Customer Reviews

In Search of River Phoenix: The Truth Behind The Myth

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When River Phoenix died of a drug overdose, the world did not only lose a great actor but a person who in retrospect disappeared behind his roles and image. Little remained of the teenager who spoke openly against drugs, promoted vegetarian food and a peaceful existence between man, animals and all cultures on this planet. Fans and non-fans alike felt betrayed as it slowly turned out that Phoenix had died of a drug overdose and that he had apparently been taking drugs for at least the last 3-4 years of his life.

Phoenix started his career at an early age and died very young, at just 23 years of age. Every person changes a lot between early childhood and early adulthood but Phoenix was not allowed to change, at least not publicly. But of course he changed as we all do and when his change came into the eye of the public so harshly and suddenly, he got jumped on and crushed.

The 3 or 4 available biographies about the actor dwell on his downfall. Barry C. Lawrence at least tries to give a comprehensive view about the life of River Phoenix and to remain as objective as possible. But still as with every biography about a famous dead person the person comes alive through the vision or the memories of others and we probably all know how distorted that view gets over the years, so what kind of a person River Phoenix was, he took that with him in his grave or simply put, he was as complex and multi-layered and confused and excited and happy and sad as we all are through our lives and in his death he becomes even more than during his lifetime a projection of the various emotions of all of us.

No book about the actor can give you the truth. Not even when Joaquin Phoenix would break his silence and talk about his brother would you get the truth. Only the truth according to the memory of Joaquin Phoenix, so I do not like that promotional tool, the truth about River Phoenix. There is no truth only interpretation. But Barry C. Lawrence interpretation is a good and comprehensive one and the interpretation of someone who tried to understand a life that was so far away from anything resembling normalcy.

It is apart from that a good read. It is fluently written and takes you along the journey of River's short life through his various movies, charity work and his musical accomplishments. But although Lawrence tries to enhance all the positive aspects of Phoenix life and how much he positively influenced others, nothing can lighten up the fact, that a promising human being threw away his life. I write life not career. Phoenix threw away the beauty of sorting himself and his life out and to simply turn older and wiser. And still after all these years I can't help thinking what a shame!

This biography of one of our most provocative and talented actors, and yet one of our most enigmatic as well, gains a high degree of credibility from the technique of its author. Barry C. Lawrence fills a great deal of the book with interviews from more than fifty friends and co-workers of River Phoenix; Lawrence lets THEM tell River's story, and uses his own narrative primarily to link the remembrances of those he has interviewed rather than simply conform to the standard story-telling format. The result is a chronicle of much greater immediacy and interest than is the case with so many biographies. There is a genuine warmth and personalness in the telling of River's story, and not an academic sterility.
Though Phoenix's life had several quite sensational aspects, Lawrence's prose remains firmly fixed in fact. He doesn't obscure or ignore the provocative elements in River's life, but he doesn't speculate, and he keeps his narrative on journalistic high ground, forsaking a sensationalistic approach. This, by itself, is a strong recommendation of the book's integrity.
One of the special features of the book are a couple of chapters filled with stories of people from around the world whose lives have been profoundly touched and even changed at deep core levels by their response to River Phoenix. I imagine this will be highly unexpected by the ordinary reader, and it will add a wholly different dimension to his understanding and appreciation of River. This book would serve a great purpose even if it confined itself to recording the extraordinary psychological, spiritual and ethical impact River Phoenix had (and continues to have) on so many people, but as comprehensive as Lawrence has made it in addition, it is a singular contribution to the field of celebrity biography.
It is the absolute hands-down winner among the half-dozen books already available about River Phoenix.

A River Phoneix fan since my preteen years, I was sure I knew all there is to know about this talented actor. I purchased the book more to add it to my collection than anything else. Imagine my surprise to find that this is not only well written, but also features many interesting and little known factoids for even the most dedicated River Phoenix fans.

If you're looking for a book that focuses on nothing more than River's untimely death and all things bad and gruesome with the world, this book isn't for you. "Search" focuses on the LIFE of River Phoenix, from childhood to adulthood. It will become obvious to the reader that the author has unparalleled respect both for River himself and his memory. A very pleasant read for those of us who know there is more to River Phoenix than meets the eye.

I would highly recommend "In Search of River Phoenix" for anyone wanting to gain insight into River's life and work. Barry Lawrence's book far surpasses the existing biographies out there because of his tireless efforts to get to the truth and squash the rumors. In this biography, River's story is told by his friends, family members, co-workers and there are even some touching rememberances from people who only met him once. River had his flaws, as we all do. However Mr. Lawrence's book brings out all the elements to River's personality, not in a gossipy, tabloid way , but in a respectful, insightful way. The reader gets a good sense about who River was from those who knew him. I applaud Barry Lawrence's thorough research and his dedication to honoring River's memory.

