Customer Reviews

Obsession: The Lives and Times of Calvin Klein

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A fascinating look into the nooks and cranies of the man, his associates and his world. A fun and fast read.

Yikes! No wonder why Calvin Klein tried to stop this book, it doesn't let up. The best parts were the kidnapping chapters and all the business stuff. I felt like I was inside the fashion industry--and didn't like it. This book isn't for the squeamish.

Let's face it, the term "fashion genius" is a contradiction in terms; an oxymoron. But this book is fun in that it has juicey gossip, and shows how much luck was involved in this success story.

I don't read fiction, and I don't read Harlequin romance novels, but boy do I love me some gossippy tell-alls. Yeah, there were a few parts where the details about business, finance, legal skirmishes, etc. were stuff I blew through, but over all it was a salacious read. I stayed up all night reading it and then was dead tired at work the next day where I finished the last 50 pages. Kinda like a train wreck, you know? You hate to look, but you just gotta.

Another book in the genre of tell-alls similar to the one Madonna's brother wrote. That was a great trashy read, too. I knew there was a reason I couldn't stand that wench.

Anyway, don't go out and buy a hard copy or anything. Buy it used. It's good reading when you are trying to do absolutely nothing productive, like when sun tanning or something. I bought mine used for $6 on Amazon. I bought the Madonna hardcopy tell-all for just $4.98 at Barnes and Nobel.

This was a fascinating book in how complete and in-depth is was. I got to understand the entire fashion and advertising industry, and the chapters about perfumes and cosmetics were terrific. The personal stuff about Calvin Klein was a little less amusing, but the chapter on his daughter's kidnapping was better than in any suspense book I ever read. No wonder why Klein tried to stop this book.

This book truly shows the life of a tormented closet queen. In spite of his constant self hatred, Calvin Klein is one of the top fashion designers of our day. The book tells of his early years in the Bronx, through his sham marriage to his party boy days in Fire Island and Studio 54. I found the wild sex and anonymous sex in backrooms to be intriguing. "The" Calvin Klein would pull up in a limo to a sleezy red light gay club and party in the "dungeon" with boy toys. The book is well written and the best part may be reading about his rise as a big designer after so many rejections. Light, summer-type reading. One funny part that stands out: before the ubiquitous Calvin underwear, Calvin was wearing a prototype on a plane trip. When he got out of his seat, someone noticed the name "Calvin Klein" all around the underwear band and later commented to friends about Calvin's "monogrammed" underwear! Also, his daughter would comment later about it being very weird seeing her father's name enscribed on her boyfriends' underwear

It's such a shame when writers decide to slander/libel/sling mug at their subjects rather than provide the reader with an objective chronology and review of a celebrity's life. I guess it makes the book "juicier" and more "saleable" to some non-discerning readers. But this is nothing better than one of those grocery-store tabloids.