt reckons she attended almost 2,000 dance classes as a youth); feeling unwanted; needing to rescue others in crisis and to console; and dealing with the drama of drug addicts. Boyt has managed to interview many of the survivors in Judy's story, such as Liza Minnelli, Joe Luft and Mickey Rooney; she pilgrimaged to Judy's birthplace in Grand Rapids, Minn., and her burial site in Westchester, N.Y., and sifts obsessively through questionnaires she gave to fans to understand better Judy's personal connection with people. While lavish, Boyt's hagiography proves poetic and endearing. (May)
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From Booklist

By definition, the memoir is a self-indulgent genre, as the author spins memories as remembered, perhaps not accurately, and definitely one-sided. Boyt’s exhaustive and exhausting memoir of her lifelong obsession with Judy Garland is marked with passages of beautiful writing and occasional spotlights of self-awareness. However, readers will be drawn to this train wreck of a painful, exasperating, yet utterly compelling life story of a woman wholly enamored of one of Hollywood’s greatest celebrities. Since her first viewing of The Wizard of Oz, Boyt has never let go of her single-minded obsession with Judy Garland, who died before Boyt was born. Boyt compulsively chases down every snippet of gossip, mundane details, and loose connections regarding Garland and relentlessly tweaks them to fit into her own life. Readers will ponder if the author is to be admired for never giving up her passion or scorned for refusing to see the truth. For readers who have ever wondered what a fantasy world would look like in print, look no further than this author’s backyard. --Stover Kaite Mediatore

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; First Edition edition (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596916664
• ISBN-13: 978-1596916661
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,160,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( G ) > Garland, Judy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Brilliance!!!, April 28, 2009

By 

A New York Reader "pokesya" (new york) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Judy Garland Life: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Susie Boyt's memoir My Judy Garland Life is stunning. It is a proud and naked exclamation by the author for her unapologetic love and devotion for her (and thousands of others) idol Judy Garland.
This book is a journey into the world of Susie- a little girl that grows into an amazing woman, mother and wife, novelist, columnist for the financial times and now story teller with a tale "for any one that's ever held a candle to a star" (Ms. Boyt's words). The story is dear and powerful. I believe a film would be fantastic!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For True Blue Judy Fans Only..., June 21, 2009

By 

Brittany Rose (Winnipeg, MB) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Judy Garland Life: A Memoir (Hardcover)

I'm not entirely sure how I came to read this book, but I've always loved the Wizard of Oz and was curious to learn more about Judy Garland's life. This book is not exactly the book to do that, as Boyt is preaching (presumably) to the converted Judy fans of the world about the never-ending wonderfulness of Judy Garland in every aspect of her career, and her personal life.

I suppose in terms of a memoir, it's about Boyt's undying belief in Judy as a savior of some kind within her own life - mishmashing details of her life with Judy's in a odd mix of nostalgia, admiration, and obsession. Quite frankly, the most interesting parts of the book are the ones that reveal unique insight into the Judy Garland story - whether odd bits of trivia or snippets from the interviews Boyt undertakes with various characters in Judy's life. Reading about Boyt's non-Judy life is somewhat lackluster; it starts out to draw some interesting parallels to Judy, but becomes more sporadic in its insertion in later chapters. Overall, the book lacks a clear focus / order / cohesion that can make it a bit tiresome to read.

That being said...if you are an educated Judy fan already, you'll love this book. As someone not fully versed in Judy Garland (other than seeing a biography or two of hers on TV, endless rewatches of the Wizard of Oz, and knowing snippets of her personal life) I finished this book fully wanting to believe in the fervor Boyt holds for Judy. I've watched a half-dozen of her YouTube clips already and plan to track down some of her other movies I haven't seen, and I am quick to believe in the magical qualities of Judy as a performer based on Boyt's quite lovingly crafted passages that makes this book a delight to read (at times).

My bottom line though? This book really made me want to read a proper biography of Judy Garland. If you've got a passing interest in Judy - do the same (or at least read her Wikipedia biography and watch a few movies / performances before the book). If you're a devout Judy fan, read this memoir - it'll move you and warm you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Surprise I wasn't Prepared For..., June 17, 2009

By 

Pauline R. Edington "(Polly)" (Grand Rapids MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Judy Garland Life: A Memoir (Hardcover)

I love biographies and autobiographies, but truthfully, when I heard there was another Judy Garland book coming out, I was skeptical that anything new could be said...was I wrong! The insight she portrays of Judy's life and the analogy of her own life makes me feel like the parts of my life that go from the sublime to the ridiculous can be didactic and delightful as well!