I think this is the best and most informative book about River I have ever read. The author shows a great interest in River, he wrote this well-researched book over some years.
And the spiritual aspect about River's life doesn't come too short too which I found especially interesting.
By reading this book I gained a better picture about who River was, what his character was like, how he communicated and how lovely he was.
I have actually no words about how much this book helped me understand him. This is a fantastic book and it brought River closer to me, it will keep his memory alive over the years and that's very important. That way things about him will always be documented and the whole world will be able to find out who River was. "You can learn a lot from a river." - Hermann Hesse
This book shows me the way of a river until he flowed into the ocean and fulfilled his fate, the dissolving. But we can follow him along the way and still be with him. And when it rains, heaven cries us a River. I love this book.

In Search of River Phoenix: The Truth Behind the Myth really is an amazing tribute to the memory of River Phoenix. That's not to say that this book is a one sided look at River's life through rose-tinted glasses. It certainly isn't. Barry Lawrence is not afraid to examine and dissect the controversial aspects of the young actor's life. However the book never strays across the other side of the line into sensationalism.

The level of research, time and dedication of the subject matter is obvious throughout this astonishing book and bring to life the unusual world in which Joaquin Phoenix's big brother inhabited.

This might well be not only the most interesting and factual biography on River Phoenix but possibly one of the most meticulous biographies ever written about anyone!

Definitely worth reading.

River's story is haunting and you are always wishing he had a better childhood. His lack of education was 100% his parents fault, not his. I am really enjoying this book.

I was really wanting something that went into all the details about River and not just his death or the drugs. This book gave me "everything" I wanted. It starts from the day he was born to the day he died, it has a section of astrology about him which was really interesting, and in general I learned a lot more about River from this book. I thought I had already seen everything from the interent, but I was wrong. I strongly suggest reading this book if you are a River Phoenix fan. Although it is 400 some pages long, I had it read in two days because it was just that interesting! Barry C. Lawrence did a great job in trying to bring Rivers good name back and I thank him for letting people read about all of the aspects of Rivers life and not just the drug overdose. This book made me love River even more...

This book is a MUST for all River fans. I had spent hours reading about him already before the book was available and I thought, I knew him well. I was definitelly wrong. This book is so full of amazing and detailed facts and background information on River's Life that I could hardly believe it. Barry C. Lawrence really did incredible research and put it together in an extremely interesting and well-illustrated book. I just love it.

He spoke Spanish fluently, ate a lot of mangoes, was dyslexic, built a treehouse as a kid, and wasn't a natural blond. These are five of the many, many details about River Phoenix reported by Barry C. Lawrence, who clearly knocked himself out researching for this book. If any stone is left unturned, it's because it's not turnable, not because Lawrence didn't do his darndest to turn it. With a bizarre childhood, a habit of sounding wise beyond his years, an eerily incandescent screen presence and a tragic death that could have been prevented in so many ways, River Phoenix was and is one of the most fascinating actors of the late twentieth century.

For those more familiar with River's movies than his life story, be prepared to come away from this book loathing his parents, two immature ex-flower children who lived off their son's money, cared more about the welfare of animals than the welfare of their own children, and demonstrated that you can take the hippie out of the creepy sex cult but you can't take the creepy sex cult out of the hippie. Their odd blend of conscientiousness and blatant destructiveness - River's mother may have breastfed him until he was two, but she did so on LSD - goes a long, long way to explaining River's inner demons. He may have been harmed by Hollywood, but he arrived there already wounded.

This book, however, doesn't dwell on River's death, a decision that's great for everyone who's more curious about the details of his life. I thought I must have read everything about River that there was to read through the Internet, but I was wrong. Lawrence explores every facet of who he was and his influence on popular culture and creates a portrait of a young man who was sensitive, talented, overburdened with responsibility, and cared enormously about the earth and all its inhabitants. There are great stories from his friends and fellow players in the movie industry - the time River annoyed William Richert until he finally agreed to play Bob in "My Own Private Idaho", the time River went into the premiere of one of his movies and promptly snuck out the back, the time River talked on the phone to a fan he'd never met for an hour and fifteen minutes. If you ever thought of River Phoenix as a symbol or an icon, this book will make you see him as a flesh-and-blood person.

I did have a couple of problems with this book, the first being that Lawrence doesn't spend enough time on the personalities of River's girlfriends. Even without doing independent research, he could have easily included more information on Martha Plimpton's background and given us a fuller picture of the girl who was River's girlfriend for about seventeen percent of his life. My second problem is that Lawrence could have definitely used a better proofreader. His quotation marks are sometimes missing, his comma placement is often nonsensical, and no one seems to have taught him the difference between brackets and parentheses. Nonetheless, this is an engrossing book and worth the money for fans. I asked for it for a birthday present and wasn't disappointed.